Church of Cyprus Archbishop Georgios formally assumed his new duties as head of the church on Sunday following an enthronement ceremony evoking the splendor of centuries of Byzantine tradition before an audience of clergy from around the world, with the notable exception of the Russian church.
Russian Patriarch Kirill sent no representatives to the St Barnabas Cathedral ceremony following the Church of Cyprus’ decision to support the Ukrainian Orthodox Church’s independence, in line with the position of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul.
The Ukrainian Church’s Metropolitan Symeon and Archbishop Efstratios were in attendance, as Archbishop Georgios, bedecked in crimson and gold-trimmed liturgical vestments, trailed a procession of senior clerics into the cathedral.
Photo: Reuters
Although some pro-Russia bishops dissented against the 2020 decision by the 16-member Holy Synod, the Church of Cyprus’ highest decisionmaking body, Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine consolidated that support.
The Russian Orthodox Church cut ties with Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I after he granted independence to Ukraine’s Orthodox church in 2019.
In an interview with the Greek weekly newspaper To Vima, Archbishop Georgios said the Cypriot church’s backing for Bartholomew’s decision flowed out of orthodox laws that put the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s primacy over all other Orthodox churches.
However, Georgios offered an olive branch to the Russian church, saying he would reach out to Moscow to dispel any notions of enmity and help restore Orthodox unity.
Christian unity was the central message of greetings by Pope Francis conveyed by the papal nuncio to Cyprus Adolfo Tito Yllana.
“I know that your Beatitude will continue in this commitment to fostering the unity of all Christ’s disciples,” Georgios said. “In these difficult times marked by injustice, violence and war, it is all the more important that Christians give an authentic witness of unity so that the world they believe in the Lord’s message of love, reconciliation and peace.”
Georgios’ enthronement became official after he signed the church’s constitution with red ink — a privilege granted to the head of the Church of Cyprus by the fifth-century Byzantine emperor Zeno after he was gifted a gospel found in the tomb of the Cyprus Church’s founder and apostle of Christ, Barnabas.
In his own address, the archbishop said his prime goal is to reinvigorate the Christian message in modern spiritual discourse, carry on with the church’s outreach to the poor and to convey that scientific thought is not in conflict with the precepts of Christianity.
He also said the church would continue to have a voice in matters of education, and would oppose any political negotiations aimed at resolving Cyprus’ ethnic cleave that would embolden Turkey’s “expansionism” and facilitate Ankara’s full control of the country.
Cyprus was split along ethnic lines in 1974 when Turkey invaded following a coup aimed at union with Greece.
Georgios was elected archbishop last month following the death of his predecessor, archibshop Chrysostomos II, after a long battle with cancer. The new archbishop studied chemistry and theology in Greece and later in the UK before rising through the ranks within the church to be elected Paphos bishop in 2006.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS