Alexandria, Egypt; Tirana, Albania, January 27, 2022
Abp. Anastasios of Albania (left), Met. Gregory of Cameroon (right). Photo: oukraniko.blogspot.com
In his report to the Holy Synod of the Alexandrian Patriarchate on the issue of the Russian Exarchate in Africa, Metropolitan Gregory of Cameroon takes aim at His Beatitude Archbishop Anastasios of Albania, who he accuses of blasphemy.
The head of the Albanian Church is standing his ground however, stating simply that his stance on the Ukrainian crisis and related matters has been well known since 2019 and hasn’t changed.
Abp. Anastasios, who doesn’t recognize the so-called “Orthodox Church of Ukraine,” has continually emphasized the need for a pan-Orthodox council. And on January 8, in the wake of the creation of the Russian Exarchate in Africa, he issued another statement reemphasizing the urgent need for a council, given that the schism is expanding, as he correctly predicted it would several years ago.
Although the Archbishop explicitly says that “a new schism is being created in the sensitive African continent,” referring to the Russian Synod’s decision as “divisive activity,” his statement was read by certain Constantinople-aligned sources as being too pro-Russian.
The Orthodox Times, which is funded by the same U.S. State Department that openly acknowledges that it worked together with the Patriarchate of Constantinople to create the “Orthodox Church of Ukraine,” reported that Abp. Anastasios didn’t condemn the Russian Church, “but on the contrary, ‘justifie[d]’ this decision as a result of the ‘ecclesiastical crisis in Ukraine.’”
Met. Gregory of Cameroon reads Abp. Anastasios’ statement in a similar way. In the report he presented to the Alexandrian Synod on January 10, he argues that the Albanian primate has put the Alexandrian and Moscow Patriarchates on equal footing in Africa, as just two possible Patriarchates for the people to choose from, the only problem being that they aren’t presently in communion with one another.
Having read the Archbishop this way, for Met. Gregory it’s unbelievable that such a thing could be uttered by a hierarch, and “such an inappropriate, if not blasphemous statement shouldn’t go unanswered.”
Abp. Anastasios responded to such statements and reports yesterday with a statement from the Holy Archdiocese of Tirana, which reads simply:
The Archdiocese of Tirana clarifies that the views of His Beatitude Archbishop Anastasios of Tirana and All Albania on the ecclesiastical issues of Ukraine and Africa have been clearly stated in his texts, which have been responsibly with a sense of responsibility from 2019 until recently.
Any other interpretive effort, selective use, addition, and distortion of his positions do not correspond to reality.
In an interview also published yesterday, His Eminence Metropolitan Anthony of Boryspil, Chancellor of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, recalls what he was told by Abp. Anastasios during a recent meeting.
“At the end of our meeting, he said to me these words: ‘Vladyka, I see how you (meaning our Church) are enduring these difficulties, with what hope in God, with peace in your soul, without aggression.’ And then he said: ‘I know a little bit of history. And I’m sure that you will triumph,’” Met. Anthony recalled.
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