THE FIRST skirmish in the battle between the Holy Synod of the independent Cyprus Orthodox Church and the See of Morphou has been won by a people determined to choose their bishop.
On Saturday, after a week of popular protest, the Synod suspended the trial on charges of "immoral conduct" of the people's choice, Archmandrite Pancratios Meraclis (an archmandrite is the superior of a group of monasteries), and postponed the election of a new bishop of Morphou.
The Synod apparently decided to freeze the situation because, as the head of the archmandrite's support committee, Mr Demetrakis Evgeneou, put it "Everything was leading towards Pancratios being enthroned as bishop."
The Synod was, on the one hand, obliged to suspend the trial because key witnesses brought to testify that the accused had engaged in homosexual activity were alleged to have been involved in prostitution and drug dealing themselves. On the other hand, the Synod postponed the election because the 50 electors who would select a bishop were to be chosen tomorrow by 200 special representatives, 190 of whom support the archmandrite.
The Synod took these decisions at the end of a week of crisis which began when thousands of demonstrators greeted the archmandrite on his return to the island from exile in Greece.
On Thursday, as the trial started behind closed doors, 2,000 rock throwing demonstrators stormed the Archbishopric in the walled city of Nicosia and clashed with riot police armed. More than 80 people were injured and scores arrested. Commentators promptly called for the resignation of Archbishop Chrysostomos, who caused the confrontation with the Morphou diocese by opposing the election of the archmandrite. Father Meraclis is known for his work among Aids patients and drug addicts, a priest who shed his cassock to go among, as the archbishop put it, the "people of the night".
The archbishop's aim was to impose his own candidate, a prelate more at home in a boardroom than an Aids hospice. But the archbishop learnt too late the hard lesson of tackling the Morphiots, tough, well organised refugees from the northern part of the island occupied by the Turkish army in 1974.
Although similar disputes between prelates and their flock have taken place during the 2,000 year history of the church, today's clash shows surprising vigour in the Morphou branch. One insider told The Irish Times the church had lost "its unity, moral stature and political clout . . . the press, which never, never openly criticises the church is speaking out and condemning the archbishop."
As one commentator wrote: "... all the accusations and insults hurled at Pancratios by the archbishop have boomeranged on himself."
