Published by The National Herald, November 11, 2005

Cypriot Bishops Reach Truce - For Now

NICOSIA (AFP, AP) – After months of bickering, the Greek Orthodox Church of Cyprus agreed to call a truce this past Monday, November 7, and convene a wider synod of prelates from around the Orthodox world next year to decide whether to remove its ailing leader and hold elections for a successor.

Senior clergymen from the Church of Cyprus said they could consider replacing their 78-year-old leader next year if he remains incapacitated by illness.

Archbishop Chrysostomos has governed the Church of Cyprus since 1977, the second church leader since the island gained independence from Great Britain in 1960. He is reportedly suffering from Alzheimer's disease.

He has been suffering from a debilitating illness for the past three years and is rarely seen in public. The debate over whether he should be replaced has sparked a power struggle within the church, which remains enormously influential among the island’s 600,000 Greek Cypriots.

Some bishops have argued that, under church canons, the Archbishop can not be deposed, while others have riposted that the canons provide for emergency powers to save a rudderless leadership.

Chrysostomos' long illness has left the Church of Cyprus divided, and has fueled rivalries between potential successors. Bishop Chrysostomos of Paphos, the acting head of the Cypriot Church, has publicly traded accusations of corruption with possible leadership successor, Bishop Nikiforos of Kykkos.

But Bishops in the Holy Synod, who had appeared sharply divided on the issue, said they would ask the supreme head of the world’s Orthodox communion, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, to convene a synod.

"We have asked Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew to invite (Cypriot bishops) to consider medical findings after a doctor again examines Archbishop Chrysostomos, and to decide whether to declare the throne vacant," said a statement signed by Cyprus' nine bishops.

Bartholomew had already invited Cypriot bishops to Constantinople to discuss Chrysostomos' future last Thursday, November 3, but the Ecumenical Patriarch’s attempts to help resolve the matter sparked more controversy.

The move was criticized by the opposing camp as an invitation to meddle in the affairs of a church which proudly traces its autonomy back to 431 AD.

It also drew opposition from Turkey, which moved to block plans for an emergency meeting of Cypriot clergy in Constantinople last week.

The decision to invite the Ecumenical Patriarch to convene a wider synod of Orthodox leaders in Cyprus "after Easter 2006," which falls on April 23 next year, has headed off that dispute (Turkey dismisses the internationally recognized Republic of Cyprus as a Greek Cypriot administration, and refuses to acknowledge the Ecumenical Patriarch as an "ecumenical" figure and insists the Patriarch is a simply local religious leader).
As the process to determine hierarchical fate moves along, Clerics will be given the task of examining the Archbishop's medical records to decide whether he is fit to govern the church.

"In the event the throne of the Cyprus Church is declared vacant, the Holy Synod will call elections as a matter of necessity provided under the Church's charter," a church announcement said.

The above incorporates information from reports posted by the Associated Press and Agence France Presse on November 7.



Volume 7 Number 45 - Tuesday, November 15, 2005	A Publication of the ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN LAITY