How Ukraine war, money split priests in Kenyan Orthodox churches

Promises of hefty salaries and scholarships abroad have divided the Orthodox church in Kenya during Russia's war against Ukraine.

Some priests have rebelled against Greek church in Kenya led by Archbishop Makarios Tillyrides in Nairobi.

The Star reported last month that the war in Eastern Europe has drawn in the churches.

The Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow is seeking to take over local assemblies because the current Greek-aligned leadership had sided with the Ukrainians.

Both Russia and Ukraine are predominantly Orthodox — Russian and Greek — but the war has driven a wedge between them and emphasised differences in theology.

So bad has the situation been that in early February, a group of pro-Russian priests stormed a church in Nyeri to preside over the services and the liturgy. They refused to pay homage to Archbishop Makarios, as is norm.

Greek Orthodox worshippers forcefully ejected them from the pulpit.

Rev Simion Mburu Kinyanjui is a priest in the church based in Gilgil. He told the Star on Wednesday he was among the many pro-Russia priests who have mutinied against Archbishop Makarios in favour of the Russian church.

His said the Makarios leadership was “a one-man show” and that the Greek churches did not take very good care of priests' welfare issues.

“You know we are human beings,” he said. "Just like a company, if one is not paying you well and the other firm is giving a better offer, you choose the one with the better package."

Kinyanjui said the church “is still hemorrhaging priests and they the flock to the Russian priests because the Makarios leadership is not good.”

He said the promises priests were given by the Greek church have largely not materialised, given the sanctions imposed against Russia.

“The removal of Russian banks from the SWIFT payment system has really affected us because we have not got payments yet,” the priest said.

Kinyanjui said the ultimate aim of the Russians is to establish its aligned churches in Kenya.

Bishop Neofitos Kong’ayi, who is aligned with Archbishop Makarios, confirmed the statements.

He said the priests had been lured with promises of fat bank accounts and well-funded scholarships for their children abroad, if they dissociated from the Greek leadership.

He also said Russia's war in Ukraine has made it impossible to get what they were promised, making “some of them to consider coming back.

“They went thinking that they would get all the rosy promises they were given. Now some of them are getting back to us because they are not getting what they were promised,” he said.

Kong’ayi said the complaints by the priest against Makarios were "not new" and called them "unfounded". He said charges had also been levelled against him.

But the bigger problem, he said, in the raging war in Eastern Europe was "that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is the Russian Orthodox  church and Orthodox church is Putin."

"It is like the two brother fighting and sides have been taken," he said.

Rev George Maximov, the Russian priest in-charge of Kenyan activities, had told the Star that they were in the country at the invitation of local priests who protested alleged mistreatment and dictatorship by the Greek leadership.

(Edited by V. Graham)