Cyprus Bans Faithful from Church During Christmas Season, Metropolitan of Morphou Rejects New Measures

Pravoslavie ^ | 12/10/20

[marshmallow]

After being locked out of Church services during the Paschal season, the Orthodox faithful of Cyprus will not be able to celebrate the Great Feast of the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ in church either, as new, stricter anti-COVID measures were adopted at a recent extraordinary session of the Council of Ministers under the chairmanship of President Nikos Anastasiadis, reports Romfea.

In particular, among other things, the Council decided that religious services will be held without the presence of the faithful. The new measures will go into effect tomorrow and continue until December 31, meaning the faithful will not be able to attend the services for the Nativity of Christ, which has caused an uproar from Cypriot clergy and believers.

The Holy Synod of the Cypriot Church will convene next Tuesday to examine the new measures, Archbishop Chrysostomos said on Cypriot television today. In the meantime, he expects the hierarchs to obey the governmental measures. He also said he spoke with His Eminence Metropolitan Neophytos of Morphou, who reacted strongly to the government measures, but was unable to persuade him.

Met. Neophytos issued a statement, saying: “In the metropolitan area of Morphou, we inform, as the local Metropolitan, that our holy churches will continue their operation and will not be closed in any way.” The services and Sacraments will be celebrated as usual, the Metropolitan declared.

“If the government establishes laws for the protection, as it considers, of the bodily health of the citizens, the Orthodox Church has had its own sacred Tradition and its own laws and sacred rules for 2,000 years, to ensure and maintain the psychosomatic health of the faithful,” he explained.

Other hierarchs have also spoken out. His Eminence Metropolitan Isaiah of Tamassos addressed a letter to President Anastasiadis in response to the.......

[livius]

Good. I don’t think Cyprus has any constitutional protections of religion and, unfortunately, the Archbishop of Cyprus just came out saying that “the Church is not superior to the State” and must do what the state tells it.

So this brave metropolitan is denying both the state and the hierarchy of his own church.

That’s how it happened where I live. The Catholic bishop here not only accepted the city restrictions but imposed more severe ones...but some priests just kept their churches open anyway, although quietly. And now they have virtually full churches. The bishop still doesn’t approve of them, but he prudently ignores them.