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Following his national service and his recognizing a desire to be part of the spirit renewal on-going in Greece, Anastasios joined a religious brotherhood [[Brotherhood of Theologians Zoe|ZOE]] where he became a leader in making the Orthodox faith real in student movements and teenage camps. Later, he participated in the international Orthodox youth movement Syndesmos, becoming its general secretary from 1958 to 1961 and then vice-president from 1964 to 1978. In 1960, he was [[ordination|ordained]] a [[deacon]], beginning his career in the [[Holy Orders]].
After receiving his diaconate, Dn. Anastasios formed the inter-Orthodox mission center "Porefthentes" with the aim of educating the church in the area of [[missions]]. On [[May 24]], 1964, Dn. Anastasios was ordained a [[priest]] and left for East Africa to celebrate his first [[Divine Liturgy|liturgy]] in [[Archdiocese of Kampala and All Uganda|Uganda]]. However, soon Fr. Anastasios came down with malaria and had to return to Greece. With the doctors recommending his not returning to Africa, Fr. Anastasios decided to influence the church about the work of [[mission ]] through the academic world.
In preparation, Fr. Anastasios turned to postgraduate studies in history of religion including ethnology, science of religions, missiology and African studies. In this pursuit, he studied at universities in Hamburg and Marburg, with research work at the Makerere University in Uganda to collect material for his doctoral thesis "The Spirit Mbandwa and the Framework of Their Cults: A Research of Aspects of African Religion".
