The Archbishop of Tirana and All Albania, His Beatitude Anastasios, this week called for “…ecclesiastical polarisation”, as he said, to be overcome – while directly referring to the ” Ukrainian ecclesiastical problem”. His statement was included in a detailed letter addressed to the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, His All Holiness Bartholomew I, and other Primates of autocephalous Orthodox Churches.
His Beatitude said “…Finding ways to transcend this ecclesiastical polarisation is now a matter of urgency. In order to face various conflicts in today’s world the first step is de-escalation…Every attempt should be made to re-establish communication between the primary parties in the crisis as soon as possible, so that they may exchange creative proposals… Solutions exist. God will enlighten us, that we may determine them. They will not, of course, be achieved through exchanges of insulting and threatening texts, neither by extra- ecclesiastical interventions, nor can they be imposed unilaterally or come automatically with the passing of time.”