Coronavirus: Church of Greece calls on Cypriot counterpart to rein in Morphou bishop

The Church of Greece has called on their Cypriot counterparts to ask the outspoken Morphou Bishop to tone down his anti-vaccine rhetoric and criticism which it was deemed, interferes with their affairs.

According to state broadcaster CyBC, that cites sources, the Greek Holy Synod filed a complaint with the Church of Cyprus concerning the sermons and statements of Morphou Bishop Neophytos.

The defiant bishop has been vociferous about the coronavirus pandemic and his opposition to the vaccine, despite the fact that the Holy Synod had encouraged the faithful to get inoculated. He said he would not get the jab because he did not want to become like a genetically-modified product.

“I will not become a mutated product of the new order of things, just like the tomatoes we eat year-round and which and are sick and tasteless. That is how the world will become, sick and tasteless,” the bishop said last December.

The bishop was also accused of breaking measures against the spread of coronavirus by encouraging his congregation attend church services despite it was banned and refused to pay a fine imposed on him for his actions.

In a letter to Archbishop Chrysostomos, the Greek primate, Ieronymos II of Athens, said that what Bishop Neophytos has been preaching about prophecies, the coronavirus and the vaccines, criticising the actions and decisions of the Holy Synod or hierarchs of the church of Greece, affect its flock, by scandalising it and influencing it negatively. The Greek Church had also given its blessing for the vaccinations against Covid-19.

The letter was read on Tuesday during a meeting of the Cyprus Holy Synod in Nicosia.

The Greek archbishop raised the issue of the problems caused among the congregation in Greece from the Morphou bishop’s sermons and statements that circulate online. Ieronymos asks that the bishop does not interfere in Greek matters or its spiritual work.

CyBC reported that Neophytos told the Holy Synod that, out of respect for Archbishop Chrysostomos and the Synod, he would refrain from making any statements for now because he does not wish to cause any problems.