Our team’s “mission” while in Albania, was to offer an English camp for Albanian kids. The theme of this camp was “Love One Another.” My particular task was to work with Margo, Katheryn and Fr. Christodoulus to offer “spiritual talks,” reflecting upon daily themes that had to do with loving one another. So, using Christ’s example, our “spiritual talks” were merely the telling of little stories, with the implication that ‘the kingdom of heaven is a lot like this…’
During our time in Albania, while being interviewed by a journalist, I was asked about the work we were doing under this theme. The reporter who had observed and recorded one of our “spiritual talks” wondered what significance this Christian theme would have for the 70% Muslims and the many atheists who live in Albania. She wanted to know what I would have to say specifically to those atheists and Muslims. It was a great question. My reply was that in teaching people how better to love one another, we weren’t teaching Muslims and atheists so much about Christian doctrines, but more significantly, by using Christ’s example as the ultimate archetype and source of Love, we were teaching people what it means to be truly human. When we can learn to love each other the way Jesus taught us to, we simply become what we were meant to become as human beings and accordingly the world around us becomes a transformed place – “heaven on earth” if you will. A participation in this Love is our only hope.
Regrettably, since poverty-stricken Albanians are generally in awe of America’s materialistic-consumerism, regarding it as the solution against their problems, they often misperceive their greatest needs to be purely in terms of material goods. Yet, because of that same poverty and the government’s reluctance to allow people to leave Albania, many folks there often feel trapped like prisoners in a country where such materialistic wealth is hopelessly beyond their grasp. Consequently, young Albanians who have put their hope in affluence and political solutions soon become disillusioned and suffer a loss of hope.
That’s why it is so important to feed and nurture the essentially hopeful work of Archbishop Anastasios in his theme of Resurrection for the Albanians. Through his focus on Christ’s Resurrectional sovereignty, he offers the ultimate choice for Albanians to place their hope in. It is the hope that “Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the LIVING God” with definitive power over darkness, death and corruption. As Jesus told Peter upon his confession of this fact [Matthew 16:13-19], the gates of Hades – darkness & death – would not prevail against His Church. Here, Jesus is saying something so very powerful. Just like we see in the Resurrectional Icon, Jesus is telling us that He intends for His Church to take the offensive, storming the gates of Hades (those places on earth where death, darkness and corruption reign supreme). God has placed within Christ’s Church the power to burst down those gates, to light the way out for those long trapped inside and to lift those prisoners out of a living hell and up into Abundant Living through the freedom and light that is found in Christ’s Love.
That’s why it is so important that we support the missionaries who are there working under the leadership of Archbishop Anastasios. And that’s why the work that George Russell is doing in his Run For Albania campaign is such an important one. Please consider making a loving pledge of support, so that you too may participate in Christ’s Resurrection of Albania.
Through the prayers of St. Paul (Ephesians 3:14-21),
Allan-Gabriel Boyd
Seminarian – Holy Cross School of Theology in Brookline MA
