Archbishop Anastasios of Albania

Archbishop Dr Anastasios of Tirana and All Albania (* November 4, 1929 in Piraeus, Greece) (born Anastasios Giannoulatos; Albanian: Anastas Janullatos; Greek: Αναστάσιος Γιαννουλάτος) is the Archbishop of Tirana, Durrës and All Albania and as such the primate and Head of the Holy Synod of the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Albania. He was elected on June 1992. Archbishop Anastasios is one of the presidents of the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches.
==Early life and career==
He obtained a diploma in Theology from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in 1952. He made postgraduate studies in Ethnology, Science of Religions, Missiology and African studies at the universities of Hamburg and Marburg and search work at the Makerere University in Uganda, as a scholar of German Foundation Alexander von Humboldt (1965-69).
He was ordained as a deacon in 1960. He failed to be elected as Metropolitan Bishop of Piraeus and in 1972 he was ordained as a Titular bishop of Androusa, filling the position of the president of "Apostolic Diakonia of the Church of Greece" an organization of the Church of Greece active in many fields, among them Orthodox Mission.
In 1991, following the political changes in Albania, Anastasios, then-Bishop, was appointed by the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I to be the Patriarchal Exarch for the Albanian Church. He was named Archbishop of Tirana on 24 June 1992 and enthroned on 2 August 1992. In 2006, he was elected as one of the eight World Council of Churches presidents.
== Titles ==
The official title of the Archbishop of Tirana, Durrës and All Albania is: 
His Beatitude, Anastasios, Archbishop of Tirana, Durrës and All Albania;
==Honours and distinctions==
For his work he has got many awards and distinctions. Also, he has been awarded honorary doctorates by a number of universities and educational institutions around the world.
His Beatitude, Archbishop Dr. Anastasios of Albania was received in audience by His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican on Friday, December 4, 2009.
==See also==
* Orthodox Autocephalous Church of Albania
==References==
== External links ==
* Official Site of the Albanian Orthodox Church
* Albanian Orthodox Library
* WCC bio
* Jim Forest: The Resurrection of the Church of Albania
* Saint Pachomius Library: Anastasios (Yannoulatos), Archbishop of Albania
de:Anastasios Yannoulatos
Category:1929 births
Category:Living people
Category:University of Athens alumni
Category:University of Marburg alumni
Category:National and Kapodistrian University of Athens faculty
Category:Eastern Orthodox archbishops
Category:Albanian religious leaders
Category:Christianity in Albania
Category:Primates of the Albanian Orthodox Church
Category:Eastern Orthodox Christians from Albania
Category:Bishops
Category:Archbishops