Not all Albania's calamities occurred before the end of the rigid Communism in 1991. In 1997, Albania was plunged into anarchy after the collapse of pyramid investment schemes into which many Albanian had risked and lost their life savings. "The country was on the verge of civil war", Archbishop Anastasios recalled. "It was a full disaster revealing all the fear and violence that
In January 1991, one month after the government in Tirana had allowed the formation of non-Communist political parties and two months after his 61st birthday, Archbishop Anastasios received a telephone call from Patriarch Dimitrios in Istanbul asking if he would be willing to go to Albania as Exarch to see what if anything was left of the Orthodox Church? It was at the time
Archbishop Anastasios has a white beard and moustache. Mainly bald, what hair he has retained is silver. His glasses have tortoise-shell frames with gold stems and exceptionally thick lenses, though what you notice most of all is the twinkle in his welcoming brown eyes. His words are often echoed by hand gestures. While he never seems to hurry, he leads a busy life, as
For the first half of the 20th century, the Orthodox Church was relatively inactive in missions. The great missionary efforts of the Russian Church came to a close as the communist curtain placed the church in bondage. Meanwhile, the Orthodox Churches of the Balkans struggled to overcome the effects of the previous five centuries of Muslim subjugation. Although the Orthodox lands of Greece, Romania,
Over the past thirty years, the impact and influence of Anastasios Yannoulatos cannot be overstated. As a young theologian in the 1950s, he had a vision to rekindle the missionary spirit of the Orthodox Church. Forty years later, it is clear he has achieved his goal. Indeed, missions truly has become part of the basic life of 20th century Orthodoxy. As the Archbishop notes
A new challenge confronted Bishop Anastasios with the coming of a new decade. In January 1991, the Patriarchate of Constantinople elected Anastasios to go to Albania as "Patriarchal Exarch" with the mandate to contact Orthodox people irrespective of their ethnic origin and re-establish the Orthodox Autocephalous Church of Albania. The Orthodox Church in Albania had been decimated after forty years of the most severe
Back in the 1960s, when Yannoulatos first fell ill to malaria, his doctors told him that he would never be able to work overseas as a missionary. The providence of God spoke differently. In 1980, the Orthodox Church of East Africa faced great difficulties. The region had been the most active Orthodox mission field in the world over the past two decades. The church’s
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.
This understanding of the importance of external missions for the church filled the heart of Yannoulatos. Following his ordination to the diaconate in 1960, Yannoulatos founded the inter-Orthodox mission center "Porefthentes". The goal of this center was to educate the church in the area of missions, as well as to motivate and send missionaries throughout the world. Yannoulatos himself planned on becoming a
Anastasios Yannoulatos was born November 4, 1929 to a pious Orthodox family in Greece. Raised in the faith, he actively participated in the church during his formative years. His first interest was in mathematics and throughout his teenage years Yannoulatos considered pursuing a career in this science. His views changed with the coming of World War II. During the war years, Yannoulatos began to
