The Orthodox Youth of Albania on the 22 November 2013 joined the initiative of Green Line Albanian, “Let’s Clean Albania in One Day”, based upon the voluntary work of citizens of our country. About 220 young people from the Orthodox Dioceses of Tirana, Berat, Korça, and from the ecclesiastical schools, such as “Protagonist” in Tirana, the Lyceum “Holy Cross” in Sukth – Durrës, the Theological Academy in St. Vlash – Durrës; in total eleven youth groups, who were motivated by the desire for a cleaner environment, cleaned and organized different locations initially around their churches and then in other sites of their cities and villages.This action by the youth was followed by the removal of various wastes, soil, hazardous waste, plastic or glass, etc., enabling these places to return to purity.
The Orthodox Autocephalous Church of Albania has always been ready to contribute to such initiatives for the protection of the environment. For some years now many Orthodox youth, pupils or students, have been trained and funded through its youth programs to protect the environment with the motto “Our Common Home”. The youth groups were helped financially for this event by our Church’s Social Office, “Diakonia Agapes” with all the materials and tools necessary to accomplish the ultimate goal: collecting, packing in special bags and gathering the garbage in specific locations in order to be transported to the recycling centers.
This highly productive initiative reminds us that, as responsible members of the community in which we live, we must always be stewards of the creation that God, the Creator of the Universe, gave us. It is not enough only to live in it and to possess it, but we must also be stewards of it.
God bless the efforts of the young people and we wish that in the future all will participate in such actions again, even more frequently, for the benefit of the environment, our common home.
Joan Meni
