Nicosia, Cyprus, September 9, 2019
His Beatitude Archbishop Chrysostomos II of Cyprus gave a press conference on Friday, September 6, in which he addressed a number of topics, including the recent commotion surrounding His Eminence Metropolitan Neophytos of Morphou, and his recent visits with a number of his brother primates of other Local Churches to discuss the contentious Ukrainian issue.
“We hold a strict stance, we want Orthodoxy united and we are working to not cause a split,” Abp. Chrysostomos said, reports Romfea.
To this end, the Cypriot primate has met simultaneously with the primates of the ancient Patriarchates of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem, and separately with the Patriarchs of Bulgaria and Serbia and the Archbishop of Greece. He commented after his visits that he is encouraging everyone to work together to come to a consensus on how to proceed, warning of the potential dangers involved in any primate or Local Church acting unilaterally, as Constantinople did in Ukraine.
However, his diplomatic peacekeeping mission did not please Pat. Bartholomew, Abp. Chrysostomos revealed: “We have taken the first step. We tried to begin seeing different Church primates and discovered that the Ecumenical Patriarch didn't want something like this. After that we just said, ‘Did we commit a murder?’ We stop here!”
The Archbishop also emphasized that the Cypriot Church seeks to maintain good relations with all Orthodox Churches: “As the Church of Cyprus we did not say we recognize [the ‘Orthodox Church of Ukraine’—ed.], but we do not recognize either. We maintain a neutral relationship, and we want to have good relations with everyone.”
