The opening ceremony of the church of the Skete of Saint Anne in Gjirokastra took place on the feast day of the Mother of God, by Metropolitan Nathanael of Gjirokastra, who then officiated at the Divine Liturgy.

This Skete, near the Metropolitan Church of the Transfiguration of the Savior of Gjirokastër, was erected twenty years ago by the late Archbishop Anastasios, while the new Metropolitan of Gjirokastër Nathanael dedicated it to Saint Anna.

The nun Paisia lives there and the Skete is a spiritual refuge in Gjirokaster, where people can strengthen their faith. This is also the purpose of the Metropolitan of Gjirokaster.

And faith is strengthened when we understand that first and foremost, Orthodoxy is a way of life founded on divine truth.

Orthodoxy is the path of God that demands that we walk it with obedience to revealed truth and with discipline to the divine command. The combination of right faith with right life is a characteristic of Orthodoxy “from the beginning to the end.”