UPDATE - Russian Patriarch's Exarch Ordains African Priests For First Time

RABAT (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 18th December, 2022) The Russian patriarch's exarch in Africa, Metropolitan Leonid of Klin, ordained two African clergymen at a liturgy at the Holy Resurrection Church in the Moroccan capital of Rabat on Sunday for the first time in the history of the Russian Orthodox Church.

The priests hailed from Uganda and the Central African Republic. Cardinal Cristobal Lopez Romero, the Catholic Archbishop of Rabat, attended the service.

Metropolitan Leonid traveled to Morocco this week to mark 90 years since the construction of the Holy Resurrection Church, the oldest of the three functioning Russian Orthodox churches in the northern African country.

Russian Consul General in Casablanca Oleg Prokhorov told Sputnik that the metropolitan's visit to Morocco was very important for the local Russian diaspora, estimated at some 4,000 people.

"We are always ready to welcome envoys of the Russian orthodox Church... An event like the African exarch's visit is even more welcome. We were looking forward to it," the diplomat said.

Prokhorov said that the diaspora felt at home in Morocco despite the Western attempts to isolate Russians internationally. He praised Morocco's King Mohammed VI for his balanced foreign policy and commitment to a neighborly relationship between Morocco and Russia.