A communiqué was published on the official website of the Albanian Church, which expressed the bewilderment of the Albanian hierarchs about the election of Archimandrite Feofan (Koyi) by the Phanar synod for consecration as a bishop, who is known as the leader of schismatic actions in Albania.
It is known that the archimandrite, together with a group of ultranationalists, on October 8, 1995, “expelled the ministers of the Orthodox Autocephalous Church of Albania during the celebration of the Divine Liturgy from the Church of Panagia in the city of Elbasan.” After that, in the Church of the Virgin in Elbassan, he installed a “priest” Nicholas Mark, “ordained” in the then schismatic Macedonian Church.
“After that, his accomplice Nikolai Marku did not stop publicly calling the Orthodox Autocephalous Church of Albania Greek, using purely nationalist and political terminology,” the communiqué says.
Later, Archimandrite Feofan settled in the USA and there he joined the Romanian Church.
“He never asked for forgiveness for his schismatic actions in the first years of the restoration of the Orthodox Autocephalous Church of Albania,” the Albanian Church emphasizes.
Having been rejected by the Orthodox Church of America in an attempt to become a bishop of the OCA, he went to the Phanariot exarchate in the United States, and Archbishop Elpidophoros promised him the episcopal rank.
The Synod of Albania reported that as a result of a quick procedure, according to the Phanar’s official press release, Archimandrite Feofan “was elected Bishop of Philomelia, serving the pastoral needs of the Albanian Orthodox Diocese under the jurisdiction of the Mother Church of Constantinople.”
“Among the Orthodox in Albania, surprise and bewilderment are widespread at this unexpected development of events caused by the persistence of Archbishop Elpidophoros of America. We confine ourselves to the necessary reminder of the schismatic problems provoked by Archimandrite Theophan during the restoration of the long-suffering Church of Albania from the ruins,” the Synod of the Albanian Church said.
