Meeting The Orthodox Archbishop of Tirana and All-Albania, +Anastasi.

His Eminence +Anastasi

By Uncle Monty

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At Kisha Katedrale Evangjelizmoit

(Ungjillezimit) or the National Cathedral

of the Albanian Autocephalous Orthodox

Church at Tirana, I was indeed privileged

to meet with the Archbishop of Tirana and

All-Albania, +Anastasi, after the Sunday

morning's elaborate and fascinating

Orthodox Service, which I attended

as an informal Anglican observer.

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Bishop Anthony at the Cathedral arranged

for me to meet with, and to take photographs

of, His Eminence immediately at the service

that was packed with the Orthodox faithful

of at least a 1,000 worshipers. On meeting

His Eminence, he was so friendly and he had

met just recently with England's Archbishop

of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams. The

worldwide Anglican Communion not only

recognises the head of the Albanian Church

to which Patriarch-Metropoltian +Anastasi

heads and presides, but it also actively sup-

ports interfaith communion with Tirana's

Orthodox Episcopacy. And, wisely so.

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Speaking softly and clearly in English, the

Albanian Archbishop couldn't have been

nicer toward me and he was well aware of

Anglicanism and he was delighted to meet

me and for me to take a set of photographs

of him for my blog. I have for now uploaded

one of the five images that includes His Em-

inence with I and one of his young acolytes

who was encouraged to be part of the pic-

ture taking session as it unfolded inside the

Cathedral that is located on Rruga e Kavajes

at the heart of downtown Tirana with its

population of almost one million. This is my

fourth day inside of Albania, which I am

enjoying considerably and especially after

my personal encounter with His Eminence

and his faithful clergy here.

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As for the Sunday service, all I can say

is that it was visually stunning with the

Patriarch in all his episcopal vestment,

and his Bishops, Archimandrites, Priests,

and Archmonks all partaking in the pro-

found and extremely colourful and moving

Orthodox liturgy that lasted for almost three

hours with its 24-member mixed choir sing-

ing anthems and praise throughout the

solemn Eucharist. Many folks stood for the

whole service, while others sat contentedly

in prayer or silence. Unlike other orthodox

churches, I noticed there was no separation

between male and female church members

of the Albanian Autocephalous Orthodox

rite and rituals. Parishioners, unlike in the

English and American Churches, are not

given hymn books to sing from or to

collectively sing in unison with the choir.

Rather it is the sole role of the choir to sing

throughtout the service and not the con-

gregration.

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Two other things that struck me this morning

were seeing the neatly lined beggars at the

Cathedral gate with little toddlers and very

elderly women sitting on the ground and

seeking alms and gifts from the arriving

and departing parishioners. I was more

than glad to give something to at least a

couple of the 10 to 15 truly poor folkz

gathered there. We have a moral and

spiritual_obligation to give something of

what we have to others who are in greater

need of help than us. "We do not live by

bread alone,"-so we are taught biblically

as Christians. We degrade not only those

who we do not give to when we can, but

we also degrade ourselves as humanbe-

ings, I believe, if we fail or refuse to help

others when we can. The saying, "Where

there is room in the heart, there is room

in the house," is also true of giving.

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The other thing that struck me inside

the cathedral itself was upon seeing the

faithful there take their hand to the

ground and make signs of the cross with

their finger(s) before also doing the same

across their chest or near their chin. I

had never before seen worshipers do that

in any other religion that I'd witnessed

outside of my own Anglican faith. In-

deed, Anglicanism looks to be very

plain and uncolourful and quite un-

ritualistic, which of course it is, com-

pared to those of Albanian Orthodoxy.

With the magnificent icons of religious

iconology everywhere at the Tirana Or-

thodox Cathedral, it would be hard to

ignore the richness and pageantry I wit-

nessed and absorbed like a cleansing and

uplifting spirit as a plain and simple Anglican.

I am greatly attracted to the beauty and

solemnity I see in Orthodox Christianity. If

I were ever to convert from Anglicanism,

I would turn to Eastern or Western

Orthodoxy.

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I will have alot more to write about my

fascinating stay here at Albania's capital

and elsewhere at Elbasanit and Dajti.

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Please Note:

My domain thebiggerissue.org ex-

pired while here in Tirana. I'm pleased

to say it is now back online after more

than 9 days being down due to my domain

being accidentally unrenewed. So with the

many e-mails wondering irately what had

happened to me and my domain and not then

being able to access my blog, all seems now

thankfully back to normal. You can

always access my blog, too, thru:

http://www.thebiggerissueorg.blogspot.com/

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Greeting to you all from sunny

and hot Albania, Uncle Monty.

+Low Sunday, 2oo8.