AS LONG as Archbishop Chrysostomos is alive, no elections will be held to ordain a new Primate, Church leaders decided yesterday.
The verdict of the Holy Synod is said to be in line with Greek Orthodox law and long-held tradition.
Archbishop Chrysostomos, diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, has been unable to perform his duties for some years now and has slowly drifted out of the public eye; leadership of the Church has in the meantime been delegated to his namesake, the bishop of Paphos.
Yesterday, five of the Holy Synod’s members voted against the staging of elections, while three were for. Paphos bishop Chrysostomos was one of the bishops changing stance since the last vote was held in the summer.
Several votes on the same issue have been held with different results, but always ending in a deadlock, with some bishops switching sides at the last minute, fuelling speculation of an internal power struggle between factions.
And Bishop of Trimithounta Vassilios, who voted in favour of elections, yesterday did not rule out the possibility of the Synod’s decision being reversed at a later date. Together with the bishops of Morphou and Kykkos, Vassilios wants to ask the Patriarch of Constantinople to declare the throne vacant and thus clear the path for elections.
Up until recently, there had been much talk of nominating a new Primate before the parliamentary elections, so as to avoid influence from political quarters. But that debate has now been rendered futile.
The divisions inside the Church’s ruling body can be traced to many causes, but one pattern emerging in the past year or so centres on the Cyprus problem, with some of the bishops taking a hard line stance and others being more open to rapprochement with the Turkish Cypriot community.
This was highlighted a few weeks ago, after the Bishop of Morphou, Neophytos, made some radical comments in an interview with Turkish Cypriot paper Halki Sesi. In the interview, Neophytos described as “un-Christian” all those who opposed the Annan plan.
This prompted an angry response from Bishop Pavlos of Kyrenia, one of the major proponents of the “no” vote inside the Church, who recommended that sanctions be taken against Neophytos. Bishop Pavlos had said during the referendum campaign that ‘yes’ voters would go to hell. Yesterday the Holy Synod did not discuss the matter despite initial reports that it would.
Neophytos has been severely criticised for presiding over services at the Church of Ayios Mamas in occupied Morphou, which under the Annan plan would have been returned to Greek Cypriots; by contrast, Kyrenia would have remained under Turkish Cypriot administration.
