Archbishop of Tirana and All Albania Joanis participated with an address at the 1st International Conference “Albania in the Byzantine Period”, held in Tirana on December 5-6, 2025. In his address titled “From Illyricum to Byzantium and to the Present Day: The Church as a Living Bridge of Faith and Civilization”, Archbishop Joanis spoke about the presence of Christianity in Albanian lands since the apostolic era, the significance of Via Egnatia and Durrës as a point of contact between East and West, the transfer of Illyricum from Rome to the Patriarchate of Constantinople (732-733), the Purple Codex of Berat, the contribution of Saint John Koukouzelis to Byzantine music, the role of medieval Albanian dynasties in preserving Christian tradition, as well as the revival of the Church after 1991 under the guidance of the late Archbishop Anastasios.
