182 newly baptised in Eastern Tanzania

With the blessing of His Beatitude Pope and Patriarch Theodoros II of Alexandria and All Africa, as every year before the great feast of Christmas, for the last 19 years, group baptisms were held in the city of Morogoro, Eastern Tanzania, at the Holy Church of Saints Arsenios and Paisios.

The native people of Tanzania received holy baptism by His Eminence Metropolitan Dimitrios of Irinoupolis. Those who were coming forth for holy baptism, after systematic catechism lead by Archimandrite Eleftherios Balakos, made their way to the Church with exemplary piety, but also great joy towards holy baptism and their first Holy Communion. In total, since 2004, more than 60,000 neophytes have been baptised in Tanzania.

Also, at the conclusion of the Divine Liturgy, His Eminence Metropolitan Dimitrios of Irinoupolis, tonsured a new reader, Paschalios, who is married and will serve after his ordination, in the new Parish of Saint Irene in the town of Mvoumi, and the wider area of the Missionary Centre in Morogoro town, about 300 kilometres from the capital of Dar es Salaam, in eastern Tanzania.

The joy of the newly baptised people (among them many Muslims) was truly touching. With faces shining with grace and rapture, they celebrated their inclusion in the Orthodox Family of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.