Nicosia, June 19, 2025
Photo: romfea.gr
By unanimous vote of the six-member Synodal Court of the Orthodox Church of Cyprus, a priest who publicly condemned the dethroning of His Eminence Metropolitan Tychikos of Paphos and accused the Archbishop and Synod of failing to follow proper procedures and stand up for Orthodoxy, has been defrocked.
Among the accusations against Met. Tychikos was that he ordained Fr. Dimos Serkelidis and sent him to serve in Thessaloniki, where the priest allegedly joined a group of clerics who, as a form of protest, do not commemorate the local hierarch.
However, Fr. Dimos published a video defending Met. Tychikos, saying he went to Thessaloniki for familial reasons and that he did not join the “walling off” movement. He also strongly condemned Abp. Georgios and the Cypriot Synod, saying they made no attempt to find out the truth of the matter, but simply ran with various accusations to remove a hierarch who was taking a strong stand against ecumenism.
On May 30, it was announced that Fr. Dimos was suspended for a period of six months. He again protested and accused the Archbishop of ecclesiastical crimes.
And yesterday, the Synodal Court handed down a unanimous sentence of defrocking, based on “the divine and holy canons of the Orthodox Church and the provisions of the statutes of the Church of Cyprus.”
The announcement does not indicate which canons Fr. Dimos violated.
Two of the six hierarchs who voted to defrock the priest, Metropolitan Athanasios of Limassol and Bishop Pangratios of Arsinoe, were among those who voted against the dethroning of Met. Tychikos.
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