IN A LANDMARK decision, Church leaders yesterday resolved to bend the rules, setting September as the date for elections to ordain a new Archbishop.
The Church has been in limbo for four years, ever since Archbishop Chrysostomos – now formally retired – was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.
But the intervention of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople finally resolved the quandary last week, when prominent clerics from Cyprus and the wider Orthodox world declared the throne vacant, paving the way for elections.
According to the charter of the Cyprus Church, elections must be held within 40 days of the vacancy of the throne, which would place the event in late June.
But due to a number of “practical difficulties”, the Holy Synod yesterday unanimously moved to delay the elections to September 24.
It was a rare show of unity from the Church leaders, who have locked horns in public countless times, exchanging unflattering remarks about one another.
“The Synod has deemed that it would be impossible to hold elections in such a short time, hence the delay,” Paphos Bishop Chrysostomos told reporters after the Holy Synod meeting.
The difficulties cited relate to the preparation of electoral rolls. The Church needs to borrow lists of registered voters from the government, and then compile its own lists.
These are posted at parishes across the island, so that eligible voters can ask to be stricken off them if they so wish. Voting is not mandatory.
Data Protection Commissioner Yioula Frangou explained yesterday that a “wait time” of two to three weeks was obligatory under the law because people had the right to object to the use of their personal information.
In the meantime, Church authorities will be busy weeding out “heretics” and “persons of a different religious persuasion” (non-Greek Orthodox) from the rolls. The final list of voters shall be handed over to the Holy Synod.
Another concern was low turnout if the elections took place in the lazy summer months.
“It’s better to wait until people get back from their holidays,” Chrysostomos noted.
According to the Church’s statute, elections comprise three stages; first, local parishes elect ‘Special Representatives’, who next nominate a limited number of ‘General Representatives’, or electors. Finally, these electors and an expanded Holy Synod vote separately.
If a candidate gains the majority in both polls, he is then appointed Archbishop; if not, the two persons with the most votes stand against each other.
To be eligible as a candidate, a clergyman must be celibate and have a university degree. Not surprisingly, all the members of the Holy Synod automatically qualify to stand for elections.
In other words, September 24 will only be the start of the process – the new Archbishop will not be known for several days later.
Still, election canvassing is already in full swing. The main rivals are Paphos Bishop Chrysostomos and his nemesis, Bishop Nikiforos of Kykkos.
The two men have radically different styles and outlook. Chrysostomos is being portrayed as a no-nonsense, get-the-job-done cleric, a patriot and the person who stamped out embezzlement of the Church’s wealth.
At a social gathering at Nicosia’s Hilton Park hotel this week, Chrysostomos pledged his full support to the government’s Cyprus policy were he to become the next Archbishop.
During the April 2004 referendum, he had openly spoken out against the Annan plan. Indeed, a junior bishop “revealed” this week how Chrysostomos had prevailed upon the Patriarch of Moscow to persuade the Russian government to vote against the adoption of an unfavourable report by the UN’s Security Council in 2004.
Nikiforos, rumoured to be pro-Annan, has cultivated a more cosmopolitan image. His bishopric has frequently sponsored social events, such as anti-drugs seminars for youths.
And unlike Chrysostomos, Nikiforos does not object to the involvement of political parties in the Archbishopric elections.
Nevertheless, early opinion polls have suggested the vote could swing in favour of the soft-spoken Limassol Bishop Athanasios.
