Church gives up coastal plots in debt write-off

ARCHBISHOP Chrysostomos has announced that the church will soon give up prime coastal plots and other property to banks to settle outstanding debts.
Chrysostomos, who had announced earlier in the month that the church was to sell land to pay off some €100m in bank debt, announced on Sunday after a service in Nicosia that they had made arrangements with the credit institutions and within weeks the matter would be settled.
The banks, he said, will receive plots of land and other property in exchange for writing off the debts.
The debts were amassed mainly from bank investments. The church is also involved in the hotel industry, beer and wine-making and water bottling.
Chrysostomos had said that apart from tourism, everything else has collapsed in the past three to four years.

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