ON Sunday, Paphos Bishop Chrysostomos – the candidate who received 11 per cent of the popular vote – was elected as the new Archbishop of Cyprus after a series of Machiavellian maneuverings that many have condemned as a hijacking of the election.
Though not the choice of nine out of 10 voters, the Paphos Bishop took advantage of his swing votes first to form an alliance with Limassol Bishop Athanassios and knock out Kykkos Nikiforos, and then to strike a bargain with Nikiforos and eliminate Athanassios.
On Sunday, the Paphos Bishop allegedly offered Kykkos Nikiforos increased power in the Holy Synod and a pledge that Nikiforos’ brother would become bishop, among other things, in exchange for all of his supporters’ votes, which would guarantee him victory over Athanassios.
For most people, the sly double-alliance that led to Chrysostomos’ victory exemplified the corruption, backstabbing, and crooked dealings that have increasingly characterised Church affairs over the past few years.
In the Saturday vote, the Paphos Bishop gave some of his Electors to the Limassol Bishop, ensuring him victory in the Electors’ ballot, in exchange for three of Athanassios’ ex-officio cleric votes, which put Paphos ahead in the ex-officio ballot.
With each of them winning a relative majority in one of the two ballots, the Limassol and Paphos Bishops then went on to the third round of voting.
The alliance, which a Kykkos spokesman referred to as a “dark conspiracy to oust the Kykkos bishopric”, prompted an outraged Nikiforos to order his Electors to leave the Archbishopric in protest. A number of his ex-officio clerics also departed.
The remaining Electors and ex-officio clerics then returned for the third round of voting, which with the absence of the Kykkos voters guaranteed an overwhelming victory for the Limassol Bishop.
But as acting head of the Church, the Paphos Bishop called an extraordinary session of the Holy Synod, in which it was decided to postpone the election until the next day, Sunday, at 4pm.
The Paphos Bishop later claimed it would have been “unfair” to hold the vote without the participation of the Kykkos supporters, despite the fact that the move was seen as a violation of the Church Charter.
The decision prompted an outcry from the Athanassios supporters, who accused the Paphos Bishop of hijacking the election by illegally postponing the vote to give him time to bribe Kykkos for his support.
Their fears were confirmed the next day when the Paphos Bishop travelled to the Kykkos Bishopric and signed a deal with Nikiforos in which he promised to make certain “changes” in the Church in exchange for the votes of Nikiforos’ supporters.
After the deal, the only chance left for the Limassol Bishop, who had been all but guaranteed victory the previous day, was that some of the Kykkos supporters would secretly rebel in the closed ballot and instead give their vote to Athanassios.
But aside from one invalid vote, all of the Kykkos supporters and clerics dutifully obeyed the command and voted for the Paphos Bishop, with the end result that the Paphos Bishop took 73 votes and the Limassol Bishop 57.
The Kykkos Bishop referred to the deal in vague terms as a payback to Athanassios for having struck a deal with Paphos to eliminate him. But on the previous day Nikiforos had said that it was Paphos who was mostly to blame for his elimination.
Despite a massive electioneering campaign and a show of fury upon being eliminated, Nikiforos claimed on Saturday night that he had felt “relief” at not reaching the third round because it meant he would remain at his beloved Kykkos monastery.
The written agreement with Nikiforos foresees the creation of five new Bishoprics or Dioceses. The text lists the new bishoprics and dioceses by region but does not specify exactly who will fill the posts, although it does list some possible candidates.
The document paves the way for the creation of a bishopric for the Karpasia region and another for the Kokkinochoria, for which Archimandrite Isaiah Kykkotis of Kykkos is one of the potential candidates.
The Paphos Bishop reportedly pledged to Nikiforos that his brother, Archimandrite Alexios Englistriotis, would become a bishop. There are also reports that the Paphos Bishop guaranteed Nikiforos, who is a bishop without a diocese, that the anomaly of this situation would be rectified.
The agreement also foresees increasing the number of members in the Holy Synod so that the Holy Synod does not need to seek the council of the Ecumenical Patriarch on resolving important issues.
But since Church leaders have recently appealed to the Patriarchate due to strife and disagreements within the Church, it is unclear how the inclusion of more members would reduce the need for future appeals. And with the same man effectively in charge now as before, few anticipate years of clerical harmony ahead.
For the changes to take place, the Church charter will have to be changed, with the process expected to take five or six months.
After the election results were announced, President Tassos Papadopoulos called the new Archbishop to congratulate him and to express his hope that the Church would show more unity in the future.
“President Papadopoulos sent me his wishes and said he hopes that the Church will regain its tarnished prestige, lost in the past months and years,” the new Primate said, at the end of the brief phone conversation.
The new Archbishop also said the Church would now receive a “breath of fresh air” and he thanked the two men whom he had both allied himself with and against in order to secure a seat in the throne.
“I would like to thank my brothers in God, in particular the Bishop of Limassol and the Abbot of Kykkos, because today I was elected to the post of Archbishop with their votes.”
