Two new Bishops enthroned completing Cyprus’ Holy Synod

Two new bishops were enthroned over the weekend, completing the enlargement of the Holy Synod of the Autocephalous Church of Cyprus.

The two new bishops are Leontios, Bishop of Hitron and Epiphanios, Bishop of Ledras. Leontios was enthroned on Sunday at St. Neofytos Church in Paphos, while Epiphanios at Macheras Monasteri yesterday.

Addressing Bishop Leontios, the primate of the Greek Orthodox Church in Cyprus, Archbishop Chrysostomos II said that the new Bishop assumes a difficult task.

Chrysostomos II said that the Church of Apostle Varnavas (the founder of the Cypriot Church) has always been the spiritual mother of every Cypriot, helping them maintain their Greek identity and Christian individuality.

Replying, Leontios expressed hope that he will be able to fulfill the duties and trust bestowed on him by the Archbishop and pledged that he will always be at the service of the Cypriot Church.

“My thoughts and memories will always be with our occupied villages and towns, the desecrated and destroyed temples and monasteries, the pain of the relatives of the missing persons and our displaced brothers who for 33 years have been suffering,” he said.

Addressing the Bishop of Ledras, Chrysostomos urged Epiphanios to be mindful of the fact that he succeeds the great Clergymen of Ledras Bishopric and recalled that Leontios’ father is one of the persons missing since the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus.

Replying, Epiphanios asked the Archbishop and the other members of the Holy Synod to pray for his success.

”The times are hard and every soul is worth everything in the world,” he said, adding that the responsibility he assumed ”is too big”.