LIMASSOL BISHOP Athanassios’ soft spoken and affable manners may seem incongruous for a man who draws the most devoted supporters of any religious figure in Cyprus. But behind the humorous quips and gentle demeanor is a surprisingly charismatic and committed individual esteemed by thousands as one of the great living elders of Orthodox spirituality – a fact that often threatens some of his more politically minded ecclesiastical colleagues.
Though born and raised in Cyprus, the Limassol Bishop spent a sizeable part of his life in the monastic communities of Mt. Athos, a rugged peninsula in northern Greece renowned for rigorous monastic routines where monks and hermits deprive themselves of material comforts to pursue a spiritual path laid out by the Christian elders.
For a person who speaks so emphatically about matters of the spirit, the Limassol Bishop has his feet planted surprisingly firmly in the ground. He has delivered hundreds of talks – 900 of which have been recorded and are listened to by people as far as the US and Australia – and counselled hundreds of people since returning to Cyprus. In his efforts to improve social conditions and assist troubled youth he has established what is seen as the finest drug rehabilitation centre in Cyprus at Ayia Skepi.
While he lacks the financial and political clout of some of the other candidates in the upcoming Archbishopric elections, he also wields the most committed following and is therefore seen as one of the major contenders for the throne.
Bishop Athanassios told the Sunday Mail earlier this week at the Ayia Skepi drug rehabilitation centre that one of the main issues the newly elected Archbishop would have to face is the “national issue” (the Cyprus problem) as well as a large number of community problems such as the economic difficulties people face, which as he said leads to problems, especially among youth, in narcotics use and violence.
“The Church can offer many important things to the national issue, which has beleaguered and plagued our land for so long now,” he said.
“The church teaches love, tolerance, forgiveness, freedom, generosity and respect to the other person. So these are the basis upon which can be built a new reality in Cyprus as regards the presence of Turkish Cypriots with whom we are called upon to reconcile.”
Athanassios said that the Church would defy its creed if it were exclusively open to Greek Cypriots, adding that church leaders do presently meet with and counsel Turkish Cypriots among others.
“We are Christians and we see every person, whether Turkish Cypriot or anyone else, as a picture of God. If we don’t see them this way, then we aren’t Christians.”
The elder also felt that, aside from what the Cyprus Church can offer society and rapprochement efforts, there was also much to offer to the broader European community that Cyprus now belongs to.
“The Church of Cyprus has been here for 2,000 years. It was founded by the apostles and has maintained its tradition without changing for 2,000 years, which is very important for Europe and beyond.”
But many people in Cyprus have grown disaffected with the Church, which seems to them to be tainted by an endless string of scandals, power struggles and smear campaigns – some of which have targeted the Limassol Bishop – in the rank of its clerics.
While recognising that there are “human difficulties” within the religious institutions, Bishop Athanassios felt that it “does injustice to the Church” to believe it is nothing more than a stage for power politics and corruption.
“The Church is our home, our mother. It does not operate in a bad way against us. Now if there are human difficulties – and it is natural that they will exist – it doesn’t mean that we should destroy all of the work of the Church because of this one weakness, which anyway is transient.”
The Limassol Bishop was hesitant to list the changes that he envisioned for the Cyprus Church should he be elected Archbishop, possibly because that might come across as electioneering, which he claims have no place in Church ranks.
“I want to avoid stating things, as that would be something a political person can do. A person of the Church cannot announce: ‘I will do this and this’. But if I become Archbishop then I will state what I will do.”
When asked why he wanted to run for Archbishop, Bishop Athanassios’ replied calmly and without pause: “I don’t want to become Archbishop.”
“But it’s not an issue of whether I want it or don’t want it,” he continued. “It’s a question of whether the people want it or don’t want it.”
“My position as a bishop in the Church is like the position of a soldier. The soldier cannot say: I don’t want to go there. If he is sent there he will go. In the same way, if I am approached and told to leave here and go serve elsewhere then I will go.
“I can’t say that I have a personal dream and ambition to become Archbishop. If they elect me I will go with pleasure, and if they don’t elect me, I will stay where I am with even more pleasure.”
‘A direct experience of God is available to everyone’
SUPPORTERS of the Limassol Bishop see him as a great spiritual teacher, while critics have labelled him a “fundamentalist” out to funnel youth down an antisocial monastic path.
With trademark humility, he rejects both claims. “I am neither a great teacher, nor a fundamentalist. I am a simple man relaying the word of God, relaying what the gospels say and nothing else. I personally possess nothing special.”
But his supporters do not share that view, especially the large college crowds who are drawn to his claims that God is not some remote abstract being and that a direct experience of God is open to everyone by following the “therapeutic treatment” that the Church offers.
“The Orthodox Church is an experiential Church, not a theoretical one,” he said. “Imagine if we called upon people to believe in a God that they could not experience! That would be very paranoiac. How can you believe in something that you don’t experience? How can you love God if you don’t experience Him?”
The bishop rejected the notion that one must pursue the rigorous routines of a monk or nun’s life to have a direct experience of God.
“Of course they can have this experience outside of the monastery,” he said, adding that the millions of Christians would have otherwise been wasting their time.
“Whether they have this experience or not is a different issue. But they all have the opportunity to have these experiences if they want to.”
