Today Archbishop Anastasios Yannoulatos of Albania turns 95 Years Old. We thank God for the amazing life of this faithful Apostle of Christ. Here are two pieces related to his life taken from two books I published: "Missionaries, Monks and Martyrs: Making Disciples of All Nations" and "Go Forth: Stories of Missions and Resurrection in Albania." Even though these books were written years ago (1994 and 2006), they still capture the spirit and life of this faithful servant of Christ.

ARCHBISHOP ANASTASIOS YANNOULATOS of ALBANIA MODERN DAY APOSTLE

Taken from Fr Luke Veronis' books: Missionaries, Monks, Martyrs: Making Disciples of All Nations and Go Forth: Stories of Missions and Resurrection in Albania  

For the first half of the 20th century, the Orthodox Church was relatively inactive in missions. The great missionary efforts of the Russian Church came to a close as the communist curtain placed the Church in bondage. Meanwhile, the Orthodox Churches of the Balkans struggled to overcome the effects of the previous five centuries of Muslim subjugation. Although the Orthodox lands of Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, and Serbia gained their independence, a strong sense of nationalism prevailed within the Churches, and the idea of outreach beyond the borders of their own countries was a concept to which few gave much consideration.           

It was not until the late 1950s that a number of young Orthodox theologians began to raise their voices about the need for external missions in the Church. From an international Orthodox youth conference held in 1958, a call towards missions began to develop. These young people expressed the idea that the Church’s responsibility towards missions was not simply something of the past, but rather a responsibility of the contemporary Church as well. Despite the struggling situation of a poor Church just freed from bondage, the apostolic call of the Lord bellowed for a response. The leader of this fledgling group was Anastasios Yannoulatos, a young Orthodox theologian from Greece. He challenged the Church of Greece, as well as the Orthodox Church at large, to recover its long held missionary tradition.            

In 1959, Yannoulatos helped found “Porefthentes” (“Go Ye”), a missionary movement whose goal was to rekindle the missionary conscience of the Orthodox Church, as well as to educate the non-Orthodox world about the rich missionary heritage of the Eastern Church. This movement began to produce a journal in Greek and English called Porefthentes. In its inaugural issue, Yannoulatos wrote a provocative article entitled “The Forgotten Commandment,” which challenged the Church to rediscover its missionary zeal of previous generations. In this article, the bold theologian questioned the accepted apathy towards missions that prevailed in the contemporary Orthodox Church:

It is not a question of “can we?” but of an imperative command “we must.” “Go ye therefore and teach all nations.” “Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.” There is no “consider if you can,” there is only a definite, clear cut command of Our Lord. . . If we let ourselves rest peacefully in this habitual inertia in the matter of foreign missions, we are not simply keeping the pure light of the Faith “under the bushel,” but we are betraying one of the basic elements of our Orthodox tradition. For missionary work has always been a tradition within the Orthodox Church. . . Missionary activity is not simply something “useful” or just “nice,” but something imperative, a foremost duty, if we really want to be consequent to our Orthodox Faith. (Yannoulatos 1959:2,3)

Yannoulatos emerged as a leading missions advocate in the following years. He dared the Orthodox faithful to recover the authentic meaning of the “one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.” He even hoped to establish some type of external Orthodox mission center. His enthusiasm, however, was derided within most Orthodox circles as an unrealistic goal. Following an address he gave on this issue to theological students at the University of Athens in January 1959, someone in the audience remarked skeptically that “the organization of an Orthodox External Mission is tantamount to a miracle.” To this, Yannoulatos responded, “We fully agree. But as Christians we do believe in miracles” (Yannoulatos 1962:8). The life and work of Anastasios Yannoulatos, probably the foremost Orthodox missiologist in the world today, exemplifies the realization of this miracle in the contemporary Orthodox Church.

Historical Background

Anastasios Yannoulatos was born November 4, 1929 to a pious Orthodox family in Greece. Raised in the faith, he actively participated in the Church during his formative years. His first interest was in mathematics and throughout his teenage years Yannoulatos considered pursuing a career in this science. His views changed with the coming of World War II. During the war years, Yannoulatos began to experience his faith in a very personal way. He witnessed much suffering and disaster from the war and could only make sense of the chaos by delving deeper into his faith. For the world and for his own country to recover from the evil of both the Second World War, as well as the ensuing Greek Civil War, Yannoulatos understood the urgent need for a message of eternal peace, the peace that comes only through Jesus Christ.           

This experience led Yannoulatos to abandon his interest in other disciplines and to pursue theology. So fervent was his desire that he has said, “It was not enough for me to give something to God, I had to be given totally to Him. I wanted to live with my whole being in Christ” (Yannoulatos 1993:Personal Interview). Thus, in 1947, he entered the Theological School of the University of Athens. He graduated with highest honors in 1951.           

Following two years of service in the Army, Yannoulatos joined the brotherhood of “ZOE,” a religious organization focused on the spiritual renewal of the Church in Greece. Yannoulatos’s personal responsibilities included missions to the youth of his country. He became the leader of student movements and teenage camps and strove to make the Orthodox faith real and concrete to his young charges. Through these experiences, Yannoulatos discovered the impact such outreach programs had on the Church at large. He realized that without such missionary outreach the Church loses its focus and ultimately diminishes.           

During these years, Yannoulatos also participated in an international Orthodox youth movement called Syndesmos. He served as its general secretary during 1958-61, and then as vice-president in 1964-78. Here he met other young leaders with a similar zeal for proclaiming the gospel. Together they began to realize how Christ could never be satisfied with proclaiming the gospel simply within the Church. His original command was to go to “all nations.” Thus missions are not merely internal, but external as well. The Great Commission of the past is a great responsibility for the present. Yannoulatos wrote at the time:

Church without mission is a contradiction in terms . . . If the Church is indifferent to the apostolic work with which she has been entrusted, she denies herself, contradicts herself and her essence, and is a traitor in the warfare in which she is engaged. A static Church which lacks vision and a constant endeavor to proclaim the Gospel to the oikoumene could hardly be recognized as the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church to whom the Lord entrusted the continuation of His Work (Yannoulatos 1965:295).

The 1960s - Following the Call of God

This understanding of the importance of external missions for the Church filled the heart of Yannoulatos. Following his ordination to the diaconate in 1960, Yannoulatos founded the inter-Orthodox mission center “Porefthentes.” The goal of this center was to educate the Church in the area of missions, as well as to motivate and send missionaries throughout the world.            

Yannoulatos himself planned on becoming a foreign missionary. Immediately following his ordination to the priesthood on May 24, 1964, he left for East Africa and celebrated his first liturgy in Uganda. Shortly after his arrival, however, the young priest contracted malaria and returned to Greece. Despite his doctor’s recommendation he not return to Africa, Yannoulatos was not daunted by the setback. He realized more than ever the importance of increasing the missionary awareness in the Church and sought new ways to fulfill the Great Commission of Christ. Following the advice of one of his professors, Yannoulatos decided the best way he could influence the Church was by making a significant contribution in the academic world. He believed that if he could not directly work in the mission field, he could still try to pave the way for others to go. He decided to pursue further studies in missiology and the history of religions.          

 From 1965-69, Yannoulatos studied the history of religions at the universities in Hamburg and Marburg in West Germany, with an emphasis on “Religious Plurality and the Orthodox Church.” His work focused on the general history of religions, African religions, missiology and ethnology. He traveled to Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, to conduct field research and collect material for his doctoral thesis, “The Spirit Mbandwa and the Framework of Their Cults: A Research of Aspects of African Religion.” Overall, he desired to establish a basis for the whole process of a serious study of missions in the Orthodox Church. Through this research, he sought support for his original thesis that it was impossible to truly be Orthodox without having an interest in missions.           

Along with his studies, Yannoulatos actively participated in the worldwide ecumenical movement. By taking part in the Commission on World Mission and Evangelism (CWME) of the World Council of Churches (WCC), the budding missiologist felt that he could both learn from other Christian traditions, as well as introduce these members to the rich missionary heritage of the Orthodox Church. In 1963, Yannoulatos became the youngest member of the CWME at the Mexico City conference. He has continued to play a pivotal role in this ecumenical setting, and ultimately served as its moderator from 1984-91, the first Orthodox missiologist to hold such a place of leadership.

The 1970s - Planting Missionary Foundations Within the Church

During the following decade, the Church of Greece began to hear and respond to the voice of this bold visionary. In 1968, Yannoulatos and his “Porefthentes” staff pioneered the framework of the Bureau of External Missions within Apostoliki Diakonia (the service branch of the Church of Greece). The establishment of a permanent missionary organization within the official Orthodox Church in Greece was a milestone. The Church recognized the work of Yannoulatos by elevating him in 1972 to the episcopacy as “Bishop of Androussa,” and making him general director of the whole department of Apostoliki Diakonia. Through Bishop Anastasios’ leadership, this commission of the Church of Greece acted as the main body for all the missionary efforts of the Church both within Greece and abroad.           

Along with his ecclesiastical responsibilities, Bishop Anastasios continued to be active on the academic level. In 1972 the University of Athens elected him as their professor of the History of Religions. At the University, he established and directed a center for missionary studies during 1971-76. This center paved the way for another landmark, when a chair of missiology was finally created in 1976. In this academic atmosphere Bishop Anastasios continued to proclaim his “wake-up” call to the Church, challenging her complacency in missionary outreach:

Inertia in the field of mission means, in the last analysis, a negation of Orthodoxy, a backslide into the practical heresy of localism . . . It is unthinkable for us to speak of “Orthodox spirituality,” of “a life in Christ,” of emulating the Apostle Paul, founder of the Greek Church, while we stay inert as to mission; that it is unintelligible to write about intense liturgical and spiritual living of the Lord’s Resurrection by us, while we abide slothful and indifferent to the call of ecumenical missions, with which the message of the Resurrection is interwoven (Yannoulatos 1968:19).

Bishop Anastasios continually tried to educate the Orthodox faithful to a fuller understanding of the Nicene Creed which proclaimed a belief in “one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.” Professing such a creed, while staying indifferent to missions, Yannoulatos held, was hypocrisy. As he noted,

Only when it is realized that worldwide ecumenical mission is an initial and prime implication in a fundamental article of the “Credo,” elemental for the Orthodox comprehension of what the Church is, and that what is termed “foreign mission” is not an “external” matter but an inner need, a call to repentance and aligning ourselves with the spirit of the Gospel and the tradition of our Church, only then shall we have the proper and hope-bearing theological start for what comes next (Yannoulatos 1968:20).

Foreign missions is not simply a branch of authentic Orthodox life, or even Orthodox theology, but rather is central to a proper understanding of the Church. When Orthodox Christians confess, “I believe in one . . . APOSTOLIC Church,” apostolic does not refer only to apostolic succession. More importantly, it implies having an “apostolic fire and zeal to preach the gospel ‘to every creature’ (Mk 16:15), because it nurtures its members so that they may become ‘witnesses in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth’ (Acts 1:8)” (Yannoulatos 1964:140).

Bishop Anastasios continued to challenge the apathetic attitude of the Church towards missions by writing:

The Gospel is addressed to all peoples, and therefore the work of the Church remains incomplete as long as it is restricted to certain geographical areas or social classes. Its field of action is universal and is active in both sectors that welcome the good tidings and those which at first may reject them. Mission was not the duty of only the first generation of Christians. It is the duty of Christians of all ages . . . Witness is the expression of the vitality of the Church as well as a source of renewal and renewed vigor . . . Everyone should contribute to and participate in it, whether it be directly or indirectly. It is an essential expression of the Orthodox ethos (Yannoulatos 1977:162).

Along with influencing the academic world in Greece and abroad, Bishop Anastasios had an impact on other areas of Church life as well. In 1972, the bishop worked together with Fr. Anthony Romeos and founded a monastery of nuns whose emphasis would be on external missions. This group became the Convent of St. John the Forerunner in Kareas, Greece. Bishop Anastasios helped guide these women to become a convent which would actively participate in missionary work throughout the world. The convent also welcomed women from foreign lands to join their community and learn the monastic way of life, with the goal of carrying the monastic lifestyle back to their home countries.

The 1980s - Theory Becomes Practice

Back in the 1960s, when Yannoulatos first fell ill to malaria, his doctors told him that he would never be able to work overseas as a missionary. The providence of God spoke differently. In 1980, the Orthodox Church of East Africa faced great difficulties. The region had been the most active Orthodox mission field in the world over the past two decades. The Church’s footing, however, was jeopardized by internal problems that ultimately led to the defrocking of a Kenyan bishop by the Patriarchate of Alexandria.   The East African Orthodox Church seemed to be on the verge of collapse.           

During this time Patriarch Nicholas, the head of the Orthodox Church in Africa, invited Bishop Anastasios to become acting archbishop of the Archdiocese of East Africa. The bishop consented, but continued to keep his responsibilities both at the University of Athens, as well as in Apostoliki Diakonia. During this transitional period, Yannoulatos saw his role as one of re-organizing the Church of East Africa. His main priority was to create a strong Orthodox community led by local leaders.           

By focusing on the training and establishing of indigenous leaders, Bishop Anastasios remained faithful to Orthodox missions tradition. As he noted in an earlier writing,

The “incarnation” of God’s Word in the language and customs of a country has been and must be the first concern of all Orthodox mission. Its intent is the planting and growth of a native Church, self-powered and self-governing, able to turn to account all the genuine strands of national tradition, transforming and hallowing them in harmony with the people’s nature, to the glory of God (Yannoulatos 1968:21)

In 1972, Archbishop Makarios III of Cyprus built an Orthodox seminary in Nairobi, Kenya, but political instability in Cyprus prevented the Archbishop from completing his project. The school remained vacant for ten years. Bishop Anastasios’ first action as the new leader of the Church was to finish the seminary and open it immediately. During the 1970s, many of the faithful within the African Orthodox Church became disillusioned and disheartened with the floundering Church, and began to leave. Yannoulatos realized that the only way to bring these people back, as well as to bring new converts into the faith, was through the training of local leaders and priests.           

Hence, Bishop Anastasios officially opened the “Archbishop Makarios III Orthodox Patriarchal Seminary” in 1982. Over the following decade, the school averaged forty-five students annually, using twelve professors from East Africa, Europe, and the United States. The acting archbishop eventually ordained sixty-two priests and deacons, as well as forty-two readers and catechists from the school’s graduates. These indigenous leaders came from eight different tribes in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania, and provided the foundation for the renewal of the Church in East Africa.           

Along with training local leaders, the acting archbishop also supported the Orthodox missionary tradition of translation, which he believed was sanctioned by Christ during the event of Pentecost. Thus, he concentrated on publications, organizing the translation of services into seven different languages. Bishop Anastasios also tried to establish a sense of permanency in the structures of the Church by guiding the construction of sixty-seven new Church buildings, twenty-three of them stone and forty-four wooden and mud. He also helped renovate twenty-five existing Church buildings. His construction accomplishments included seven mission stations, seven health stations, five primary schools and twelve nursery schools.            

His work in Africa drew worldwide attention. The Greek Orthodox Church in America assisted him by sending missionaries and mission teams to East Africa. The impact of these missionaries and mission teams was felt not only within the Church of East Africa, but also throughout America. Many of the short-term team members returned to their homes in the United States, and helped increase a missionary awareness and consciousness within their own parishes. The Orthodox Church in Greece, Cyprus and Finland also responded to a series of lectures the bishop gave on the imperative of missions by sending missionary teams of their own to Kenya.           

The most important aspect of Bishop Anastasios’ work in East Africa, however, was not the ordinations, the publications, or the missionary interest created by the mission teams. It was instead his efforts to assimilate with the indigenous Christians. By identifying closely with the Orthodox Christians of this region, he encouraged and empowered them to embrace the faith as authentically their own. As a result, the Church of East Africa continued to mature even after his departure as acting archbishop in 1991.          

 In addition to his achievements in Africa, Bishop Anastasios has left his mark in other ways. In 1981, the Bishop began editing, through the auspices of Apostoliki Diakonia, the first official missionary magazine of the Church of Greece, entitled Panta ta Ethne (All Nations). This magazine continues to disseminate mission information, and challenge Orthodox Christians throughout Greece to respond to the missionary mandate.          

 The 1980s also saw Bishop Anastasios intensify his activity in the WCC. After participating in the World Mission Conference at Melbourne in 1980, as well as the general assembly of the WCC at Vancouver in 1983, the Bishop became the moderator of the CWME during 1984-91, and presided at the World Mission Conference at San Antonio in 1989. His missiological impact not only influenced the Orthodox world, but also touched broad ecumenical circles. As the prominent Protestant theologian and missionary David J. Bosch noted,

Anastasios has remained the driving force behind the missionary movement in Orthodoxy. And since the Orthodox Churches joined the WCC in 1961, he and others have made a major contribution to missionary thinking and practice in ecumenical circles . . . The cross-fertilization in the area of Missiology between Orthodoxy and Protestantism has indeed been a major area of theological renewal in the ecumenical movement since 1961. Only three papers were read in the conference plenary during the first few day . . . Whereas the first two papers were interesting and challenging, it was Anastasios’ presentation that provided the theological framework for the conference theme “Your Will Be Done”. . . its overall thrust was truly ecumenical in the best sense of the word (Bosch 1989:127).

The 1990 to the Present - Culmination of His Work

A new challenge confronted the sixty-two year old Archbishop Anastasios with the coming of a new decade. In January 1991, the Patriarchate of Constantinople elected Anastasios to go to Albania as “Patriarchal Exarch” with the mandate to contact Orthodox people irrespective of their ethnic origin and re-establish the Orthodox Autocephalous Church of Albania. The Orthodox Church in Albania had been decimated after forty years of the most severe persecution. Before the country had finally overthrown its yoke of communism, the number of Orthodox clergy had diminished from 440 in 1940 to 22 in 1990. Now the Archbishop didn’t have to revive a Church on the brink of collapse, instead he faced the challenge of resurrected a Church that had been utterly destroyed.

Yannoulatos saw this new test as an opportunity to synthesize the elements of his life. Before communism, Albania was a country with approximately sixty-nine percent Muslims. Archbishop Anastasios had written a book and many articles on Islam. The political uncertainties which the Church faced with the government were something he was accustomed to from his work in East Africa. The challenge to resurrect a local Church from an atheistic abyss would require a miracle, similar to the miracle required in the early 1960s to establish an external Orthodox mission. Yet as his life has shown, Archbishop Anastasios believes in miracles.

[This chapter was written in 1994 and does not cover the culmination of the Archbishop's work in Albania over the past 33 years. Other books have been written about what he has done over these decades to raise up a vibrant dynamic church in Albania.]           

Conclusion

During the first 60 years of his life, the impact and influence of Anastasios Yannoulatos cannot be overstated. As a young theologian in the 1950s, he had a vision to rekindle the missionary spirit of the Orthodox Church. Sixty years later, it is clear he has achieved his goal. Indeed, missions has truly become part of the basic life of contemporary Orthodoxy. As the Archbishop notes himself,

Here is the first and major contribution I have made -- a theological contribution to help the Church rediscover who she really is. It was a contribution of LIFE. My theological position has always been to live the mystery of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. To live the mission of the Church with its proper universal and eschatological perspective (Yannoulatos 1993).

A summary of the Archbishop’s life can be seen in his desire to conquer four different frontiers. First, he approached the Orthodox Church herself by seeking to revive missionary interest and consciousness that has been a part of her tradition throughout the ages. Secondly, he sought to make a scholarly contribution to the field of missiology. Archbishop Anastasios has written nine scholarly books, five catechetical books, over sixty treatises (fifty of which are in foreign languages), and more than eighty different articles. He founded and published two mission magazines, Porefthentes (1960-70), and Panta ta Ethne (1981-1992), and since 1981 he has been a contributing editor of the International Bulletin of Missionary Research. Along with this, he has appeared numerous times on television, appealing to the public to embrace the eternal message of Jesus Christ and His holy Church. In 1989, the Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Brookline, Massechusetts, granted an honorary Doctor of Theology degree to the archbishop. And in 1993, Archbishop Anastasios was unanimously elected correspondent Member of the Academy of Athens, which is the highest academic society of Greece.           

The third frontier has been his life in East Africa and Albania. He desired to live the life and share the efforts of missions in the most remote places of the world. Here, he hoped to show all people of the world, regardless of their origin, that God loved and cared for them. Finally, the last frontier has been in ecumenical circles. Through the WCC, Archbiship Anastasios has given witness to Orthodox mission theology and spirituality to the non-Orthodox world. He worked together with his Christian contemporaries to define missions in the 20th century and to witness effectively to other faiths and traditions.

           Archbishop Anastasios Yannoulatos’ life and work can be summarized in his own words. Throughout his life, he has tried to live and proclaim the mystery of the “one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church;” to live the mission of the Church within its proper universal perspective. “Mission is an essential expression of Orthodox self-conscience, a cry in action for the fulfillment of God’s will ‘on earth as it is in heaven’ . . . [Ultimately,] indifference to mission is a denial of Orthodoxy” (Yannoulatos 1989:88).

MOMENTS IN THE LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP ANASTASIOS

Taken from Fr Luke Veronis' 2006 book “Go Forth: Stories of Mission and Resurrection from Albania”

Over the ten years I lived with Archbishop Anastasios as a missionary, I had many conversations with Archbishop Anastasios, listened to his talks and sermons, read his theological and scholarly articles, observed his witness within the mission fields of Albania and East Africa, and noted his interactions in a variety of other contexts, whether religious, political, or secular. From Orthodox ecclesiastical settings to ecumenical gatherings to the political arena at all levels and throughout the world to totally secular meetings, I observed his actions and closely listened to his words. In every situation, I marveled how the love of God shined forth from this holy apostle. His patient, kind, attentive demeanor always offered the deepest respect and dignity to whomever he spoke. His faith and experiences of life taught him when to speak, and when to stay silent, when to preach with words, when to proclaim with his actions, or when to simply offer a witness with his silent presence. Following are a number of stories and sayings that I’ve heard firsthand, or that I’ve read in his writings, that help reveal the spirit that lies within this holy man.

Living the Gospel

“Is the Gospel really something that can be lived? This is the question of many skeptics in today’s world,” Archbishop Anastasios would say. “Missionaries, however, offer an answer through the example of their lives. The ontological question is answered not by what we say and not even by what we do, but by what we are. Our life witness is what is most important! One of our greatest contributions is that we have tried to live with the people – in Africa or in Albania – and have offered our life to them. Our theological position has always been to live the mystery of the one, holy catholic and apostolic church. We have tried to live the mission of the church with its proper universal and eschatological perspective; to live the life of the cross always with the hope of the resurrection.”

Is God enough?

Archbishop Anastasios faced a serious dilemma as a young deacon back in the 1960s. As a lay theologian, he had preached about the need for the Orthodox Church to rediscover her apostolic calling of missions. In 1959 he started the bi-lingual (Greek and English) mission journal Porefthentis – Go Forth and then in 1961 founded the inter-Orthodox mission center “Porefthentes,” all as a means to reawaken the missionary conscience of the Church. Before his ordination to the priesthood on May 24, 1964, though, he faced the difficult question of whether he himself should actually go to Africa as a missionary, or stay in his beloved homeland of Greece. “It was clear to me,” he shared, “that what you say, you must also do. How could I teach what I wasn’t living?” He wrestled with this thought, until he had a special revelation.

“I remember a young cleric who was on a prolonged retreat on the island of Patmos. Sitting in front of the open sea, he faced a challenging dilemma – to stay in his beautiful European country, within an environment he loved, and in which he was loved, or to obey the final command of the Lord, “Go ye,” and to depart for Africa. No guarantee was offered for this latter course and its future. Gazing from his simple, ascetic cell, the horizon of the open sea called within him, seeking a satisfactory response for this major decision in relation to the will of God.

The answer finally came in the form of a critical question: “Is God enough for you? If so, then go. If not, then stay where you are.” A follow-up question, however, reinforced the first. “But if God is not enough for you, in which God do you believe?” A peaceful decision followed, directing him on an innovative course into new missionary frontiers. My basic guarantee and comfort in my bleak hours was always the assurance of the resurrected Christ, with the promise that follows the command to “Go and teach all nations.” “And lo, I am with you always, even to the close of the age.”

The same night of his ordination, the newly ordained Father Anastasios flew to Africa, and celebrated his first Divine Liturgy at the St. Nicholas Cathedral in Kampala, Uganda. His cross-cultural missionary work had begun.

We Believe in Miracles

In 1959, the young lay theologian Anastasios gave a talk at the University of Athens, where he shared his vision for the creation of an Orthodox missionary center that would send out cross-cultural missionaries throughout the world. Many thought such a dream impossible, especially considering the reality of post World War II Greece and the poverty of the country. Others dismissed such talk as romantic dreams of idealistic youth. Some laughed at his idealism, saying that such a vision would take a miracle. To which the young Anastasios responded, “Yes. You’re right. But thank God that we Christians do believe in miracles!”

Where Are Our Own Missionaries?

Young Deacon Anastasios was the first Orthodox representative to take part in the WCC’s Commission on Missions and Evangelism in Mexico City in 1963. Following that conference, he visited the Wycliff Bible Translator’s Training Camp in the jungles of Guatamala, staying among families preparing to serve in frontier missions among some of the most primitive Indian tribes of the world. His ecumenical openness to learn from others, and observe the passion and love of Christ that others possessed remains a hallmark of his life. From that experience, he told me that he still remembers a key phrase they ingrained in their missionaries: “Accept life! No matter what unexpected challenges life brings, no matter how great the difficulties, accept life!”

The Archbishop shared how a variety of figures across the Christian perspective touched him in his life. “I remember being impacted by stories of Father Damian, the 19^th century Roman Catholic priest who dedicated his life to serving the lepers of the Hawaiian Islands. He offered his life to the point of becoming a leper himself, and dying among his adopted people. And then I read of David Livingstone and his bold exploits throughout Africa. Albert Schweitzer was another figure. During the Christian camps we ran in Greece back in the 1950s, we would stay up late into the night, telling stories of such inspiring figures. But then, I began asking myself, what about missionaries from our Orthodox tradition? Who were our missionaries, and where were they? Why did we not have any contemporary missionaries to inspire us and bless us?”

These questions led Archbishop Anastasios to research and discover the incredible missionary exploits of the great Byzantine missionaries Saints Cyril and Methodios, the evangelizers of the Slavs. He became fascinated with Saint Innocent Venieminov, the greatest of the Russian missionaries to Alaska, Siberia and Asia. He learned of Saint Nicholas Kasatkin and his incredible 50 year ministry in Japan. The discovery of these missionaries affirmed his passion to help awaken the Orthodox Church to reclaim her missionary tradition. He began to write provocative articles, emphasizing, “Indifference to missions is a denial of Orthodoxy… A Church without mission is a contradiction in terms… As unthinkable as it is to have a church without a liturgical life, it is even more unthinkable to have a church without a missionary life… A static Church which lacks a vision and a constant endeavor to proclaim the Gospel to the world can hardly be recognized as the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church to whom the Lord entrusted the continuation of His work… How is it possible to celebrate Easter and Pentecost without accepting the consequences of these feasts. Look at their theological perspective. These feasts proclaim that we must go!”

Malaria

On the very day that the Archbishop was ordained as a priest in 1964, he traveled to Kampala, Uganda and began what he thought was the beginning of his life-long missionary work in Africa. He celebrated his first Divine Liturgy as a priest with a young African altar boy named Jonah. Years later, this young boy would become a co-worker and co-missionary of the Archbishop’s in Kenya, and then become Metropolitan of Uganda.

During his first visit to Africa, something unexpected occurred. The Archbishop came down with cerebral malaria. It first hit him while he was in Ethiopia at a missions conference. He didn’t know what it was, and began to lose his balance, get the shakes and developed a very high fever. He thought he was going to die. That night, he prayed, “O Lord, I have made many mistakes, but you know that I have tried to love you!” The next morning he was ok. He dealt with a second attack when he was in Geneva for another missions conference of the WCC. Thankfully, a doctor there diagnosed it as cerebral malaria, but not before he had a complete breakdown of health. The doctor gently told him that he shouldn’t return to Africa because he could jeopardize his life.

This unexpected event radically changed his future plans. “I thought I would spend the rest of my life in Africa. This news was like a second mortal wound for me.” While one of his former professors and friends tried to direct him to further academic studies, telling him that he could inspire others to become missionaries through his teaching and research, he wasn’t sure. He questioned whether he could seriously challenge people to go to far off places if he himself didn’t actually go. “Always like the water, though, I tried to be free to flow wherever God directed me,” he later confessed. “I tried to always say to the Lord, ‘Here I am. I will do whatever you want and go wherever you want.’” Thus, the path toward doctoral studies prevailed, and his passion for practical cross-cultural missions was put on hold for 15 years.

During the next decade and a half, he traveled the world over as he studied the history of religions, became a professor of world religions, served as the general director of Apostoliki Diakonia in the Church of Greece, and accepted a position in the WCC’s Commission of World Mission and Evangelism. Then in 1981, Patriarch Nicholas of Alexandria asked him to become the Acting Archbishop of East Africa and help revive the flailing mission there. Archbishop Anastasios finally returnd to Africa as a missionary. He became the acting Archbishop of Irinopoulis and East Africa (Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania), opening up the first Orthodox seminary in sub-Sahara Africa, building dozens of churches, ordaining scores of new clergy, and revitalizing the mission there, while continuing in his ministry as Professor of World Religions at the University of Athens.

Remain a Student and Servant

In 1972, Father Anastasios became both the Bishop of Androusa and a Professor of World Religions at the University of Athens. “I realized that I had two positions that could be very dangerous for my spiritual life. How could I avoid the great temptations of these positions” So he prayed for God to protect him from the dangers these positions could bring. As he prayed, the Holy Spirit enlightened him to realize a truth that has remained with him for the rest of his life. “God reminded me to always remain a deacon (serving others) and a student (never stop learning). If I remembered these two things, and truly stayed a deacon and student, God would keep me safe.”

Where Is Christ Present?

In 1990, Archbishop Anastasios was the acting Archbishop of East Africa (Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania) as well as a professor of the History of Religions in the University of Athens. His involvement in the Ecumenical Movement happened to take him to Leningrad in the Soviet Union, where he offered a lecture on “Dialogue and Mission” in a committee of the Churches in Europe. It was Sunday, June 17, 1990 when he was invited to participate at the opening Divine Liturgy at the magnificent Cathedral of Saint Isaac, a Church that can hold 14,000 people. This is the third largest Christian Church worldwide, after Saint Peter’s in Rome and St. Paul’s in London. During the 70 years of the Soviet Union, this Church was used as a Museum of Science and Atheism. The Archbishop narrated the following story.

“The luxury and magnificence was surprising. Twenty hierarchs and 70 priests attended, led by His Beatitude Patriach Alexy II. Choirs comprised of more than one hundred members chanted brilliantly, and at various times throughout the Divine Liturgy, the thousands of people who filled this enormous and ornately beautiful church accompanied the chanting. It was spiritually uplifting. As the Divine Liturgy neared completion, I drew close to Patriarch Alexy and expressed my feelings of gratitude, giving glory to God. He embraced me in a brotherly manner, and summarized succinctly the events by saying: “Christ is Risen!”

At the official dinner that followed, given in honor of the Patriarch, I was asked to make a toast. I started by saying, “Following Holy Communion, near the end of this magnificent Liturgy which we experienced today in the beautiful Church of Saint Isaac, I stood in a corner of the altar area wondering, “Where is Christ most comfortable? In the luxurious Cathedrals of Europe or in the poor huts of Africa?”

The woman who was translating my toast stopped in mid-sentence, hesitating to translate something that appeared offensive to her. I asked her to continue though, and a rather disagreeable silence followed. I continued: “As I wondered about this question, I quickly found the answer – Christ is comfortable in both places. Christ is comfortable in a Cathedral of Europe or a hut of Africa. What is most important is not the exterior luxury or poverty, but the Divine Liturgy, which transforms common bread and the wine into the Body and the Blood of Christ. Holy Communion in what all believers share, irrespective of origin, tongue, or economic state. Christ is present both in the great Cathedrals of Europe as well as in the simple village churches of Africa”.

Learning from Africa

“From Africa, I learned an important lesson for Albania. Respect all that is good there, and don’t try to impose our own culture. Offer what is best from our own culture, but respect and preserve what is good from theirs.

This practical experience from Africa affirmed what my academic studies revealed. When the Church encounters a culture, it proceeds to initiate three processes: first, it accepts those elements that are in keeping with the message of the Gospel; second, it rejects other aspects that are irreconcilable with the Gospel; and third, it transfuses new blood and a new spirit into the culture, fertilizing whatever is positive.

Imprisonment in any of the cultural forms of this world is inexcusable; there is no justification for the closed circle of chauvinism... Imposing a culture of uniformity and monotony always threatens to lead humanity to an appalling state of impoverishment.”

Why Am I Here?

I remember a pastoral visit of Archbishop Anastasios to Western Kenya in 1988. Since I was living in this area with my Kenyan co-worker, Father Athanasios Karanja, I drove the Archbishop around from Church to Church. After one week with the Archbishop, I was exhausted from the constant travel from early morning to late evening. He keeps such a non-stop pace. During this trip, I almost committed one of the greatest sins of my life! As I drove, maybe a little too fast along the mountain of Western Kenya, a tire of our truck blew out and the car swerved out of control. I slammed on the brakes and stopped the truck inches from falling down the side of a mountain! We got out of the truck and looked over the edge, with the Archbishop making his cross. I thanked God that I wasn’t the one responsible for accidentally killing a saint of our times!

Well, that wasn’t the most memorable experience of our trip. A few days later, we experienced something which the Archbishop would share in several of his international talks years later. “We were in a remote region in the highlands of western Kenya. It was night, and we arrived at a house that was in mourning. A little girl, stricken mortally by malaria, lay on a large bed, as if sleeping peacefully. “She was such a good child,” whispered her afflicted father. “She was always the first to greet you.” We read a short funeral prayer, and I said a few words of consolation.           

That night, as the rain fell on the banana leaves and tin roof of the schoolhouse where we stayed, I reflected on the events of the day. Away in the darkness, I heard a drum beating, and knew it came from the house of mourning. In my weariness, I wondered, “Why am I here?” Various thoughts about missions came into my mind – preaching, education, civilization, development, peace, love.

Suddenly, a light flashed across my exhausted mind and revealed to me the essence of the matter. “You bring the good news – the hope of resurrection! Every human being has a unique worth, and each will rise again. Herein lies human dignity, value, and hope. Christ is Risen! You teach them to celebrate the resurrection in the mystery of the Church. You offer a foretaste of it.” And in a fleeting vision, I saw, once again, the little African girl run up and be the first to greet me, as she usually did. She helped me to understand more precisely the heart of our Orthodox witness.”

The Archbishop related this lesson to his ministry in Albania. “We live similar experiences in Albania. After the horrifying events under the “shadow of death,” which had crushed this land for 23 years, a new era has begun with the Paschal greeting, “Christ is Risen,” and the responsive cry, “Truly He is Risen.” This Easter candle has become our symbol and guide in the struggle for religious freedom. It has helped us overcome violence, and reminded us to respect all human rights, without distinction of peoples and communities. Here lies the essence of Orthodox witness – to infuse everybody and everything with the truth and hope of the resurrection, and guide them into the new and abundant life in Christ.

With Christ’s Resurrection everything has become new again; everything is restored. From that point on, the question posed for every human being has been whether or not to participate in this restoration. In the code language of Christianity, this call to participate is known by the term “repentance,” which calls on us to make the effort to change by becoming new, through the process initiated by the events of Easter.

What our brothers and sisters yearn for, in the isolated corners of Africa, Albania, or even in the outskirts of the large and wealthy cities of the West, are not vague words of consolation, a few material goods, some educational or medical programs, and other such crumbs of civilization. In their loneliness and depression, they consciously, or unconsciously, hunger for human dignity, hope, and transcendence of death. In the end, they desire the living Christ, the perfect God-Man who is “the way, the truth and the life.”

I Ask For Your Forgiveness

“I remember being in Laikipia, Kenya at an altitude of 2,000 meters high near the equator, under the imposing summit of Mount Kenya. By the 1980s, we had created fifteen Orthodox communities in this area. Among the newly baptized were many men and women from the Turkana tribe, a tribe which until recently lived under primitive conditions. We celebrated the Divine Liturgy in a hut at Ol Moran in August of 1988, where the chanting intermingled with the strong mountain air and a gentle rain. Looking out at the sunburned figures of the newly baptized Africans that were coming ecstatically to Holy Communion, I felt the need to confess, and said to them, “My sisters and brothers, on behalf of the people and the Church to which I belong, a Church founded by the Apostle Paul, I want to ask for your pardon because we have delayed so long in coming – a delay of 20 centuries.”

Comfortable vs. Authentic Christianity

During my first month in Albania in 1994, I remember stopping by Archbishop Anastasios’ apartment to make a phone call, since my apartment still didn’t have a phone. The Archbishop’s apartment and Church headquarters were basically one. He lived on the fourth floor of a rundown apartment building where he had a private office, a bedroom, a room serving as a chapel, and a small kitchen. On the third floor was the three-room Archdiocesan headquarters with an office for the Archbishop to receive people, a kitchen with a photocopy machine, and two other rooms for his translator, Vangjeli, the monk Father Justinos, and Father Spyridon, a 65 year old former Greek judge who acts as the Church’s handyman. What an unimpressive and humble setting! I wondered how many bishops and professors in Greece would accept such conditions in their retirement years. Yet, this is what makes Archbishop Anastasios unique!

When the Archbishop saw me using the phone, he invited me into his office and we talked for over an hour about a variety of topics. I can't describe what a blessing it is to be in the presence of this man. He exudes love and holiness. Sometimes I think, “Do I lift him up on a pedestal too much?” Yet, each time I spend even a short time with him, I leave saying, “No, he is that unique!”

I appreciate the way he combines a holy, prayerful and peaceful presence with an open-minded, progressive, visionary, God-inspired attitude. He represents an authentic monastic spirit in his simplicity and prayerfulness, yet without a close-mindedness to the world around him. He refreshes me with his sincere critique about the narrow-mindedness of too many Orthodox.

We began by talking about the difficulties that Faith and I face with her family’s unwillingness to accept her coming to Albania. I told him that many in America fear the “dangers” of Albania. He got a little annoyed with such portrayals of his beloved new home. “Is it more dangerous here than in Chicago, or New York, or one of the other major cities of America or Europe? One of the ways Satan tries to stop the work of God is through fear. What did Christ mean when he called his disciples to leave everything? By trusting in Him, we overcome all fear!”

I understood this comment to be not only for me and Faith, but also for those who love us. Are parents willing to offer their sons and daughters to faithfully serve God wherever He calls – whether as priests, missionaries, monks, nuns, or in some other special manner. How many parents will sacrifice much to give their children the best opportunities to succeed in the world educationally and professionally? So many of these same parents, however, will rebel at the thought of their children “denying themselves, taking up their cross, and following Christ.” And this, even from parents who faithfully go to Church every Sunday, and who call themselves pious Christians. Comfortable Christianity threatens authentic Christianity!

I confessed to him that I felt a guilty about my adjustment in Albania. All the missionaries seem overwhelmed with work, yet during my first month I have been taking it easy, adapting to life and focusing on language learning. He encouraged me in this adjustment period, telling me to learn the language well. He even joked about how he was “jealous” that I had time to study. He longs to be fluent in the language, yet struggles to find time to study during his hectic schedule.

He told me to set my priority on the seminary and youth. “Help these students develop open minds, ready to grasp not only the Gospel, but also the reality around us. The youth make up the most vital part of the Church. Many of the people 30 to 60 years old are set in their ways and very slow to change their worldview. We must reach the young people! They have the open minds.”

After saying this, however, he shared a story which reminded me to never lose hope in anyone. “We celebrated our first Divine Liturgy at St. Prokopi last August 15, for the feastday of the Virgin Mary. By the end of the service, I was hot and tired. A man entered the altar and demanded to see me. When I asked if we could meet another day, since I was extremely tired, the man became insistent. I sat down with him and he began confessing that he was among the people who turned St. Prokopi Church into a restaurant. He cried and asked for forgiveness for such blasphemy. I could see sincere repentance, and joyfully accepted his confession. Afterwards, I thanked God. This is what I mean when I say, don’t lose hope in anyone!”

Our conversation drifted to my African mission trip in 1993, and the situation there. We discussed the struggles the East African Church has faced since the Archbishop’s departure in January 1991. At that time, Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios asked Archbishop Anastasios to go to Albania as an Exarch of the Patriarchate. Although the Ecumenical Patriarch wanted an immediate answer, the Archbishop asked for an hour to pray about it. He had been serving as the acting Archbishop of East Africa since 1981. During this decade, he continued to work as a professor of World Religions at the University of Athens. Although he had other commitments, the Ecumencial Patriarch understood that few people in the Orthodox world possessed the missiological experience and preparation that the Archbishop had. Albania presented an extremely difficult challenge, and the Church needed a unique leader.

After an intense hour of prayer, Archbishop Anastasios received the same answer he heard back in the 1960s. “Is God enough?” This same assurance comforted him once again, and he accepted the new challenge of Albania.

War with Satan

I shared a very personal concern with the Archbishop, related to slanderous accusations that a fellow missionary leveled toward me after my year-long mission experience in Kenya in 1988. This missionary tried to defame my name and attack my integrity by telling some of her supporters in America that “Father Alexander Veronis’ son wasn’t a missionary. All he did in Africa during the summer was sleep around with women!”

The Archbishop knew this missionary well, and warned me to learn an important lesson of life. “We are in a continual spiritual war with Satan. He is always trying to look for ways to tear down the Lord’s messengers, and to ridicule the Gospel. When we are involved in missions, be ready to face many types of persecution, false and absurd accusations, and attacks on our integrity and very personhood. Don’t be discouraged. Strive to live in purity and truth, persevering even in the face of absolute lies!”

Living in different Worlds

One day the Archbishop travels to the most remote villages of Albania, dealing with such simple and poor people. The next day, he’s flying first class sitting next to a Prime Minister or President, being greeted at an airport by an ambassador or two, interacting with some of wealthiest people in the world at the Davos Economic Summit in Switzerland or at a World Bank conference. The disparity of people he deals with includes the gamut from faithful believers to secular businessmen to left-wing communists. When I asked him how he deals with such different worlds, he humbly commented, “I have learned to adapt to wherever I am and with whomever I am. I never feel superior to anyone, and I never feel inferior. I am comfortable with all people, and try to love them all, regardless of who they are. I try to treat each person as a child of God. Remember, Christ is for all people, and has a message of Good News for all.”

The Oil of Religion

During the Kosovo War in 1999, the media and various political sides tried to portray the Balkan conflict as a religious war between the Serbian Orthodox and the Albanian Muslims. Tensions obviously ran very high as a half million Kosovar Albanians refugees flooded into Albania, while America bombed Serbia for three months. Archbishop Anastasios acted as a key voice throughout the Balkans, trying to defuse the religious tensions and misunderstandings. “The oil of religion should never be used to ignite the fires of hatred,” he repeated again and again, “But should be used to sooth and heal the wounds of others… We wholeheartedly participate in the pain of those who are suffering because of injustice and violence due to the crisis in Kosovo. We are not in a position to make eloquent speeches or easy statements in this extremely difficult situation. But, interceding daily "for those who hate us and those who love us," we humbly pray to the God of truth and love to perform His miracle so that peace and justice prevail over our troubled area. We have already helped on a large scale and are continuously working to the best of our ability for the relief of the refugees of the conflict who take refuge in Albania.”

On Prayer

I love praying with the Archbishop. Whether observing his quiet and prayerful presence in the Divine Liturgy, praying with him in his personal chapel, or listening to his spontaneous prayers at various events, I always sense God’s presence. I remember one specific incident traveling with him to America. It took us 14 hours of travel from his doorstep in Tirana to our hotel in New York. We entered the hotel dead tired, yet before going to our respective rooms to sleep, the Archbishop called me into his room to conclude the day (at 4:45 am Tirana time) with an abbreviated Compline Service. Earlier we offered our morning prayers in the airport in Frankfort. Of course, none of this surprised me. It simply reminded me no matter where we are, or how tired we may be, we must be disciplined to offer our prayers.

Whenever I have prayed in a private setting with the Archbishop, I have appreciated the way he ends his prayers. He will offer spontaneous words, starting with the prayer: “O God Almighty, O Lord, who is, who was, and who is to come, glory to you. (Revelation 1:8) Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner. O Holy Spirit, grace us with the fruit of the Holy Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility, and self-control.” And then he proceeds with his own words, always remembering Faith and our kids, the other missionaries, the Church in Albania, and whoever else might be on his mind for the day.

When I asked him how we can stay spiritually healthy and alive, he responded, “Try to know God more, to love Him more, to serve Him more. Every day we need a time of silence, prayer and Bible reading. Pray the set prayers of the Church, not only spontaneous prayers. Don’t only read the Bible, but listen to what God is saying to you through the Scriptures. At noontime, and throughout the day, offer up even short prayers. And of course, end your day in prayer.

Remember that freedom and love are the two most important elements of the Christian life. If God does not free us, then we will have no freedom. I sometimes pray, “O Lord, free me from myself. Free me from fear! Let me be a free person in Christ. God is always a God of love and freedom. Love and freedom must come first in our lives and they lead us to God. You cannot love the other if you are not free from yourself. It is not easy. It is never finished. It may happen that you are only free a small part of the time… Be like the water, free to flow wherever God directs you. I learned to say in my life, ‘Lord, I will go wherever you want.’”

On Fundamentalism

The Archbishop often expressed to me his frustration with the fundamentalism or ultra-conservatism within the Church. We talked about how some Orthodox vehemently opposed praying with non-Orthodox Christians, gladly throwing around the term “heretics.” The Archbishop disagreed with placing every non-Orthodox Christian in the same context with the ancient heretics the Church Fathers battled. “One has to consider where someone has been raised, with what knowledge they have learned the faith, and what exposure they have had of the fullness of truth. One cannot simply ignore or reject their sincere love and commitment to Jesus Christ…We have to be careful not to turn our church into a small “pure” ghetto, which isolates itself from the rest of the world. Some monasteries may do this, but the bishop, and Church at large, cannot embrace this mentality. The Church has to be open and welcoming to all!

Certain people try to distort the authentic Orthodox perspective. They try to present themselves as the only bearers of Orthodoxy. I heard some people recently say, “Archbishop Anastasios is doing good work in Albania, but true Orthodoxy is hesychastic monasticism.” Is this form of monasticism the only true form of Orthodoxy? Of course, monasticism has played and continues to play a central role in our Church, but we can’t limit the expression of faith to only one form. Here is the danger of focusing only a particular elder and his writings. We can’t ignore the Spirit of the Gospels and of what Christ Himself established.

Why are such people more Orthodox than us? Why is certain view of anti-ecumenism true Orthodoxy? They call me an ecumenist. I am and have been for the last forty years of my life. I don’t need to apologize for this. Some say it is heresy to pray the Lord’s Prayer with other Christians. We can dialogue with them, but we can’t say a common prayer together? What is this? The Church Canon that stated we cannot say prayers with heretics referred to the Eucharist. Will we approach and reach our brothers and sisters by not praying with them? What is this type of Pharisaism?”

A Antagonist Converted

An amazing thing happened two days ago at our lunch with Metropolitan Theodosios of the OCA, the Foundos brothers, and Fathers Arthur and Nikon Liolin. At the end of a cordial lunch, Father Arthur commented, “Your Beatitude, I have told you privately, but now I want to say publicly. I’m very sorry for the way I acted towards you in the early years and I am grateful that you are the Archbishop of Albania. I realize that no one else could have accomplished the work you have done in Albania over these past years.”

What a miracle! Here is another example of the Archbishop’s charismatic witness – his patience, humility, and desire always to pray for the change and conversion of his antagonists. In the first years following the fall of communism, Father Arthur acted as an ardent Albanian nationalist when he rejected the Archbishop’s election to Albania. He joined other Albanians in fighting against Archbishop Anastasios because he is Greek. Of course, such critics ignored the fact that there was no available celibate Albanian cleric in the world who could become Archbishop of Albania. They ignored looking at Archbishop Anastasios and his credentials were. These fierce critics spoke harshly against the Archbishop during his first years of leadership in Albania. Yet through much prayer, love, patience, and humility on the Archbishop’s side, as well as an openness from Father Arthur to see good where good was, a bridge of understanding and respect slowly developed. Today, I saw a miracle happen that I didn’t believe possible five years ago.

Several months after this luncheon, the Archbishop traveled to New York to receive the Patriarch Athenagoras Humanitarian Award from the Archons of Saint Andrew. Before a crowded banquet of five hundred or so people, mostly Greek-Americans, numerous speakers lauded the Archbishop for his humanitarian accomplishments in East Africa and Albania. Although Father Arthur was not one of the programmed speakers, he asked the organizers if he could say a few words. He proceeded to describe his extreme hesitations towards the Archbishop during his early years in Albania, which turned into a deep admiration. “There is no one else who could have done what you have done over these past ten years! Thank you, Your Beatitude, for all that you have done!”

Our Own Theological Call To Missions

At the 5^th International Conference of Orthodox Theological Schools in Belgrade, Serbia in 2001, the Archbishop warned his fellow theologians and clergy about the danger of nationalism in our Church, which leads us to view one another with suspicion and doubt. “We are not different Orthodox churches, but are one church in different countries! Our theology expresses this, but unfortunately our practice too often reveals the opposite.”

He also challenged these theologians to make the apostolic spirit central to theological education. “We have a serious responsibility to continue in the work of the apostles, and we cannot hide the light of our faith under a bushel like we Orthodox have done too often.” He stressed the difference between so-called internal mission, i.e. pastoral care of our own people within our own country, and the external mission of going outside of our own boundaries and taking the gospel to others.

When one theologian tried to say that the authentic type of Orthodox missions was to simply stay where we are and shine a light so that others come to us, the Archbishop warned him that “we are in danger of creating spiritual ghettos only for ourselves and no one else. This has nothing to do with the “apostolic, catholic” spirit of our forbearers. If our theology is authentic and sincere, it must spurn us on towards missions. Orthodox theology and missiology are not separate. Our theology motivates us for mission.”

Say a Prayer, Make Your Cross, and Go

In 1994, I walked with the Archbishop on the sight of the Saint Vlash Monastery, the first church destroyed by the communists in 1967. The Archbishop shared with me his vision of rebuilding a spiritual center for all of Albania. He wanted a seminary and monastery. When I asked him if he had the money to build such a dream, he shared with his secret. “I believe that if God is calling us to do something, we shouldn’t be frightened by any obstacles or negative possibilities. Simply say a prayer, make your cross, and go forward! Let us begin, and God will provide the rest.”

Three years later, as we walked around the finished seminary and monastery, he said to me, “Look at this miracle of God. Who could have imagined such a place four years ago? Remember, say a prayer, make your cross and go forward!”

We Don't Have Enemies?

The Archbishop came to the seminary for an informal meeting with the students. He sat in a circle with them, answering questions for two and a half hours. It was vintage Anastasios. He touched on many issues, but a central point he discussed for more than half an hour was the spirit we must have with people outside our Orthodox faith. “Focus on the good news, not on any bad news. Don’t talk against others. Tell people of the special treasure we have.” He also warned that we must be careful about radical writings against Muslims, Catholics or Protestants. Even if some saint wrote something 200 years ago, we must take care not to interpret it out of its context. His saying may not be appropriate for Albania in 2004. If someone calls Muhammed the antichrist, or the Pope the antichrist, that is absolutely not appropriate for us today.

Remember a Christian should never have enemies. Never call someone a ‘bad communist,’ a ‘bad atheist,’ or a bad ‘so-and-so.’ All people have the image of God in them, and they are all children of God! We pray ‘for those who hate us and for those who love us.’ Thus we cannot have enemies. How could we? If others want to see us as enemies, it is their choice, but we do not consider others as enemies. We refuse to punish those who punished us. Always remember that at the Last Judgment we are judged for loving Christ, or failing to love him, in the least person. The message is clear. Our salvation depends upon respect for the other, respect for otherness. This is the deep meaning of the parable of the Good Samaritan; we see not how someone is my neighbor, but how someone becomes my neighbor. It is a process.

How should we respond to hatred? Let us learn that often the best dialogue is silence; it is love without arguments. Only remember we cannot love without a great cost. It costs much to love Christ, and to love the other.

Everything in our spiritual lives comes down to our relationship with the Triune God. All is based on love and freedom. On the unconditional love of God, and the freedom we have to respond to that love with love. Love to all people, whether they are non-Orthodox Christians, or even non-Christians and non-believers. Respect for all. Love for all. Witness for the truth. This is what our faith is about. This is true Orthodoxy.”

The Danger of Prosperity

On a drive from the Athens airport to his home, the Archbishop shared with me how much Greece has changed since his youth. He described the horrible years following World War II, and the poverty and suffering of the people. Yet over the past six decades, Athens has transformed into a cosmopolitan European capital. As we drove through the city, Archbishop commented to me, “The people of Greece stayed close to God during their years of poverty. What will happen now during their years of prosperity? Will they forget God and make themselves and their egocentric pleasures their god?”

This obviously is a question for all of us in the West to reflect upon.

Keep your eyes on eternity

The Archbishop shared that a crucial point in his life was as a teenager, when he sought answers for life’s most fundamental questions. “Why are we here? What does God want from me during this brief time on earth? Where can I find authentic freedom and love? These are the questions that should direct our lives, as we struggle to discover His will for us! When I was a teenager, many young people tried to find their answers in the Communist movement of Greece in the 1940s. I could not imagine that freedom and love could result from the communist party or any other party. Very early in my life I had a longing for something authentic… I can remember as if it were yesterday kneeling on the roof of our home and saying, ‘Do you exist or not? Is it true that there is a God of love? Show me your love. Give me a sign.’

You can see why I have such a respect for teenagers. Our youth can be a time when we ask the most important questions in life. It can be a time when we make a total commitment to some ideal. That is why I will often tell the youth, “Life is so short, keep your eyes on eternity.”

Motto of the Apostles

Archbishop Anastasios refers to two passages from Saint Paul letters as the “motto of the Apostles.” This is the motto that all missionaries should live by:

“For I think that God has displayed us, the apostles, last, as men condemned to death; for we have been made a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men. We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are distinguished, but we are dishonored! To the present hour we both hunger and thirst, and we are poorly clothed, and beaten, and homeless. And we labor, working with our own hands. Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure; being defamed, we entreat. We have been made as the filth of the world, the offscouring of all things until now. I do not write these things to shame you, but as my beloved children I warn you. For though you might have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. Therefore I urge you, imitate me.” (1 Corinthians 4:9-16)

“But in all things we commend ourselves as ministers of God; in much patience, in tribulations, in needs, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, in fastings; by purity, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Spirit, by sincere love, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report, as deceivers, and yet true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold we live; as chastened, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.” (2 Corinthians 6:4-10)

“We should carry these passages as the motto of missionaries. We will face many struggles, many persecutions, many difficulties. It is not easy follow Christ. Let us keep our focus on Holy Scripture, which reminds us to go forth, even when it costs much. Christ did not command his disciples to stay in one place. He did not create closed communities. Instead, he gathered men around Himself and called them his “apostles,” disciples whom he sent out into the world to radiate his love for the world.

Life is not easy as a missionary. We shouldn’t romanticize this life. Not everyone has the necessary patience. There are some missionaries who come full of their own ideas and too eager to import solutions. This only creates confusion. I ask people from abroad who come not to come with answers to all our problems, but rather to come and see and listen and to discover first how to live when things are not working, when the water and electricity are not flowing. First, learn not why some people leave, but why so many people stay even though they could easily leave.”

Learning from the World Bank

I traveled with Archbishop Anastasios to Canterbury for a conference on World Faith and Development Leaders, co-sponsored by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the president of the World Bank. It gathered world religious leaders – Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Jewish, Buddhist, and others – together with secular development leaders, like the President the World Bank, and department heads of the United Nations, as well as Bono, the star of the rock band U2.

“Trips like this refresh me and remind us of who we are,” the Archbishop told me on our trip home. “When I sit with the President of the World Bank, who has thousands of people working under him, as well as the Archbishop of Canterbury, who is an important figure for England and worldwide Anglicans, it reminds me of how we should never live solely in our little worlds. There are many people with sincere desires to help the world, and who are doing good work. Too many Orthodox fall into the danger of staying isolated in their own little worlds. By interacting with others, we are forced to face the world, and all the people of the world, and see what they have to say, see what they are doing, and integrate that into our own worldview. This helps us stay humble, to remember how small we really are.

I remember when I was a part of the Zoe Brotherhood [in the 1950s and 1960s]. We encouraged one another to write articles without putting our name on them, so that we would stay humble. And yet, if we really want to stay humble, all we need to do is go into one of the great libraries of Europe, like when I studied in Germany, and look at all the vast number of books. What have we done, what have we written, and should we not stay humble?”

A Heretical Form of Islam

Archbishop Anastasios has received more than a dozen honorary degrees from universities around the world. In 2004, I traveled with him to receive an honorary doctorate from Boston University. On the day before Boston University’s graduation, we unexpectedly attended the graduation ceremony at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology, another school which offered the Archbishop an honorary doctorate a decade prior. Although the Archbishop was not scheduled to speak at Holy Cross, Archbishop Demetrios invited him to say a few words to the graduates. He challenged them by saying, “Although you are graduating today, remember to always remain students and deacons all your lives. Never stop learning, and never stop serving others… Beware of turning contemporary Christianity into a heretical form of Islam. Islam looks at Jesus as a great prophet and teacher, but rejects his divinity. Islam accepts the fact that Jesus performed many miracles, but denies the central event of the Cross. Too many modern Christians also deny the divine character of Christ, and reject a life of the Cross! We can never understand or taste the Resurrection without the Cross. The Resurrection is not after the Cross, but in the Cross… We must be ready to be crucified by the very same people to whom we go to serve. We have to be ready for everything, especially our cross.”

The Archbishop has emphasized the centrality of the Cross, especially in the life of missions, in many of his academic writings as well. “One of the greatest dangers for Christian mission is that we become forgetful in the practice of the cross and create a comfortable type of Christian who wants the cross as an ornament but who often prefers to crucify others than to be crucified himself…Missions will always be a service that entails acceptance of dangers, sufferings and humiliations, the experience of human powerlessness and at the same time the of the power of God. Only those who are prepared to accept, with courage and trust in Christ, sacrifice, tribulation, contradiction and rejection for his sake, can withstand… How often we forget, or consciously ignore St. Paul’s words. “We have the privilege of not only knowing Christ, but of suffering for him as well.” (Philippians 1:18) The privilege to suffer for Christ – this is the heart and essence of the Gospel.

All those who ever made a significant contribution to mission and the pastoral ministry of the Church lived in ascetic vigilance, compunction and penitence, in unceasing struggle against the dark abysses of the human ego – i.e. continuous, relentless, persistent struggle “in the Holy Spirit… Those who genuinely articulate the Gospel are not simply intellectuals versed in the books of Holy Scripture; they are people who comprehend and experience the mystery of the Gospel, constantly being transformed in the flame of the Holy Spirit’s presence and radiating divine glory and love in their deeds and their existence.”

A Forest with Many Trees

When Archbishop Anastasios began re-establishing the Church of Albania, other Orthodox Churches tried to create their own jurisdictions in Albania. A Romanian Metropolitan tried to establish a diocese for the Vlach-speaking peoples. A Greek Metropolitan claimed that parts of southern Albania fell under his jurisdiction. Certain Slavic peoples lived along the borders of Montenegro and FYROM, and felt that they could go under the Serbian or Macedonian Church.

Archbishop Anastasios insisted that only one Orthodox Church existed in Albania, but it would be a Church for all peoples. The Greek-speaking peoples in the south would continue to use Greek. The Vlach-speaking peoples would use Vlach in their churches. The Macedonian or Serbian faithful would use Slavonic or their modern languages. The Archbishop even allowed several churches to continue using the Old Julian Calendar. He noted that the Orthodox Church is one Church. “It is not correct to say that a Church is the ‘Albanian” Orthodox Church, or the ‘Russian’ Orthodox Church or the ‘Greek’ Orthodox Church. We are the “Orthodox Church of Albania” (or more accurately, the Orthodox Church in Albania). We are one Church, with a variety of members. Do you think the forest is more beautiful if there is only one kind of tree? All the various trees must grow freely under the rays of the sun. The key to proper development is love and freedom…

We have to be forthright about the truth, even when it is critical to the Church. Too often people in our Church are ethnocentric. They think that God is Greek or Russian or Serbian or Albanian. I get criticized in Greece for making the Church of Albania too Albanian. Yet in Albania, the same type of nationalists criticize me because I am Greek… Please stop this closed, ethnocentric Orthodoxy!”

What is Urgent and Needful

In November of 1994, the Church faced one of its gravest tests when the country voted on a referendum for a new Constitution. One section of this Constitution directly affected Archbishop Anastasios, threatening to expel him from the country since he was not an Albanian national. It stated that only Albanian citizens, born in Albania, could serve as the head of a religious community. At our weekly meeting at the Metropolis with the Archbishop, we talked about how the Church would continue to function if the government expelled the Archbishop from the country. Everyone was quite nervous and feeling stressed when the Archbishop radiated his eternal peace and simply reminded us, “No matter how stressed we get during these days, and no matter how uncertain things may seem, never forget to read the Epistle and Gospel reading of the day. This is where we are going to get our strength and nourishment… What is urgent for us is to remain peaceful and prayerful. The details of what we are going to do are not urgent.”

Changing Perspectives

“It is nice to see how mentalities change within our Church,” the Archbishop shared with me after one ecumenical gathering. “I remember in the mid 1960s, when I became the first Orthodox representative to the WCC’s Commission on World Mission and Evangelism. Metropolitan Nicodim of Leningrad told me, "We Orthodox are not interested at all in this mission and evangelism agenda. We're only concerned about the Faith and Order group of the WCC. But, we voted for you because we know you're interested in this topic, and we like you." Twenty-five year later, Metropolitan Cyril of Smolensk [now Patriarch Cyril of Moscow] told me, "The theme of missions and evangelism is of central importance. We are grateful for the efforts you’ve made in this area.”

One can see this shift of emphasis in the 3^rd paragraph of the recent “Message of the Primates of the Orthodox Churches” made on October 12, 2008 in Constantinople. It states, “Inspired by the teaching and the work of the Apostle Paul, we underscore first and foremost the importance of the duty of mission for the life of the Church and in particular for the ministry of us all in accordance of the final commandment of the Lord: ‘You will be my witnesses not only in Jerusalem, but throughout Judea and Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the earth’ (Acts 1:8). The evangelization of God’s people, but also of those who don’t believe in Christ, constitutes the supreme duty of the Church. This duty must not be fulfilled in an aggressive manner, or by various forms of proselytism, but with love, humility and respect for the identity of each individual and the cultural particularity of each people. All Orthodox Churches must contribute to this missionary effort respecting the canonical order.””

It is worthy to note that the Synaxis of Primates appointed Archbishop Anastasios to chair the drafting of this document.

Women in the Church

In the new Constitution for the Church of Albania, which was approved in 2006, it is noted that a certain quota of women must be a part of all the administrative committees of the Church, except the Holy Synod. Archbishop Anastasios has always valued the role of women in the Church.

“Women have played an essential role in our Church life,” he often says. “There was a time when women stayed mainly at home, but today’s reality is quite different. Women have many unique gifts to offer, and the Church must use their gifts to glorify God. During the early years, our Resurrection of Christ Theological Academy was for men, preparing them for the priesthood. After a few years, I decided to have women attend as well, because I wanted to have theologically trained women serving the Church and using their gifts. Today, many women have graduated from our academy and play an important role in the activities of the Church. We would have achieved much less without them.”