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Just one for Scotland, Father .

When he is away we either go without DL [ for a brief break ] of for his annual recharge of batteries we have a Priest from Ukraine.

Albanian Greek-Catholic Parish? Where? Tell me more, please!

Fr. Serge

Fr. Ron Roberson states a parish has been revived in Elbasan.

May God protect and guide Bishop Hlib a good man a holy bishop and a great friend

Deacon Lance is correct. Shenjtë Virgjër Meri Shqip Grek-Katolik (Holy Virgin Mary Albanian Greek-Catholic) Church in Elbasan is functioning. I have no further information on it, although I have an interior photo due to the kindness of a travel photographer from Portugal, who kindly allowed the use of one that he took. You can see it here. (Sorry, the entry itself is otherwise blank because we're in the process of moving the directory database.)

Many years,

Neil

I might be wrong here but I was slightly under the impression that some one was trying to tell us that there was a church of the Albanian Greek-Catholic in London.

Church interior looks quite nice, and moves me to ask such questions as "Is there a resident Priest"? "Is there a lead chanter"? And so on.

By the way, Albania is in Eastern Europe, not Western Europe.

Fr. Serge

Pavel,

Neil was refering to sole diaspora Belarusan Catholic parish in London.

Fr. Deacon Lance

"By the way, Albania is in Eastern Europe, not Western Europe. "

Isn't this the real cause of the schism between Rome and Constantinople?

It wouldn't surprise me. Who was it that said that Albania is seventy per-cent Mohammedan, thirty per-cent Christian, and one hundred per-cent homicidally inclined?

Fr. Serge

Bless, Father,

The interior does indeed look very nice. As memory serves, the first community to enter into communion with Rome, back at the turn of the 20th century, was situated just outside Elbasan.

Whether there is a resident priest, etc, I do not know (nor do I have any connections in Albania with whom to check. Should our old friend, Andrew Rubis, show up here - it's been a long time since he last posted - he might possibly have a contact who could find that out.) Last I heard (from you, I believe), there was not a resident priest.


Yep - I got carried away with listing the (admittedly paltry, as yet) European entries, so as to assure you that the continent wasn't being neglected in the construct of the Directory.

Many years,

Neil

Paul,

Deacon Lance is correct, but in re-reading what I wrote (or, rather, how I phrased it), it's easy to see how you came to that conclusion.

I said


I should have said


Many years,

Neil

This is what CNEWA have on their website about the Albanian Byzantine Catholics:


Source
CNEWA – Other Eastern Catholic Communities [cnewa.com]

Ah, yes, well I heard Neil invoking my name again. That's right, it's me, the pro-bono consultant for all things Albanian. I've come to accept that everyone has a purpose, no matter how trivial.

I did truly miss the forum and the fine Christians who have made it so valuable, but was rather busy with new employment while having had no internet at home. Now, I'm past the probationary period and am doing a job that no one else wants, so I doubt that they'll fire me for an occasional post. I'll try to check in once in a while, but do not intend to post dissertations as I did in the past.

As for Albanian Greek-Catholics, we don't hear much about it, but I do have someone that I'll ask in July as to the situation of the Albanian Greek-Catholics. There was, and as far as I know, still is a schismatic Albanian Orthodox priest in Elbasan who physically took over the Church of St. Mary in Elbasan in the late 1990s. I wonder if there is any confusion between this internal Eastern Orthodox situation (the priest was ordered to vacate by the canonical church) and the Albanian Greek-Catholic parish to which reference was made in previous posts.

For the record, in 1991 Albania was approximately 60% Muslim (and nominally so), 25% Orthodox Catholic, and 15% Roman Catholic. These numbers are in flux. Since 1991, I have yet to hear of a single case of a Christian becoming a Moslem although almost every mixed marriage seems to be linked with, sooner or later, the baptism of the Moslem party and the children born thereof.

To be fair, in Islam, Moslem men are permitted Christian wives (note the use of the plural) with the condition that the children be raised in Islam. However, Moslem girls are not allowed to be given to Christians in marriage. This is being almost completely ignored in Albania by Moslems.

In Christ,
Andrew J. Rubis

Andrew, my brother,

Welcome back - it's been way too long! I was actually thinking of e-mailing you tonight


There appear to be, from what little I can glean on the web, at least two Saint Mary's Churches in Elbasan. One, Kisha Autoqefale Ortodokse e Shenjtë Merise (Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Saint Mary) is invariably described in text as having extraordinarily beautiful stonework arcades - that are, seemingly and inexplicably, never photographed. The other is Shenjtë Virgjër Meri Shqip Grek-Katolik (Holy Virgin Mary Albanian Greek-Catholic Church), of which I spoke earlier.

Until now, the sole photo of Saint Mary Orthodox Church that I have been able to find appears to be of an interior hallway and looks remarkably un-Orthodox, prominently displaying what appears to be the Sacred Heart of Mary (or whatever it's called). It can be seen here [flickr.com]

This, which I found recently, is an exterior view [flickr.com] at some distance.

This photo [flickr.com] is an interior view of a temple, unidentified here as to name or Church. It is, however, distinguishable by the chandeliers, the same church interior as one that I retrieved some time back and which was labeled as being the Albanian Greek-Catholic Church of the Virgin Mary. Comparison of it with the photo I linked in my post above, demonstrates that they are not the same (compare the style of framing around the icons on the iconostasis). In deciding which of the two to accept as being of the Albanian Greek-Catholic Church, I relied on the fact that the picture I linked previously was taken by a professional photographer, whose attention to labeling was very evident - while the match to this one was by an amateur. So, I'm thinking that this is the Orthodox Saint Mary's.

This [flickr.com] would appear to be the 'independent' priest of whom Andrew speaks.

One problem with nailing down any information vis-a-vis Elbasani is that the name refers to both the city and to a much larger admnistrative district - within which there are several Churches of Saint Mary.

Many years,

Neil (Wow, who knew that merely invoking Andrew's name could produce such results - I'm going to have to do that more often and see if I can rustle up some others among those whose presence and contributions we miss)