Department for External Church Relations
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Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk meets with Primate of Albanian Orthodox Church
DECR Communication Service, 12/08/2025
On 11th August 2025, Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, arrived in Albania on a working visit with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus’.
On 12th August, Metropolitan Anthony met with His Beatitude Archbishop Joan of Tirana, Durres and All Albania. The meeting took place at the Archbishop’s official residence in Tirana.
Among the participants in the meeting were also Archpriest Nikolai Balashov, adviser to the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus’; Archpriest Igor Yakimchuk, DECR deputy chairman; and the following hierarchs of the Albanian Church: Metropolitan Anthony of Elbasan, Metropolitan Nathanail of Amantia and Bishop Anastas of Kruja.
Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk conveyed to His Beatitude Archbishop Joan brotherly greetings from His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus’ and congratulated him on his election and enthronement as Primate of the Albanian Orthodox Church, which had taken place in March this year. In a warm atmosphere, the participants in the meeting discussed at length various issues of inter-Orthodox and international relations, as well as the plight of the canonical Church in Ukraine, prospects of further cooperation between the Russian and the Albanian sisterly Churches and other topics of mutual interest.
An exchange of memorable gifts marked the conclusion of the meeting.
After that, the DECR chairman and other members of the delegation visited the Holy Resurrection Cathedral in Tirana. At the grave of Archbishop Anastasios of Albania of blessed memory, who died on 25th January this year and was buried in the crypt of the Holy Resurrection Cathedral, the members of the Russian Orthodox Church’s delegation celebrated a memorial litiya and sang “Memory Eternal” to Archbishop Anastasios.
Later that day, the DECR chairman and other delegation members met with Mr Alexei Zaytsev, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the Republic of Albania.
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