Archbishop elections on December 18 (Update 3)

The elections for a new archbishop will be held on December 18, the Holy Synod said on Monday.

Nominations will be submitted on November 22.

Bishop of Paphos Georgios, currently the caretaker of the Church of Cyprus, said that following the 2010 amendment to the church charter, parishioners will be able to vote in their parish.

This will be the first public vote held after the amendment, which states that anyone who is Christian Orthodox and has been a citizen of Cyprus for at least a year has the right to vote for a new archbishop.

Georgios clarified that non-Cypriots who are not registered parishioners and wish to vote must register, submitting proof of their residency status and that they have been baptised Christian Orthodox.

It was also agreed that instead of the blank piece of paper normally used in such an election, ballots will be printed with the names and photographs of candidates.

He said this amendment was approved by the Holy Synod after a majority vote of 15 for and one against. Until now, parishioners could write down whomever they wanted to be archbishop, and could vote for essentially any senior rank of the clergy, including deacons.

It was also decided that government officials will supervise polling stations, where representatives of the candidates will be present.

Ioannis Charliaou, director of the central ecclesiastical fund, will be in charge of drawing up the electoral registers based on the areas covered by each parish, which will be different from the registers for political elections as they will exclude non-Christian Orthodox residents of these areas, such as Maronites, Armenians and Turkish Cypriots.

As for the enclaved, arrangements will be made so they can vote like they do in political elections.

As per the charter, elections should be held within 40 days of the throne being empty, and according to the Paphos bishop, the late archbishop’s 40-day memorial service will be held on the same day as the elections, “unless the Holy Synod decides to move it to December 17”.

Meanwhile Bishop Christoforos of Karpasia became the latest to throw his hat in the ring for the upcoming succession of the archbishop’s throne.

This brings to seven out of the 16 members of the Holy Synod that have expressed an interest. Also interested are the bishops of Kyrenia, Morphou, Constantia, Paphos, Limassol and Tamassos.

In a statement, the bishop of Karpasia he said he was not doing this because he felt the most worthy for the title, but as a high ranking priest who “through the church system and with absolute respect to the difference between the two posts, will proceed with love and peace regardless of the outcome, for the benefit of the church and the country”.

The election of a new archbishop is primarily a purely ecclesiastical event, rather than an electoral process, he added, which means it cannot be treated as an ordinary secular process, “which exudes contention, confrontation, conflicts and human passions and weaknesses”.

In this ecclesiastical event “we are not looking for the best candidate, because there is simply none who is better than the rest,” the bishop said.

“The primate of a church does not act on his own, nor does he impose his own agenda or govern by himself, but synodically, consensually, unifying and in the spirit of brotherhood, love and understanding alongside others”.

Although about 60 senior clerics are eligible to contest the throne of the archbishop, vacated after the passing of Chrysostomos II, in practice the race will come down to six or seven individuals.

Eligible for the throne are all the members of the Holy Synod, as well as celibate elders and deacons who hold a degree from an accredited school of theology and who have held a ministry for at least 10 years. Candidates must be at least 35 years of age.

Through a process, the Holy Synod will then select the new archbishop from the top three contenders after all registered parishioners have written down who they think the next archbishop should be.

Georgios told reporters that he could not give an exact date for when this decision would come out, since the date could be moved if there are any issues with the registration of parishioners.

Asked why the elections were not allowed to take place after the Epiphany, he said that “some brothers did not want to, because while some are ready, they might not give others the chance to prepare.

“It is humane,” he said, adding that the decision taken was by majority.

A survey carried out this summer had given Limassol Bishop Athanasios a firm lead – around 17 percentage points ahead of the second, Bishop of Tamassos Isaias.