“A candle in front of the Savior” p. 6: Forging ahead

   “Now they are subject to another propaganda – the idea that status in society equals having money. The new system says that the more money you have, the more important you are. But without of love and sacrifice, people become wild animals. Today, without religious communities, there is no hope. Otherwise they cannot understand sacrifice motivated by love, by belief in Christ. It is a pity so many are held captive by the belief that happiness comes from money. Young people must know there is something more behind life. Now when such people look at those who are living sacrificial lives, they assume the other person is getting some secret material benefit. Often they imagine our helpers from other countries are making more money assisting us here than they would in their home country! Otherwise why would they be here? But finally they begin to see that our helpers give up a great deal in coming to Albania – that the motive is not at all financial. In some cases this discovery gives young Albanians the motivation to stay here.
   “I often ask people I meet, ‘What would you like to do?’ And often the answer is, ‘Emigrate!’ They don’t say what they want to do – only that they want to leave. At the present time there about half-a-million Albanians in Greece alone, all arriving in the last decade, some going legally, many illegally. There are so many Albanians in other countries, in many cases not happy where they are, but thinking they have no alternative. Some of them are trying to help those who remain here. Of course often they are tempted to leave as so many of their friends have done. They ask me, ‘What about the future?’ I say let us look at the present. Let us do our duty without the future, without success, only doing whatever is an expression of love of one for the other. Everything else is in God’s hands.”
   Still another dimension of the Church’s task is to teach forgiveness.
   “This begins within the Church in the way we respond to those who, in the Communist period, denied or betrayed the Church. Especially in earlier years, I was sometimes asked, what do we do when such people want to rejoin the Church after having been apostates? Our response must be to forgive and receive them back, not to turn anyone away. This is Christ’s response – ‘Whoever come to me, I will not deny.’ However difficult it is, we must be willing to forgive and forget. There can be no true forgiveness without forgetting.”
   There have been several other area of development in bringing the Church fully back to life. “We started a radio station and newspaper, both called Ngjallja – Resurrection. The newspaper is monthly, the radio station is on the air 24 hours a day. It broadcasts a mixture of spiritual programs, music, news and other programming. There is now a children’s hour. The next step is to set up an antenna that will bring broadcasts to the southern part of the country. Also we have a center just outside Tirana called Nazareth where icon painting and restoration are taught. In the same building there are also a printing house and a candle factory. The sale of candles provides local parishes with a steady source of income. Also we have restored and enlarged the Metropolia in Tirana – all our projects are based there or at a smaller building not far away. There are also Metropolia in Korca and Gjirokaster.”
   He sees as another area of activity for the Church developing projects to foster local environmental responsibility.
   “This year, we started and environmental protection program which includes training 15 post-graduate students who have completed degrees in biology and forest or environmental engineering. They will set up programs to protect the eco-system in three areas of Albania. We are even establishing garbage management programs in two cities. Part of the vocation of the parish is to keep the village, town and city clean. We are preparing a major clean-up in one of the cities – perhaps in Durres. In so many places you see heaps, if not mountains, of garbage. If your neighbor makes a mess, you don’t bother to clean it – you add your garbage to his garbage. We need to inspire the idea of a clean environment. Albania used to have it but it was imposed by a police state. Now it is not imposed but needs to be chosen.
   “What is necessary is that in all areas of life the Church should be present – health care, ecology, education – all those things which are essential to civilization. In each area of life we must implant a spiritual dimension. Culture is more than technology! Most of all it is respect for the dignity of people. Culture requires respect for God’s creation. Where it exists, there is beauty.” 
   He paused to reflect on the importance of foreign volunteers in the work the Church is doing in Albania. So far they come mainly from Greece and the United States, some here continually over a period of years, perhaps teaching in the seminary or taking key roles in church projects, others coming from time to time for specific tasks, like the architect Eva Papapetrou from Athens.
   “Among our biggest blessings are the gifted people who have come to assist us, though it is not in every case a success. All who offer their services want to help, but not all who come are able to cope with the problems of daily life in Albania. It is not easy being here! We cannot romanticize it. Not everyone has the necessary patience. There are others who are 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 is not flowing. First they need to learn not why some people leave – that’s easy enough to understand – but why so many people stay even though they could easily emigrate.”
   One crucial dimension of life for the archbishop is helping maintain good relations between the several religious communities. During my stay there was a visit with national leaders of the Moslem community – “part of the normal rhythm of my life”, he explained, “and not only since arriving in Albania”.
   “During my long journey I have learned one must always respect the other and regard no one as an enemy. At first it was a surprise to the Moslem leaders, but I always visit them on holidays and other occasions. We must help each other for the sake of our communities. Tolerance is not enough – there must be respect and cooperation. If we turn our backs on each other, only atheism benefits. We also have to meet with respect those who have no belief.”
   There are similar visits with Catholic bishops, clergy and lay people. Archbishop Anastasios helped welcome Mother Teresa when, in her old age, the Albanian-born nun was able to visit post-Communist Albania. It pleases him that one of the main streets in Tirana has been renamed in her honor and a postage stamp in current use is graced with her portrait. (While visiting the Orthodox Church’s Annunciation Clinic in Tirana, I happened to meet one of the sisters from Mother Theresa’s community, the Missionary Sisters of Charity. The city’s Orthodox and Catholic cathedrals are nearly side by side.)
   Interfaith dialogue, he pointed out, is not simply exchanges of words. “It helped being in the World Council of Churches’ committee for dialogue with other religions, but what we did was academic. Here you learn that often the best dialogue is in silence – it is love without arguments.”
   His task, he has discovered, is not only to lead the Orthodox Church in Albania. 
   “You must bear in mind that Albania has had very little experience of being an independent country and even less experience of freedom. The Albanian state was created in 1912-13. Then there were 25 years of trying to build up that state in the poorest country in Europe. There was no creation of culture – the conditions for culture were absent.
   “By European standards, Albania is in many ways a very primitive society. Killing here is not something rare – it easily happens that someone ‘disappears’. There are complex rules of revenge that are still operative in many places. In such a setting it is necessary to think in larger terms, about social development as a whole, to think not in terms of decades but centuries. We must think not about luxuries but necessities and endurance. We must think what it means to be free.
   “A passport does not give freedom. We were under captivity. We are taught to be a slave of self, a slave of ideology. If God does not free us, 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 Himself. 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. I was free part of yesterday.”
   Democracy was originally a Greek idea. Perhaps it should not be surprising that a Greek bishop is not only a Christian missionary but a missionary of democracy.
   “Part of my vocation here is to encourage fermentation in the society. We must ask the question how can Albania become a truly democratic society? Democracy is a complex phenomenon. It cannot be just one party which happens to be in power imposing its will. It is more than coming to power via elections. Democracy means respect for truth, respect for the other. It means not confusing words and slogans with reality. It means not thinking your violence is good, their violence is a crime. Words change but unfortunately the syntax remains as it was. We suffer from a vacuum of values and from a very rough form of capitalism – the capitalism you meet in Oliver Twist.”