CHURCH OF CYPRUS RECOGNIZES ORTHODOX CHURCH OF UKRAINE
Today the primate of the Orthodox Church of Cyprus, Chrysostomos II, during the Divine Liturgy for the consecration of the bishop of Arsinoe, commemorated Metropolitan Epifany, the primate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (PTsU), which signifies the recognition of the PTsU.
"His Beatitude Archbishop of Cyprus Chrysostomos II, while leading today the Divine Liturgy during the ordination of a new bishop of Arsinois, Pankraty, in the monastery of the Most Holy Mother of God on Paphos, commemorated the primate of the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine, His Beatitude Metropolitan of Kiev and all-Ukraine Epifany, effectively recognizing this new church. Thereby the Church of Cyrus, through its primate, became the third church that has recognized it, after the Church of Greece and the patriarchate of Alexandria.
"This is an extraordinary and historic development of affairs, which has great significance and, of course, will be much discussed, reviving the question of the autocephalous church of Ukraine, which, it would seem, had been 'becalmed' because of the serious problem of COVID-19," Archbishop Evstraty posted today on his Facebook page a translation from the Greek publication nyxthimeron.com.
Thereby the Church of Cyprus became the fourth church, after Constantinople, Greece, and Alexandria, to recognize the autocephalous local Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
We recall, in early March the head of the Cypriot church, Archbishop Chrysostomos II, visited Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. During a joint liturgy, the primate of the PTsU, Metropolitan Epifany, was commemorated. As religious studies scholar Dmitry Gorevoy notes, according to Orthodox practice, commemoration of the primate of a church during the Divine Liturgy is a sign of recognition. That is, on one hand, this event may be interpreted as recognition of the PTsU. However, critics may note that the liturgy was being led by the ecumenical patriarch, who has primacy of honor, and therefore it is churches that he recognizes that are commemorated in the diptych. (tr. by PDS, posted 24 October 2020)
AFTER RECOGNIZING P.Ts.U., HEAD OF CHURCH OF CYPRUS WILL HAVE GREAT PROBLEMS—UPTsMP SPOKESMAN
Archpriest Nikolai Danilevich, spokesman for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UPTsMP), promises the head of the Church of Cyprus great problems with his own bishops after Archbishop Chrysostomos today in the Divine Liturgy commemorated the head of the PTsU, Metropolitan Epifany.
"He did this arbitrarily, without the consent of the Synod of the Church of Cyprus. Apparently he wished to please the Phanar, but obviously he will receive great problems for himself in the church. Cypriot bishops are extremely upset. Rank and file clergy also," Danilevich wrote on Facebook.
He said that harsh statements should be expected from Cypriot bishops: "It could even come to the point where local bishops will not concelebrate with the archbishop until he changes his position. After all, the Orthodox church is administered conciliarly and not unilaterally." (tr. by PDS, posted 24 October 2020)
Editorial disclaimer: RRN does
not intend to certify the accuracy of information
presented in articles. RRN simply intends to certify the
accuracy of the English translation of the contents of the
articles as they appeared in news media of countries of
the former USSR.
If material is quoted, please give credit to the
publication from which it came. It is not necessary to credit
this Web page. If material is transmitted electronically, please
include reference to the URL,
http://www.stetson.edu/~psteeves/relnews/.