THE HOLY Synod will be looking into the issue of the Ayios Mamas liturgy, which the Bishop of Paphos yesterday described as damaging to the cause and making Turkey look good.
“We let Turkey show a phoney face to the outside, that it is a democratic country, that it lets us operate our churches, that we were welcome there,” Bishop Chrysostomos said yesterday.
He added: “There is no Greek Cypriot who does not want to live in peace with the Turkish Cypriots.” But he suggested that it was not acceptable to organise such events without contacting the government first.
Vespers were held in Morphou on Wednesday evening and liturgy for the feast of Ayios Mamas on Thursday morning, attended by around 2,000 people including politicians and foreign dignitaries.
Chrysostomos revealed that Bishop Pavlos of Kyrenia had already tabled the issue for discussion before the Holy Synod, but added the body had no plans to reprimand Bishop Neophytos of Morphou, who organised the event.
“We won’t put him on trial; we will just point out in a brotherly manner that maybe it was out of place,” Chrysostomos said.
Asked whether he had spoken with Neophytos, Chrysostomos said he had not and claimed that he did not want to speak on the phone because it was being monitored.
The bishop declined to elaborate on this allegation, merely saying: “Everyone knows who’s listening”.
The head of the Morphou reunification group, Aristos Katsis, yesterday pointed out that Chrysostomos should respect the thousands of believers who had attended the two-day festival.
Katsis was responding to a remark the bishop made that people who had never been to church had attended the Ayios Mamas service.
He said the age of issuing certificates for national, social and religious beliefs had long gone, and “the Bishop of Paphos has no right to know who goes to church or doesn’t”.
“Religion is in the peoples’ souls; why should he be bothered if people who are not religious went to church instead of being glad they wanted to hear God’s word,” Katsis said.
“He should have been happy if such people went,” he said. “No one has a right to issue certificates.”
Katsis said the bishop should have respected the thousands of people who defied all dangers to send a message of reunification.
“We are not afraid of the dividing line; it will be weakened and not reinforced,” Katsis said.
