Today, on March 16, the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church of Albania elected a new Primate, Metropolitan John Pelushi of Korçë, who became the new Archbishop of Tirana, Durrës and All-Albania.
According to the Orthodox Times, Metropolitan John is considered the spiritual child of the late Archbishop Anastasios. He was the first to be ordained by Bishop Anastasios.
For 30 years, he was close to Anastasios, accompanying him at inter-Christian events and during his trips abroad.
According to the sources of the Albanian Church, the Metropolitan of Korça is a competent hierarch with a high theological background.
“On our own behalf and on behalf of the fullness of our sister Orthodox Church of Ukraine, we sincerely congratulate His Beatitude Archbishop John of Tirana and All-Albania, Metropolitan of Tirana-Durrës-Elbasan, and wish the new hierarch on this holy throne many blessed years of service to his Local Church, the pious people and the fullness of Orthodoxy! We pray for you, for the Albanian Orthodox Church and ask for your prayers for our Local Church and Ukraine, for the victory of truth and a just peace,” Metropolitan Epifaniy, Primate of the OCU, congratulated the new head of the AOC.
According to Wikipedia, the new Primate of the Albanian Church was born on January 1, 1956, in a family of Bektash Muslims in Tirana.
On June 24, 1979, he was secretly baptized. He worked in a psychiatric hospital.
After the fall of the communist regime, he entered the Greek Orthodox School of the Holy Cross in Boston under the American Archdiocese of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. He graduated in 1993 and then returned to Albania.
On February 27, 1994, he was ordained a deacon, and on December 4, 1994, he was ordained a priest.
In 1995 he left for the United States to continue his studies. In 1996, he returned to Albania and was appointed assistant rector of the Theological Seminary of the Resurrection of Christ (then the Academy) in Durrës, with his elevation to the rank of archimandrite on November 19 of the same year.
At the constituent meeting of the newly established Holy Synod of the Albanian Orthodox Church on July 18, 1998, in Tirana, Archimandrite John was elected Metropolitan of Korçë.
On July 20, 1998, he was ordained a bishop by Archbishop Anastasios and members of the Holy Synod of the Church of Albania. On July 25 of the same year, he was enthroned as Metropolitan of Korçë.
On January 25, 2025, after the death of Archbishop Anastasios, he was elected temporary locum tenens of the archbishop's throne at an extraordinary meeting of the Holy Synod.
On January 25, 2025, at the age of 96, Archbishop Anastasios Yannoulatos of Tirana, Primate of the Albanian Orthodox Church, passed away.