Head of Cyprus Church, Archbishop Chrysostomos, dies aged 81

NICOSIA – The pinnacle of Cyprus’s unbiased Greek Orthodox Church, Archbishop Chrysostomos II, died early on Monday, his docs stated. He was 81.

A forceful character who stared down pro-Russian components within the Church, Chrysostomos was amongst Orthodox leaders to recognise the independence of the Church of Ukraine from the Orthodox Church in Moscow in 2020.

He had been important of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Mr Putin can go to Church, he can take communion, however on the identical time kills. Is that his Orthodoxy?” He stated in an interview to the Cyprus Broadcasting Company earlier this yr.

Chrysostomos was elected Archbishop in 2006. The Church of Cyprus is an unbiased department of the Japanese Orthodox communion.

Recognized with most cancers 4 years in the past, Chrysostomos took a dim view of clerics resisting vaccination to the coronavirus pandemic, threatening to fireplace these vocal towards the jab. He was additionally fiercely important of Turkey, which invaded the northern third of Cyprus in 1974 after a short Greece-inspired coup.