Eastern Orthodoxy in Albania

Eastern Orthodoxy in Albania File:Orthodox Autocephalous Church of Albania logo.gif Coat of arms Language Albanian, Greek Headquarters Tirana, Albania Territory Albania Possessions — Founder Theofan Stilian Noli Independence 1922 Recognition Autocephaly recognised in 1937 by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. Official website http://www.orthodoxalbania.org/

Although many Albanians have been either atheists or agnostics since Enver Hoxha's imposition of state atheism and persecution of those of a religious disposition during the period between 1945 until 1990, Christianity has played an active role in the development of the Albanian society since the time of the Byzantine Empire. Metropolitan Fan Noli established the Albanian Orthodox Mission under the American diocese.

According to the two sources, 38,8% of the country's population is Muslim (30% Sunni Muslim, 8% Bektashi), 17% Roman Catholic and 16% Albanian Orthodox.

History

File:Old Orthodox Church in Gjirokastra Albania.jpg

An old Orthodox Church made by rock.(Gjirokastër)

Although Orthodox Christianity has existed in Albania since the 2nd century AD, and the Orthodox historically constituted 35% of the population of Albania, the first Orthodox liturgy in the Albanian language was celebrated not in Albania, but in Massachusetts. Subsequently, when the Orthodox Church was allowed no official existence in communist Albania, Albanian Orthodoxy survived in exile in Boston (1960-1989). It is a curious history that closely entwines Albanian Orthodoxy with the Bay State.

Since the complete invasion of the Ottomans in Albania after Skanderbeg's death, almost all of the remaining Orthodox population, fled to Southern Italy.(Arbëresh) Between 1890–1920, approximately 25,000 Albanians, the majority of them Orthodox Christians from south-eastern Albania, emigrated to the United States, settling in and around Boston. Like many other Orthodox immigrants, they were predominantly young, illiterate, male peasants. Like so many other Balkan immigrants, a large number (almost 10,000) returned to their homeland after World War I.

Autocephaly of Church

The first Orthodox community to use Albanian in the liturgy was in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, in 1908 among a group of Albanian immigrants led by Fan Noli (1882-1965). Noli had prepared his own translation of the liturgy into Albanian, and used it also during a tour several major cities of Europe in 1911. Soon after Albanian independence in 1912, Fan Noli traveled to Albania where he would be ordained a bishop and become the head of the church, whose independence he strongly supported. He also became an influential political figure, and would even serve briefly as prime minister for five months in 1924, until his government was overthrown and he went into permanent exile.

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St George's Orthodox Cathedral in Fier.

11th century Orthodox Church in southern Albania.

Patriotic fervor ran high in Albanian immigrant communities in North America. When, in 1906, a Greek priest from an independent Greek parish in Hudson, Massachusetts, refused to bury an Albanian nationalist, an outraged Albanian community petitioned the missionary diocese to assist them in establishing a separate Albanian-language parish within the missionary diocese. Fan Noli (Theofan (Fan) S. Noli) (1882–1965), an ardent Albanian nationalist and former parish cantor, was subsequently ordained in February 1908 by a sympathetic Metropolitan Platon to serve this new Albanian parish. Noli went on to organize five additional Albanian parishes, mainly in Massachusetts, as an Albanian Orthodox Mission in America under the auspices of the American diocese.

Noli later emigrated to Albania, served as the Albanian delegate to the League of Nations, was consecrated Bishop and Primate of the independent Orthodox Church in Albania in 1923, and even served briefly as Prime Minister of Albania (came in power with the so called The Revolution of 1924) but was overthrown in a coup by Ahmet Zogu on the same year. After years in exile in Germany, Noli returned to the United States in 1932, studied at Harvard, translated Shakespeare into Albanian and Orthodox Scriptures and services into English, and led the Albanian Orthodox community in this country until his death in 1965.

Effectiveness of Eastern Orthodoxy in Modern Life

The country does not have a history of religious extremism and takes pride in the harmony that exists across religious traditions and practices. Religious pragmatism continued as a distinctive trait of Albanian society and inter religious marriage has been very common throughout the centuries, in some places even the rule. There is a strong unifying cultural identity, where Muslims and Christians see themselves as Albanian before anything else. This has been solidified historically by the common experience of struggling to protect their culture in the face of various outside conquerors. Nevertheless, Orthodox Christianity is often described as the religion to have had the most influence in shaping most of the Albanian way of modern living. Orthodox teaching has enforced nowadays people to visit churches more often and thus transmitting missionary knowledge.

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Shkodra Orthodox Cathedral.

Places of worship

According to recent statistics from the religious communities in Albania, there are 1119 churches, almost half of which (425) are Orthodox. According to the Albanian Orthodox Church, the efforts of constructing new churches and restoring old ones has been throughout the history of the albanian church successful. The construction of more churches in the country has been set as a priority of the body.

Islam

During the Cold War the West, as well as the USSR, often referred to Albania as a 'Muslim' country in spite of the officially atheistic stance of the Albanian government.

Art & Culture

The Albanian land has inherited many Orthodox churches since the Byzantine era. Furthermore, many Byzantine church bodies have been established in the country, since its religious revival, such as the Albanian Byzantine Church, which also consists of other bodies, such as the Italo-Greek Catholic Church, which is also known as the Italo-Albanian Catholic Church. As for the cultural influence of Orthodox Christianity in Albania, it is evident that it really exists. One example is that of Berat, a city entirely built since the Byzantine period, and that of Korça, which has many churches with clear Byzantine influence, as it is also the most Orthodox-populated city of Albania.