Head of Cyprus Church: To recognize OCU’s “primate” is not a problem for me

Archbishop Chrysostomos and Patriarch Bartholomew. Photo: orthodoxtimes

On March 6, 2020, during a meeting with Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, the Primate of the Cypriot Orthodox Church, Archbishop Chrysostomos, said that he did not see a problem in recognizing the “primate” of the OCU Dumenko, according to the Greek site Romfea.

“The problem of Orthodoxy for me personally and I believe, for Patriarch Bartholomew as well, is not whether I recognize the Primate of the Ukrainian Church (OCU – Ed.). It makes no sense to me. I could have recognized him yesterday and I can recognize him today and tomorrow. I can see no problem in this respect,” said the head of the Church of Cyprus.

He noted that the biggest problem for him is “the problems of Orthodoxy ...”, and stressed that “we are church ministers and we will leave this world so we must do as much as we can for Orthodoxy.”

Archbishop Chrysostomos believes that “those who are against (the Ukrainian “autocephaly” – Ed.) must come down to earth and quit with big talk if they really want to have canonical Orthodoxy, because only through our humility Christ, who gives us the fullness of life, can help His Church."

Regarding Phanar’s claims to the Diaspora and the bestowal of autocephaly to the Local Churches with a clear definition of their borders, the Primate of the Church of Cyprus said that this was in line with the church system and tradition.

“The example we have is the Church of Cyprus. We have more than 300,000 Greek Cypriots in England; others live in Canada, in Australia. Have we ever sent our bishop there to provide spiritual guidance to them? Instead, we urge them to follow the bishop appointed by the Ecumenical Patriarchate, under whose jurisdiction these regions fall,” he said.

Earlier, the UOJ wrote that according to the Archbishop of Chrysostom, the Church of Cyprus does not agree with either Phanar or Moscow. A little later, he stated that other Primates are unlikely to recognize Epiphany.

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