Outspoken head of Cypriot Orthodox Church dies aged 81

Archbishop Chrysostomos II influenced politics and spiritual life on the divided island, main the Church since 2006.

Greek Orthodox clergymen carry the coffin of the late Archbishop Chrysostomos II in Nicosia [Yiannis Kourtoglou/Reuters]

The pinnacle of Cyprus’s dominant Orthodox Church, Archbishop Chrysostomos II, has died on the age of 81, based on his docs.

A forceful character who confronted down pro-Russian components in one of many world’s oldest church buildings, Chrysostomos was among the many Orthodox leaders who recognise the Ukrainian Church’s independence after it broke from Moscow in 2020.

The Church of Cyprus, an unbiased department of the Japanese Orthodox communion, traces its lineage again to Barnabas, one in every of Christ’s first followers.

In Nicosia, clergymen in flowing black robes had been seen on Monday carrying a coffin from the Archbishopric, the place Chrysostomos died, to a close-by church.

Chrysostomos, who was elected archbishop in 2006, had been important of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s choice to invade Ukraine.

An Orthodox priest stands in entrance of Archbishop Chrysostomos II’s coffin in St Barnabas Cathedral [Petros Karadjias/AP]

“Mr Putin can go to church, he can take communion, however on the identical time, he kills. Is that his Orthodoxy?” he stated in an interview with the Cyprus Broadcasting Company this 12 months.

The ruling physique of the Cypriot Orthodox Church, the Holy Synod, agreed by a majority to recognise the independence of the Church in Ukraine, although some voted towards it, threatening a rift.

Steeped in historical past, Cypriot archbishops nonetheless take pleasure in privileges bestowed by a Byzantine emperor within the fifth century. They signal paperwork in cinnabar pink, maintain an imperial workers and put on purple below their vestments.

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, head of the estimated 300 million Orthodox Christians worldwide, stated he was “deeply moved” by Chrysostomos’s dying.

The Patriarch plans to attend Chrysostomos’s funeral, a press release from the Ecumenical Patriarchate stated.

Identified with most cancers 4 years in the past, Chrysostomos took a dim view of clerics resisting vaccination throughout the coronavirus pandemic, threatening to fireside these talking out towards the jab.

He was additionally fiercely important of Turkey, which invaded the north of Cyprus in 1974.