African Orthodox Church of Kenya - African Orthodox Academics
Website: africanorthodoxacademics.org
Organization Overview: The African Orthodox Academics is a department within the African Orthodox Church of Kenya that aims to empower and equip disadvantaged Africans by funding their general education at all levels and advancing Orthodox theological education and research in Africa through scholarships and research.
AOA seeks to build the capacity of Orthodox Christians in Africa through theological formation, research, and academic training, while creating connections and seeking scholarships, research, and publication opportunities for African Orthodox theologians.
Subgrant Project Description: This study continues the John Templeton Global Studies on spiritual formation projects and seeks to understand how Orthodox Christians in Eastern Africa, especially in Kenya, define and understand Orthodox spirituality, spiritual growth, and the spiritual maturity of individuals and groups of devout clergy, leaders, monastics, and lay Christians, and how these shape their spiritual formation, in comparison with Ethiopia. The Kenya Orthodox community is almost 100 years old, having been founded in 1929 as an African indigenous church that later joined the Greek Orthodox tradition. This Kenyan church is the largest Eastern Orthodox Christian community in Africa, while its neighbouring Ethiopian Tewahedo Orthodox Church remains the largest Oriental Orthodox tradition not only in Africa but globally. Ethiopia has had Christianity for the past 2000 years and thus offers a powerful lens for evaluating the spiritual growth and formation of a fellow African nation. The study includes partners from Makarios III Seminary in Kenya, Holy Trinity University in Ethiopia, Fuller Theological Seminary in the USA, and the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies in the UK. This qualitative, empirical, comparative study of Eastern Africa will involve about 40 Orthodox scholars over 3 years (2026-2028) and, as part of their capacity building in peer-reviewed publication, will produce an edited volume of 8-12 chapters, published by Regnum Books in the UK.
Location: The project is mainly based in Kenya, but it will include writers from East and North Africa, such as Uganda, Ethiopia, and Egypt.
Associated Team Member: Evangelos Thiani, Director
