Archbishop Anastasios – Awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the Christian Academy of Warsaw.
With the message “The mission and responsibility of the Church is to connect humanity with the true God of Love”, His Beatitude Anastasios, Archbishop of Tirana and all Albania, Professor Emeritus of the National Kapodistrian University of Athens and Honorary Member of the Academy of Athens ended his speech entitled “Living in Christ in a multi-religious world community”. This speech was held during the ceremony which was organized on the occasion of his declaration as an Honorary Doctor of the Christian Theological Academy of Warsaw.
On Thursday, 6th October 2022 at noon, in the packed ceremony hall of the Christian Theological Academy in Warsaw, in the presence of religious, political and diplomatic authorities, the Senate, professors and students of the Academy, Archbishop of Tirana, Durrës and all Albania Anastasios was awarded an Honorary Doctor of the Supreme Educational Inter-Christian Foundation, following a proposal by the Archbishop of Warsaw Savva and the unanimous decision of the Holy Synod.
The Christian Theological Academy of Warsaw was founded by the state in 1954 and came from the amalgamation of the individual Lutheran, Orthodox and Old Catholic Theological Departments.
After the speech by the rector of Academy and the Archbishop of Wrocław and Szczecin, Professor Jerzy Pankowski, the reading of the praise of the honoree was delivered. The text was written by Professor George, the Academy’s partner and Metropolitan of Kitros. Then, the awarding of the insignia followed which was given to Archbishop Anastasios, already Honorary Doctor of multiple Departments of Humanities and Social Sciences in twenty-seven universities in Europe, the Middle East and the USA. His Beatitude developed the theme “Living in Christ within a multi-religious world community”.
In his speech, he said, among other things, that the views of Christians on the various religious beliefs show serious discrepancies and the theories formulated over the centuries show a very wide spectrum, from completely negative to completely affirmative views. Noting that during the most recent systematic religious research in many religions certain moral principles of universal validity have been highlighted, he underlined that “the religious experience is not limited to moral values. It rests primarily on a personal inclination towards the Transcendent. Religion is a complex and versatile set of beliefs, experiences and principles of behavior, which are related to the Sacred, the Holy and affect human existence and society.
Besides, regarding the attitude of Christians in modern society, he concluded: “To abide in God”, “to live in Christ” determines the fullness of the Christian experience. It is a relationship with the real Being, a personal love relationship with the One who is Love. Those of us who live in the multi-religious global community, along with respecting the freedom of every human person and striving for peaceful coexistence, let us not forget that His disciples must be “the light of the world” (Mat. 5:14)…
“The Church’s mission and responsibility”, Archbishop Anastasios concluded, “is to connect humanity with the true God of Love”.
