NewsBulletin
"Christ is Risen!"
Easter Proclamation in the streets of Tirana News From
Orthodoxy in Albania
Occasional Publication of the Orthodox Autocephalous Church of Albania
Number 11 – April 28, 1999
Articles included in this issue:
Church Offers Emergency Response to Kosova Crisis
A Simple, Deep Cry of the Orthodox Church
Bringing Easter Joy in the Midst of Suffering
National Televised Easter Address
And the Rain Continues…An Albanian Journal
Orthodox Church Offers Emergency Response to Kosova Crisis
The Orthodox Autocephalous Church of Albania, with the initiative and continuous concern of His Beatitude Archbishop Anastasios, is responding to the tragedy of the Kosova refugees. As of April 21, 1999, the Albanian Government estimates that approximately 350,000 Kosova refugees have flooded into Albania. The Orthodox Church's social, development and relief office of Diaconia Agapes is working together with the ACT (Action by Churches Together) Network to provide a large scale emergency response to the suffering people. The ACT appeal will provide this effort with more than $10 million (US) for the initial six month period from April 1–September 30, 1999.
The Orthodox Church is involved in a diverse work to face this crisis. Immediate distribution of emergency aid is the first aspect. In response to direct pleas by national and local government officials, more than 220 metric tons of ready-to-eat food has already been distributed to refugees in Kukes, Pogradec, Korça, Tirana, Durres, Mullet, Gjirokaster, Saranda, Delvina and other areas.
The second aspect of the relief program will be to establish refugee camps to care for approximately 15,000 persons. Preparation of two camp sites has already begun. The third aspect of the program will be to assist host families housing refugees. The initial goal is to offer aid to 6,000 families (approximately 36,000 beneficiaries) in six prefectures throughout Albania.
In order to execute this challenging project, Miss Penny Panayiota Deligiannis is serving as the director of the program. Diaconia Agapes will hire and train an estimated 90-person Albanian staff. Many European and North American Churches and agencies are financially supporting and working as a part of the ACT/DA Team. Also, many friends from Greece continue to offer aid.
In addition, the Orthodox Church is assisting pregnant Kosovar women. In Tirana, the two maternity hospitals call the Church daily requesting aid for newborns. The Church has provided 80 families with clothing and supplies for mothers and newborns. Orthodox Church groups in Tirana, Durres, Korca and other cities are offering aid to the refugees by packaging and distributing food parcels for refugees housed by local Albanian families. Along with the students of the Resurrection of Christ Orthodox Theological Academy, these Orthodox Church groups continue to volunteer at the various refugee camps.
A Simple, Deep Cry of the Orthodox Autocephalous Church of Albania
"We wholeheartedly participate in the pain of those who are suffering because of injustice and violence due to the crisis in Kosova. We are not in a position to make eloquent speeches or easy statements in this extremely difficult situation. But, interceding daily "for those who hate us and those who love us," we humbly pray to the God of truth and love to perform His miracle so that peace and justice prevail over our troubled area. We have already helped on a large scale and are continuously working to the best of our ability for the relief of the refugees of the conflict who take refuge in Albania."
The Holy Synod of the Orthodox Autocephalous Church of Albania
March 29, 1999
The Orthodox Autocephalous Church of Albania celebrated its Holy Week and Easter services in a unique way this year. As the Church liturgically participated in the suffering passion and radiant joy of our Lord’s final days, she also witnessed Christ’s suffering and resurrection in the faces of a hurting humanity all around her.
On April 10, His Beatitude Archbishop Anastasios missed the traditional Holy Saturday morning Service for the first time in his life as he traveled by helicopter to the northern town of Kukes to assess the desperate refugee situation. Earlier in the week the Orthodox Church had delivered emergency food aid to this region, as well as sent shipments to various other cities overwhelmed by refugees. By midday, the Archbishop visited a possible sight for a refugee camp near Durres which the Church is establishing. And at midnight, Archbishop Anastasios was in Tirana once again sharing his Easter message of hope to the thousands of believers gathered around the Church. Offering hope in the midst of despair is the main message the Orthodox Church has tried to extend during these difficult days surrounding Easter.
In addition to the emergency relief work, the Church also continued her normal philanthropic ministries.The women’s group of Tirana prepared and delivered more than 565 10 kg Easter food packages for poor families throughout the capital city. They also delivered packages for 230 families of orphans in Tirana and Elbasan, as well as took special medicines to 36 burn victims in the hospitals.
Various Church groups continued their weekly visits to home-bound sick people, hospitals, a school for the blind, as well as the central men’s and women’s prison in Tirana. The week after Easter they delivered 150 food parcels to all the prisoners.In Korça, Metropolitan John organized a special Easter lamb dinner for more than 100 of the poorest people of the city. This meal was in addition to the normal Church Soup Kitchen which feeds approximately 70 people four times a week.
Easter activities also included the traditional Sunday reception at the Tirana Archdiocesan House, where Archbishop Anastasios received visits from the President of the Republic, His Excellency Rexhep Meidani, Prime Minister Pandeli Majko, the chairman of Parliament, Skender Gjinushi, and many other political representatives, including the main opposition leader ex-president Sali Berisha. Diplomatic leaders from theinternational community came, including the United States, Russian and Greek Ambassadors. Representatives from the Muslim, Bektashi and Roman Catholic religious communities also offered best wishes.
Nationally Televised Easter Address
In his Easter address, which was shown live on national television, and repeated twice the following day, Archbishop Anastasios proclaimed, "This is the day which the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad! Although these words may sound strange in the midst of war and various manifestations of death, we celebrate Easter this year and draw courage from Christ’s victory upon injustice and death, while exchanging the greeting of joy, "Christ is Risen!"
Observing Easter in the midst of this tragic situation, we wholeheartedly share in the pain of those who suffer from injustice and violence due to the Kosova crisis. Everyday we pray "for those who hate us and those who love us," interceding to the God of truth and love that His miracle of righteousness and peace will quickly prevail during this troubled period.
The joy of Easter is experienced independent of favorable or unfavorable surroundings, and even in the midst of poverty, illness, displacement, war and uncertainty. It is from within, something invincible. And we have immediate need of it just now when all attempt to suffocate us with the stench of hell. This joy multiplies the moment it offers love where hatred overflows, hope where desperation dominates.Let us live, therefore, the jubilation of our Church, even if we are oppressed by tyrannical problems and anxieties. Christ is Risen! A Joyful Pascha for all, with an eager offering of love and cheerful endurance."
Part of the Easter service, and an interview with Archbishop Anastasios on the relief effort of the Orthodox Church in Albania were broadcast on CBS News, one of the major American news broadcasts, as well as on the national Danish television.
And the Rain Continues . . .
Albanian Journal on the Kosovar Crisis
April 13, 1999 – Fr. Luke Veronis
It's pouring down rain, and has been damp and cold the last few days. I just keep thinking about the refugees and how they endure such conditions. Or a more poignant question is how do the children and infants survive? Obviously, some don't.
Yesterday we visited one of the main refugee camps in Tirana with Archbishop Anastasios. The Orthodox Church was delivering several tons of bread and child-ren's milk to the camp. This was only a small part of the more than 150 metric tons which have been delivered so far by our church to various camps and cities. What a joy to see aid being delivered, but I must admit that overall the visit depressed me. The camp is a city of mud. Just to walk in between the 200 tents, one risks slipping upon the slick mud. And the tents have no floors. Imagine, sleeping in army tents with 8-12 people inside, and only pieces of cardboard boxes as a make-shift floor. As soon as one walks outside, mud covers their shoes.
In addition to such conditions, this refugee camp houses approximately 2,000 people, and they have only four showers for women and four showers for men. The camp administration is in the process of building other showers, but many of these people have already passed two weeks without a shower. TWO WEEKS under filthy conditions without showers. Mud everywhere. 8-15 people in a tent.
I'm not sure this is the worst situation. We've developed a friendship with one Kosovar family. The parents, Zef and Violtsa, with their sons Emanuel and Mihal, fled Kosova when Mihal was only two days old. They walked four hours by foot across the border, then caught a bus down to Tirana. Violtsa didn't eat for two days, and thus didn't have milk to give Mihal. When they finally arrived in Tirana, they went straight to the hospital. Mihal was four days old by then. There, my wife Faith met her while delivering clothing to the Kosovar women who recently gave birth. (The Tirana hospitals call Faith every time a Kosovar woman gives birth, and our Church provides clothing and supplies to the babies and women. We've now delivered 80 care packages.)
Anyway, when we took them to their refugee camp, which is on the outskirts of Tirana, we discovered that they were housed in an old army barrack together with 117 other people. All in one big room. Fifty or so bunk beds lined up side by side. One hundred and seventeen people in one room with many children and numerous infants. The mattresses were old Albanian army mattresses. Just imagine the sanitary conditions. They even had the added concern of finding two snakes in the barracks the first night. Although another Orthodox missionary couple, Nathan and Lynette Hoppe, offered to keep Violtsa and her family in their home, they preferred to stay together with their entire extended family.
Too many Kosovar families are separated and have difficulty finding one another.
Tonight we visited Violtsa in the hospital once again. She just returned last night because her 10-day-old Mihal has caught a serious cold from the dampness of the camp. She told me that the roof was leaking these last days, and everything has become so filthy inside the barracks. Imagine 117 people in one room.
Aren't children always the ones to suffer the most in any tragedy or war. They are the most helpless. And yet the most innocent.
And the rain continues.
Historical archive bulletin. Source: http://www.orthodoxalbania.org:80/nb11.html — Wayback 20001001011314.