Albanian Orthodox Church
The Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Albania, commonly known as the Albanian Orthodox Church or the Orthodox Church of Albania, is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox church. It declared its autocephaly in 1922 through its Congress of 1922, and gained recognition from the Patriarch of Constantinople in 1937.
The church suffered during the Second World War, and in the communist period that followed, especially after 1967 when Albania was declared an atheist state, and no public or private expression of religion was allowed.
The church has, however, seen a revival since religious freedom was restored in 1991, with more than 250 churches restored or rebuilt, and more than 100 clergy being ordained. It has 909 parishes spread all around Albania, and around 500,000 to 550,000 faithful. The number is claimed to be as high as 700,000 by some Orthodox sources – and higher when considering the Albanian diaspora.
History
The Christian religious vocabulary of Albanian is mostly Latin, including terms such "to bless", "altar," and "to receive communion". It indicates that Albanians were Christianized under the Latin-based liturgy and ecclesiastical order which became known as "Roman Catholic" in later centuries. Ecclesiastically, Christians in Albania, as part of the province of Illyricum, were under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome. From 732 to 733 AD the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of Illyricum was transferred to the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. The Great Schism of 1054 formalized the split of Christianity into two branches, Catholicism and Orthodoxy, which was reflected in Albania through the emergence of a Catholic north and Orthodox south.Orthodox Church during the Ottoman Period
The official recognition of the Eastern Orthodox Church by the Porte resulted in the Orthodox population being tolerated until the late 18th century. The Orthodox population of Albania was integrated into the Patriarchate of Constantinople, with the population of central and south-eastern Albania being under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Orthodox Archbishopric of Ohrid, and the population of south-western Albania being under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Metropolis of Ioannina.During the late 18th century, the poverty of the Orthodox Church, the illiterate clergy, a lack of clergy in some areas, liturgy in a language other than Albanian and the reliance of the bishoprics of Durrës and southern Albania upon the declining Archbishopric of Ohrid, due in part to simony, weakened the faith among the church's adherents and reduced the ability for Orthodox Albanians to resist conversion to Islam.
By the mid-19th century, due to the Tanzimat reforms which imposed mandatory military service on non-Muslims, the Orthodox Church lost adherents as the majority of Albanians became Muslim.
Movement for establishing an autocephalous Albanian Orthodox Church
In the 19th century, Orthodox Albanians under the Patriarchate of Constantinople had liturgy and schooling in Greek, which was also the lingua franca in the South, and in the late Ottoman period their political thinking was divided: although most Orthodox Christians wished for the end of Ottoman rule, some of them - especially the upper class - desired to be part of a Greek state, some sought Greek-Albanian cooperation and a Greek-Albanian federation state or dual monarchy, and some who sought Albanian statehood. For Orthodox Albanians, Albanianism was closely associated with Hellenism, linked through the faith of Orthodoxy. However, during the Eastern crisis this premise was rejected by some Albanian Orthodox christians, because of the growing competition between the Albanian and Greek national movements over parts of Epirus. These issues also generated a reaction against Greek nationalists that drove the Albanian desire to stress a separate cultural identity.The religious division among Albanians meant that Albanian nationalism could not be based on religion and instead Albanian nationalism as it developed tended to promote interreligious cooperation, from the point of its inception in the writings of Naum Veqilharxhi. Although the Orthodox were a minority among Albanians, the Albanian nationalist movement began among the Orthodox, and subsequently spread to other religious communities among Albanians. Orthodox Albanians especially in the diaspora and from Korçë and its nearby regions began to affiliate with the movement by working together with Muslim Albanians regarding shared socio-geopolitical Albanian interests and aims, causing concerns for Greece because it threatened the aspirations to incorporate Epirus into Greece, and because those Greeks who sought an Albanian-Greek confederation took a negative view of other foreign influences among Albanians. Although Greek schools were for a while the only way Orthodox children could become educated and at Greek schools children where they were exposed to Greek nationalism, Orthodox Albanians would instead come to play an active and often leading role in the Albanian national independence movement, often at great cost to themselves and their families.
At the onset of the twentieth century, the idea to create an Albanian Orthodoxy or an Albanian expression of Orthodoxy emerged in the diaspora at a time when the Orthodox were increasingly being assimilated by the Patriarchate and Greece through the sphere of politics. As Orthodoxy was associated with the Greek identity, the rise of the movement caused confusion for Orthodox Albanians as it interrupted the formation of a Greek national consciousness. The Orthodox Albanian community had individuals such as Jani Vreto, Spiro Dine and Fan Noli involved in the national movement, of which some advocated for an Albanian Orthodoxy in order to curtail the Hellenisation process occurring amongst Orthodox Albanians. In 1905, priest Kristo Negovani introduced Albanian liturgy for Orthodox worship in his native Negovan for the first time, for which he was murdered by Greek andartes on behalf from Bishop Karavangelis of Kastoria, leading to the retaliatory murder of the Metropolitan of Korçë, Photios, who opposed the Albanian national movement. In 1907, Orthodox Albanian immigrant Kristaq Dishnica was refused funeral services in the United States by a local Orthodox Greek priest for being an Albanian involved in nationalist activities. Known as the Hudson incident, it galvanised the emigre Orthodox Albanian community to form the Albanian Orthodox Church under Fan Noli who hoped to counter Greek irredentism.
On March 18, 1908, as a result of the Hudson incident, Fan Noli was ordained as a priest by Russian bishop Platon in the United States. Noli conducted the Orthodox liturgy for the first time among the Albanian-American community in Albanian. Noli also devoted his efforts toward translating the liturgy into Albanian and emerging as a leader of the Orthodox Albanian community in the US. In 1911 he visited the Orthodox Albanian diasporas in Romania, Ukraine and Bulgaria.
Autocephaly and statutes
After Albanian independence in 1912, Fan Noli, who in 1924 would become an important political figure and prime minister of the nation, traveled to Albania, where he played an important role in establishing the Orthodox Albanian Church. On September 17, 1922, the first Orthodox Congress convened at Berat formally laid the foundations of an Albanian Orthodox Church and declared its autocephaly. Fan Noli was consecrated as Metropolitan of Durrës, Bishop of Korçë and primate of Albania, while the establishment of the Church was seen as an important development for maintaining Albanian national unity. At the end of the congress, the first statute of the church was approved.The church had a second statute that amended the First Statute in a second congress gathered in Korçë on July 11, 1920. Also on July 11, 1920, the first Regulation of General Administration of the Church was approved. The Patriarchate in Constantinople recognised the independence or autocephaly of the Orthodox Albanian Church in 1937.
On November 26, 1950, the Parliament of Albania approved the Third Statute that abrogated the 1929 Statute. Such new statute required Albanian citizenship for the primate of the church in. With the exception of the amendments made in 1992, this statute is still in force for the church.
On July 11,1992, the 1950 statute was amended and in 1996 was approved by the then-president, Sali Berisha. In particular, article 4 of the 1950 statute, which required Albanian citizenship for primate of the church, was no longer so.
On November 3 and 4, 2006, at the new Monastery of St. Vlash in Durrës, there was a special Clergy-Laity Assembly of the Orthodox Autocephalous Church of Albania, attended by 257 representatives. At this Assembly, the New Constitution of the Church was analyzed and accept unanimously. On November 6, 2006, the Holy Synod approved this Constitution. On November 24, 2008, the Orthodox Autocephalous Church of Albania and the Council of Ministers signed an agreement according to the 1998 Albanian Constitution, for the arrangement of their reciprocal relationship. The agreement was ratified by the Albanian Parliament, and became law on January 22, 2009.
Archbishops
The Primate of the Orthodox Autocephalous Church of Albania is also the Archbishop of Tirana and Durrës. The current archbishop of Tirana is Archbishop Joani.Persecution
The church greatly suffered during the dictatorship of Enver Hoxha as all churches were placed under government control, and land originally held by religious institutions were taken by the state. Religion in schools was banned. Similarly, Hoxha propagated that Albania was threatened by religion in general, since it served as the supposed "Trojan Horse" of the interests of the country's traditional enemies; in particular Orthodoxy. In 1952 Archbishop Kristofor was discovered dead; most believed he had been killed.In 1967 Hoxha closed down all religious buildings in the country, and declared Albania the world's first atheist country. All expression of religion, public or private, was outlawed. Hundreds of clergy were killed or imprisoned. As a result of this policy, a total of 600 Orthodox churches were demolished. Other buildings of the Orthodox community forcibly seized their religious function.