Friday marks the 30-year anniversary of the election of then Bishop and missionary Anastasios to the throne of the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Albania, under the ecclesiastical title of Archbishop of Tirana, Durres and All Albania.
On June 24, 1992 members of the Sacred and Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople announced the election of a new Archbishop for the tormented Church of Albania, which had been outlawed in 1967 by the Hoxha regime in the Adriatic country, one of the most oppressive and paranoid communist dictatorships of the latter half of the 20th century.
Since 1992 Orthodoxy has again blossomed in the ancient land, showcasing a wide-ranging social, charitable and spiritual body of works, all overseen by its pastoral shepherd, Archbishop Anastasios.