Institute of Theology

	Monday, March 13, 2000
Report on the Visit Back to Main Page

Report on the Visit:

An Apostle Has Visited us...

A missionary minded man and an apostle of love and piety: this is how one faithful described His Beatitude Archbishop Anastasios of Albania, who came on an official visit to the Patriarchate of Antioch. The visit began on Thursday March 9, 2000. The Archbishop visited first His Beatitude Ignatius IV, the Patriarch of Antioch residing in Damascus, Syria. Then, the Albanian delegation toured Syria and Lebanon, visiting the various Archdioceses of the Orthodox Church. 

On the morning of Monday, March 13, many bishops, priests, deacons and seminarians waited at the ancient gates of the Balamand Monastery to greet His Beatitude and the Albanian delegation coming from St. George Monastery in El-Hosn, Syria. After the Thanksgiving Prayer in the Church of Our Lady of Balamand, the Abbot, Archimandrite Paul Yazigi, welcomed His Beatitude in Balamand. In his reply, the Archbishop spoke about his impressions of  his visit to Syria and Lebanon, calling the Church of Antioch, "a vibrant Church."

After touring, the Balamand University and High School, the Archbishop visited the Theological School of St. John of Damascus where an official lunch was prepared in his honor. The Mayor of North Lebanon represented His Excellency, the President of Lebanon. Also present were Their Eminences, Metropolitan Elias (Kurban) of Tripoli, Elias (Aoude) of Beirut, Elias (Kfoury) of Tyre, and John (Peluci) of Korces, Albania., in addition to the President of the University and many other dignitaries. 

In the afternoon, His Beatitude gave a talk to the students on missions and evangelism. The Archbishop is perhaps the most respected missiologist and one of the main leaders responsible for a reawakening of the missionary consciousness in the Orthodox Church today.  As early as the late 1950s, he joined efforts with several other young theologians and called for Orthodox Churches worldwide to rediscover their great missionary tradition. His talk was an opportunity for the seminarians to see and hear directly from an Orthodox missionary how to preach the Gospel in today's world.

Following the talk, His Beatitude presided over the Great Compline service celebrated at a parish in nearby Amioun, El-Koura, where many faithful came to take his blessing. In his homily, he spoke about repentance. The next day, the Albanian delegation departed to visit first the Archdiocese of Mount Lebanon, and then the Archdiocese of Beirut.. On Thursday, March 16, His Beatitude returned to Albania. 

The faithful of the Church of Antioch were touched by the Archbishop's spiritual presence among them. They echoed, "An Apostle has visited us..."

Program of the Visit to North Lebanon

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