THE COUNCIL of Ministers has decided to include a provision allowing Cypriot citizens to be cremated on the island, in a proposed bill rights currently being prepared by Law Commissioner Leda Koursoumba.
In February, the Interior Ministry’s permanent secretary, Lazaros Savvides, told the Cyprus Mail that the bill to allow cremation in Cyprus should be ready for approval by the Council of Ministers in the first half of this year.
Cypriots were previously prohibited from opting for cremation, while a 2006 Council of Ministers Decision allowed foreign nationals who die on the island to be cremated – even though legislation existed on the establishment of crematoria.
“We have decided to amend the decision and a draft law is being prepared at present, to give this right to all citizens without exception, whether they are European, third country or Cypriot nationals,” Interior Minister Neoclis Sylikiotis told the state broadcaster yesterday.
The amendment was deemed necessary to redress the inequality in the current law that allows foreign nationals residing in Cyprus to be cremated, but forbids Cypriots from doing so.
“In 2006, a Council of Ministers Decision provided for the creation of a committee to prepare the legislation on cremating the dead.
“The decision, however, excluded Cypriots from this right, which was considered to constitute discrimination,” Sylikiotis explained.
The legislation will also address practical matters such as the location and management of crematoria.
“At the same time we are preparing an amendment on how crematoria will be operated – either by the state, public or private organisations so that the cremation and embalmment are carried out in ways that do not affect the environment or public health.
“Such measures have already been in place for years in other European countries. In Greece it has been in force since 2008 following a Presidential Order,” he said.
Greece was actually a late starter in allowing cremation compared to other European countries. In France, a 1789 order declared cremation legal, while an actual law on cremation was passed in 1887. In the UK cremation has been legal since 1884, in Spain since 1945 and in Germany since 1934.
Cyprus Church won’t perform funerals for cremated
IN CYPRUS, the Orthodox Church does not recognise cremation as a religiously acceptable practice, although it agrees that the state has the right to allow it.
The Interior Ministry had requested the opinion of Archbishop Chrysostomos II in 2007. In his reply, the archbishop explained that while the Church recognises the right of its members to choose between a burial according to church rules or cremation, those who opt for cremation lose the right to a church funeral service.
The main religious argument against cremation is that the body should not be destroyed so that it can be resurrected when the day of resurrection arrives. The Anglican Church, however, disagrees on this point based on the argument that when people die they receive a new, spiritual body.
“I would say cremation is an acceptable option, because although the body is a magnificent gift from God, when we die we receive resurrection and a new body – therefore we do not need the old one,” explained Reverend Michael Crawford, of the Anglican church of South East Cyprus, which is based in Paralimni.
Reverend Crawford presented the theological grounds for this belief from an extract of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians: “42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body; 43 it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.”
Indicative of the controversial status of cremation, however, is the fact that church officials in other Cyprus-based churches were unable to provide an opinion on cremation.
Specifically, the Mail contacted the Armenian Prelacy of Cyprus, and the Latin Catholic Church in Nicosia and Limassol. Priests and fathers from these churches, however, were unable to supply the church stance, answering that they did not know the official position.
