Filenews 7 November 2022
Archbishop Chrysostomos II passed away after a long battle with cancer at the age of 81.
Archbishop Chrysostomos II (born Herodotus Demetriou) was born on April 10, 1941 in the village of Tala in the Pafos district. Immediately after his studies in primary education, he was admitted as a probationary monk at the Holy Monastery of Agios Neophytos, and then studied at the Pafos Gymnasium, from where he graduated in 1963. In November of the same year he was ordained a deacon.
In 1968, Chrysostomos II went to Athens to study and attended the Theological School, from where he graduated in 1972.In October of the same year, he was unanimously elected abbot of the Monastery of St. Neophytos. He was subsequently ordained an elder and established as abbot on November 12 by Archbishop Makarios III. In February 1978 he was elected by acclamation, Metropolitan of Pafos.
Ascension to the Archdiocesan Throne
After the long and irreversible illness of Archbishop Chrysostomos I, an Enlarged Synod was convened under the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in Switzerland in May 2006, which declared the archdiocesan throne of Cyprus vacant. Thus began the procedures for the election of the new Archbishop, which ended on November 5 of the same year with the election of Chrysostom II. His enthronement took place on November 12 and as reported at the time by the media, he was the only archbishop of Cyprus who celebrated the funeral of an archbishop of Cyprus.
The procedures of the Archdiocesan Election
In the elections for archbishop, he received in the popular vote (i.e. the male Orthodox Christians of Cyprus) a little more than 8%. His lieutenants at that time were Kykkos Nikiforos and the Metropolitan of Limassol Athanasios.
In November 2006, in the vote of the representatives of the faithful, Nikiforos got 46 votes, Athanasios 45 and Chrysostom received 9. At the ballot box of ex officio representatives, Kykkou got 11 votes, Limassol 7 and Chrysostomos 12. In the ballot box of the general representatives, Limassol got 48 votes and qualified for the final phase of voting, Kykkou 46 and Chrysostomos 6, which is three fewer than in the first round. At the ex officio ballot box, which would elect the second candidate for archbishop, the Metropolitan of Limassol strengthened Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Pafos. In this context, the Metropolitans of Pafos and Limassol emerged as the final candidates and the Bishop of Kykkos was left out of the electoral process. Then Pafos and Nikephoros came to an agreement and the representatives of Nikephoros voted Chrysostom for archbishop.
The archdiocesan work
Upon taking office, Archbishop Chrysostomos set as his main goal the better functioning of the Church of Cyprus. It is worth noting that during his term of office, the Charter of the Church of Cyprus was modernized, while the Theological School of the Church of Cyprus was also established.
The change of the Charter of the Church of Cyprus
Chrysostom II promoted the change of the church's antiquated previous charter, which had been in force since 1914 and has since been revised twice. The new charter mainly changed the electoral system, upgrading the power of the faithful. However, the changes in the electoral process were not limited, but the borders of the metropolises were changed (the occupied metropolis of Kyrenia was favoured), created a five-member synodal court, where the defendant could be represented by a lawyer, and, finally, changed the procedures for issuing an ecclesiastical divorce.
He also promoted the expansion of the Holy Synod with the reconstitution after 800 years of old dioceses (Constance, Tamassos, Trimythountos, Karpasia, Ledra, Chytron, Amathus, Neapolis) that had been abolished during the Frankish rule by the Latins in 1222. Thus, the Church of Cyprus, as Autocephalous, succeeded in having a full Synod (with at least 13 members) which means that it can now convene a Major and Supremacy Synod without the need for the participation of other Bishops from other Churches.
He also proposed and succeeded, after consultation with the Cypriot government and the Ministry of Finance, the creation of a Single Payroll Body for the Clergy.In this way he achieved the independent payroll of the clergy and ensured the decent living of old and provincial clergy without burdening the state.
The establishment of the Theological School of the Church of Cyprus
The Archbishop managed to establish the Theological School of the Church of Cyprus, a plan that his predecessor Archbishop Makarios III of Cyprus had envisioned but failed to implement due to the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974. The school was founded as a Private School of Higher Education but under its regulation, it was established and operates as a non-profit charitable educational organization.
Miscellaneous
Archbishop Chrysostomos II was honored, among other things, with a medal and as an honorary citizen of Corfu in 2016, on the occasion of the celebration of the 300 years since the solution of the siege of Corfu by the Turks in 1716. Chrysostomos II was also honored as an honorary citizen of Ilia, for his struggles for Cyprus, the Church and Hellenism in a special ceremony, at the Municipal Mansion of Pyrgos by the mayor Gabriel Liatsis. The mayor mentioned the great contribution of the archbishop and the Church to Ilia after the fires of 2007, and in particular to the burnt churches that were restored, to the nursery that was built from the ground up, as well as to historical events that connect pyrgos with the Cypriot struggle for independence.
Also, Chrysostom II in 2017 officially visited Russia. He celebrated a joint liturgy with Patriarch Kirill of Russia who awarded him the Grand Cross of St. Vladimir, which is the highest honorary distinction of the Moscow Patriarchate.
