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His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon greeted His Beatitude Archbishop Anastasios of Tirana, Durres, and All Albania on the occasion of the 28th anniversary of his enthronement.
August 2, 2020
Protocol 08/002
Your Beatitude, Dear Brother and Concelebrant in the Lord’s Mysteries,
I greet you this day on the occasion of the 28th anniversary of your enthronement as Archbishop of Tirana, Durres, and Albania. Many years, Your Beatitude!
The path appointed to you in this life has not been one of worldly ease. Putting your trust neither in princes nor in sons of men, you put your hope in the Almighty God as a young man and embarked on a lifelong voyage of missionary labors. After spending many years in east Africa, you were elected and enthroned to lead the newly revived Orthodox Church of Albania.
In Albania, in the face of various challenges and temptations, you led the effort to make our Lord Jesus Christ present for the Albanian people, using their language and embracing their culture. Yet beyond these external elements, you have worked tirelessly to instill, through your example, that the Christian life consists of constant communion with Christ in silence, thought, word, deed, prayer, and the Holy Eucharist. You have taught not just the Albanians, but indeed, Christians worldwide, that as emissaries of Christ, we Christians must not be concerned so much with “what we will DO, but how we will BE a living witness to the presence of the Lord in the world” (“Orthodoxy and Mission”). In our Orthodox Church in America, where we have been using the local language and accepting elements of the local culture for some time, we now make efforts to be examples of this interior Christian life of communion with Christ, by your prayers!
Praying for your good health and continuing ministry in our Lord, I remain,
Sincerely Yours in Christ,
+ Tikhon
Archbishop of Washington
Metropolitan of All America and Canada
