This post was originally published on this site
On March 17, 2025, His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon sent a letter of Congratulations to His Eminence Archbishop John, newly elected as Archbishop of Tirana, Durrës, and All Albania.
Your Eminence, dear brother and concelebrant in the Lord’s Mysteries,
I write to congratulate you on your election as Archbishop of Tirana, Durrës, and All Albania.
The calling to primatial ministry is always humbling, both because the primatial office is lofty and because primatial responsibilities are heavy. That your predecessor, His Beatitude Archbishop Anastasios of blessed memory, carried out his ministry with so much faithfulness, so much zeal, so much love, only underscores the greatness of the task set before you.
I am confident, however, that, as you accept the primacy of the Albanian Orthodox Church from the hand of Christ himself, you can always rely on the example and instruction of your departed predecessor and teacher, as well as the experience and intercessions of all the holy hierarchs and all the saints. Finally, please be assured of my prayers for you, my brother, as you assume the Archepiscopal Throne of Tirana, Durrës, and All Albania.
I pray for you, and I pray that the good relations between the Albanian Orthodox Church and the Orthodox Church in America might remain strong and, indeed, grow stronger in the years to come, as we always seek to find areas for cooperation for the sake of the proclamation of the Gospel and the building up of the unity of the Holy Orthodox Church.
Once more, please accept my fraternal love and congratulations, and may God grant you many blessed years as the Archbishop of All Albania.
Your brother in Christ,
+Tikhon
Archbishop of Washington
Metropolitan of All America and Canada
