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.
    “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.
    “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)”. 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.
    “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.

Post Views: 306