Since I found The Continuum I have really appreciated Fr Hart's entries, because as an Evangelical Anglican priest in the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East, (of the 'original' Anglican communion) I have found his contributions stimulating and challenging. However his remarks about Cyprus today really annoyed me. To be charitable, I assume out of ignorance of what God is doing here today and probably being unaware of how far at times the Church of Cyprus has strayed from God's ways. I don't want to labour this last point too much as there is no perfect church anywhere; any church is comprised of sinners. However one of the reasons that the Turkish Cypriots living in my part of Cyprus are so difficult to reach with the Gospel is that in living memory and folk memory they associate the Orthodox Church of Cyprus as being totally wedded to the EOKA terrorist group, who were trying, in the 50's & 60's, to rid the island of TC's (and the colonial British rulers), to effect Enosis or union with Greece. One of my parishioners has a picture of Archbishop Makarios (who went on to be the Republic of Cyprus's first president) blessing bombs for use by EOKA.
Much more positively is the work of God in this amazingly cosmopolitan society. Here are just a few examples. There are 20,000 Chinese in south Cyprus. The Greek Evangelical Church in Larnaca some years ago spawned an English congregation, which in turn recently spawned a Chinese Church which is growing apace; a daughter congegation has been planted in Nicosia; another in Limassol is planned. There are overflowing Filipino Churches everywhere, an Arabic Church in Limassol that has been brought about through the vision of a Sri Lankan church there. In the Pafos area aside from about 5 English speaking congregations including 3 Anglican, the is an American pastor running a Church for E. Europeans - he was previously in Russia for a number of years. In the north the Turkish Church in Kyrenia recently baptised about 15 Bulgarian Turks and had heavy handed police interference as a result. St. Mark's in Famagusta has a 95% Nigerian attendance from just about every denomination you can think of - and until recently we met in a beautiful building built by the Nestorians, and who would have worshipped Syriac (E. Aramaic). The first known service in English in Cyprus was at the wedding of King Richard and Queen Berengeria in the 12th Century. There are resident Lutheran Scandinavian and German priests on the island; there are Maronites from antquity, and the Anglicans have been here since British rule commenced in the late 19th century. God has moved, God continues to move. It's His world He is on a mission and we need to catch up with Him.
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