By Emilios Polygenis
Yesterday, Thursday, January 24, Archbishop Chrysostomos of Cyprus made statements at the Synodal Palace, immediately after the end of the Holy Liturgy for the feast of Saint Neophytos.
His Beatitude expressed his gratification for conducting the mass along with a Hierarch of the Ecumenical Patriarchate by stressing: “We are always glad to have representatives of the Mother Church, although, strictly speaking, they are not our Mother, because we exist as a Church before Constantinople. However, we regard it as Mother Church, we love the Patriarchate and our Patriarch.”
Archbishop Chrysostomos, in a journalist’s indication that the new Primate of the Church of Ukraine expressed his desire to visit Cyprus and to cooperate with them, among other things he stressed: “This is normal when a Primate speaks with a local newspaper (cf. the “Phileleftheros” of Cyprus). The first thing to say in order to express his gratification is that he wants to come to the island where the newspaper headquarters are located.”
“The new Primate has been in Cyprus and knows the history of Cyprus. He also speaks fluently Greek. I definitely want him to come to Cyprus. The time to invite him to our island to conduct the mass together, will come. However, we do not hustle, nor it will be long time before we invite him,” added the Head of the Church of Cyprus.
Finally, Archbishop Chrysostomos stressed: “Our Church has fraternal relations with all the Orthodox Churches, even with other denominations. We want to have good relations with all the Churches, and for the first time in synods, we established committees to enter into a dialogue with the Muslims as well.”