Nov 12, 2006, 17:43 GMT
Nicosia - The new Archbishop of the Greek Orthodox Church of Cyprus, Chrysostomos II, was enthroned during a special ceremony Sunday, after the throne was vacated when his predecessor was declared unfit following a four-year mental illness.
His election took place a week earlier.
In his first address as the new leader of the autocephalous or independent church of Cyprus, Chrysostomos II declared a number of reforms, ranging from education to church finances, and policy statements such as the issue of the destruction of churches by the Turkish occupation army in the north of the island.
Referring to 'our Turkish Cypriot compatriots,' he said that there is nothing that divides them from the Greek Cypriots.
'We are not bothered by the voice of the muezzin,' said the religious leader, in reference to the Islamic preacher who calls the faithful to prayer from a mosque tower every Friday, some 200 metres from the Archbishopric.
'But we are upset by the Turkish occupation, and the violation of the human rights of all Cypriots by Turkey,' he said.
Chrysostomos II referred to the destruction of 133 occupied churches in northern Cyprus and their desecration by Turkey since 1974. Of these, 78 churches, chapels and monasteries have been converted into mosques, 28 are used as military depots and hospitals, and 13 are used as stockyards.
The enthronement took place in the small Cathedral of Saint John, adjacent to the Archbishopric, in the presence of clerics from Cyprus and abroad, including archbishops Christodoulos of Athens and Gregorios of Britain who represented the ecumenical leader of all Orthodoxy, Patriarch Bartholomeus who sits in Istanbul.
Also present were Greek Cypriot President Tassos Papadopoulos and all the islands political leadership, the Greek Minister of Public Order Vyron Polydoras, representatives of the Armenian Orthodox Church and the Maronite Catholic Church of the centuries-old Lebanese community in Cyprus, officials of the Egyptian Coptic and the Anglican churches and the Greek Orthodox patriarchates from around the world, as well as an official of the Holy See, represented in Cyprus by the Latin catholic community.
The Archbishop signed the code of acceptance in red ink, one of the three privileges maintained throughout the centuries by the church of Cyprus, in addition to holding an imperial sceptre from 1869 and a red tunic.
The Church of Cyprus was declared autocephalous in 478 AD when the remains of its founder, Saint Barnabas, were located on the island, in a tomb together with a copy of the gospel by Saint Matthew. The church of the same name is presently occupied by Turkey.
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