THE feud between the bishops appears to drag on as a Synod meeting was convened yesterday evening without two of the Bishops, who were at the time flying into Larnaca after a visit with the Patriarch.
The Holy Synod meeting was to discuss whether the Greater Synod scheduled for after Easter was to take place in Cyprus or not. During this Greater Synod it would be decided whether or not to hold elections to replace the incapacitated and aged Archbishop.
Despite recent statements by the Paphos Bishop that he is indifferent to where the Greater Synod takes place, it is believed he wants it scheduled for Cyprus because he would yield greater clout over the meeting.
Bishop of Kykkos Nikiforos and Bishop of Morphou Neofytos were returning to Cyprus after delivering an epistle to the Patriarch regarding how to decide on where and when the Greater Synod would take place.
The Morphou Bishop said at the airport that he and Nikiforos had not been invited to participate in the afternoon convention of the Holy Synod and for this reason stayed longer in Istanbul after their meeting with the Ecumenical Patriarch.
Morphou said that the two of them could have always contacted the Synod, purportedly by mobile, but noted that “it appears this wasn’t within the priorities of Holy Paphos”.
Before the Synod meeting started, reporters asked the Bishop of Paphos whether he would wait for the two Bishops, who were still in transit at the time.
“If they are coming, we will wait for them,” the Paphos Bishop responded, although when asked again as he was walking into the building he added, “If they make it in time…”
After the end of the Synod meeting, the Kiti Bishop told reporters that the Synod had “decided unanimously for the Bishop of Paphos to contact the Patriarch”, refusing to give any substantive details about the real purpose of the meeting, which was to decide where the Greater Synod would take place.
When it was clear they would get no details about the decision, the reporters then asked the Kitiou Bishop why they had not waited for Morphou and Kykkos.
The question visibly upset the Bishop who, after a long pause, said that the reporters were asking “very off-mark questions”.
“You are asking why they didn’t come? Why don’t you ask them?”
The two bishops have defied the Synod majority in calling for early elections to replace the ailing archbishop, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s.
