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2007

  • January 2007 : Re-establishment of ancient bishoprics of the Orthodox Church of Cyprus

During the last year, a process was completed that begun immediately after the end of the archbishop elections in Cyprus and concerned the re-establishment of ancient bishoprics of the Orthodox Church of Cyprus. With this reconstitution, the members of the Holy Synod of the Church of Cyprus significantly increased, making it complete in terms of church rules and the Church of Cyprus should be able to govern itself without the need for mediation of neighboring patriarchies.

In the first centuries of its existence, the Church of Cyprus had a total of 14 bishops. These were the episcopes Tamasou, Lidras, Trimythountos, Karpasias, Chytron, Kyrineias, Lampousis, Solon, Kitiou, Amathountos, Kourou, Neapolis, Paphos and Arsinoe. Most of these episcopes were dispensed with during the Frankish period (1192-1489) in 1222 with a papal edict (Bulla Cypria of 1260). During the Ottoman period (1571-1878) and during the colonial period (1878-1960) the Church of Cyprus beyond the Archdiocese throne also had the metropolis of Paphos, Kyrineias and Kitiou. Partial increase of metropolitan thrones is noticed after the 1973 religious crisis, when with the initiative of the Archbishop Makarios III, the bishoprics of Limassol and Morphou were created.

With this latest process of re-establishing ancient bishoprics of the Church of Cyprus, the following ancient episcopates were once more reconstituted:

 Metropolis Constantias and Famagusta, established in Famagusta and with a temporary see in Paralimni;
 Metropolis Kykkou and Tillyrias with a See at the monastery Kykkou;
 Metropolis Tamasou and orinis with see at the village Episkopio;
 Metropolis Trimythountos with a See in Trimythounta and with a temporary See in Dali;
 Chorepiskopi of Karpasia;
 Chorepiskopi of Arsinoe;
 Chorepiskopi of Amathouse;
 The Hegymens of the monasteries of Machera and of Saint Neophyte were promoted to the rank of bishop of Lidras and Bishop of Chytron respectively.As the reader may imagine, the formal process of reconstitution of these seats took several month.

The full list of the members of the current Holy Synod of the Church of Cyprus is available as a pdf document.

Michalis N. Michail; translated from Greek by Margarita Mino.

D 15 March 2007   

CNRS Unistra Dres Gsrl

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