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	War of Words By Elias Hazou Cyprus Mail September 24, 2006 http://www.cyprus-mail.com/news/main.php?id=28061&cat_id=9 The run up to the election of a new Archbishop has been vindictive and, sometimes, downright nasty AND I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee. Ezekiel 25:17 Popularised by Samuel Jackson's don't-mess-with-me character in Pulp Fiction, these words are believed to have been spoken by the Almighty, warning mankind to be righteous and shepherd the weak through the valley of darkness. They are indicative of the fire-and-brimstone mood of the Old Testament, where Yahweh is often an entity to be feared. The key word here is "vengeance", or, more simply, payback. In many ways, the campaign to elect a new Archbishop has been a lot about vindictiveness. For those watching the priests' shenanigans this week, the whole affair has been anything but saintly or harmonious. Indeed, it's been downright visceral. Considering that it took Church leaders ages to declare the throne vacant and thus pave the way for elections, one would have thought that bickering bishops would calm down once the process was set in motion. Not so. The barbs traded by the rival camps throughout the week have put politicians, trained in the art of verbal jousting, to shame. The mudslinging began a while back, when reports surfaced of a sex scandal within the Limassol archbishopric. It was alleged that a high-ranking archimandrite had limited homosexual relations with a youth who had been "recruited" from a local charity. To Limassol bishop Athanasios, one of the candidates for Archbishop, this smacked of a conspiracy to tarnish his image, since he was responsible for the embattled cleric. Vile calumny or not, it perhaps made sense that these sort of charges were lain at the doorstep of Athanasios, who has tried to build a reputation as a pious - fundamentalist some might say - priest, interested primarily in spiritualism and salvation. To the bishop's supporters, it was a low blow. Athanasios hit back, claiming that "elements of the underworld" had attempted to extort him: pay up, or we give the story to the media. Athanasios did not play ball, and the pictures - ostensibly depicting acts of fellatio - later appeared in the newspapers. In the meantime, the involved youth has sued the archimandrite for sexual abuse, because at the time the alleged sexual relations took place he was still a minor. Soon thereafter, rumours began circulating that Nikiforos' partisans were promising people £400 if they voted for him. Presumably the proof would come from pictures of the voting slip taken from mobile phones. There is no smoke without fire, as the saying goes. But whom to believe? Leaving that question aside for a moment, the fact is that this was the opening curtain to the vicious election campaign that ensued. The next episode saw Paphos bishop Chrysostomos, the caretaker of the Church, mixing it up with Nikiforos, the bishop of the incredibly wealthy Kykkos diocese. Chrysostomos said Nikiforos was giving handouts left and right in a bid to buy his way into the coveted throne. Some of these generous donations went to organisations linked to the communist AKEL party, Chrysostomos claimed. And Nikiforos supposedly even financed the purchase of a football player for Omonia, the Nicosia club affiliated to AKEL. The pitch was that, in return, AKEL was mobilising its party apparatus to get Nikiforos elected. In effect, Chrysostomos suggested, Nikiforos would become a puppet in the hands of the party if he were elected Archbishop. An unfazed Nikiforos debunked the salacious allegations. But on a television show this week, he did not deny that his bishopric played the stock market during the bubble of the late 1990s. However, the clergyman said, most of the profits from this investment were eventually returned to the people. So the bishopric had good intentions when it threw money into the stock exchange. Nikiforos even managed to keep a straight face when it was put to him by a journalist that he recently dyed his beard white to appear more saintly. By contrast, Chrysostomos boasted that he owed no one favours, and that it was under his watch that the finances of the Church were straightened out. Perhaps to underscore this, Chrysostomos refused to pay the bill for the services of the police, who are to keep an eye on the ballots on Election Day, ensuring that everything runs smoothly until the boxes arrive in Nicosia for the count. Speaking of election tampering, the latest controversy concerned allegations of not-so-subtle cheating by the staffers of the respective bishops. In one case, a junior cleric running as a representative (or elector) for Nikiforos was said to have somehow appeared on the list of Athanasios. In other words, Father Emilianos (the cleric in question) had been poached by the Athanasios faction. Each camp has published lists of their representatives. Next to each name is the number that will appear on the official ballot, so that voters know beforehand whom to choose on Election Day. Athanasios' zealous supporters countered that Father Emilianos had originally been on their side but was "coerced" into joining Nikiforos' cause. But according to Nikiforos' cohorts, Emilianos was not an Athanasios man in the first place. Indeed, the elderly cleric was duped into signing a document declaring himself a representative for the Limassol bishop. Trying to get at the bottom of all this is a futile exercise. As the cliché goes, truth is the first casualty of war. Campaign quotes "[They are] parked in a basement of filthy mud" - Kykkos bishop Nikiforos derides his critics as smear peddlers. "A clear sky fears not thunder" - Nikiforos "Let him say whatever he wants" - Nikiforos directs his ire at Chrysostomos, after being accused of being AKEL's yes-man "Yes, it's true, I dyed my beard. But what matters is what a person has inside him, not the exterior" - Nikiforos "I cannot comprehend why the hairs on their skin stand up" - a bemused Paphos bishop Chysostomos because his claims of money wasting by rival bishops caused a sensation "I am warning the parties: stay away from the elections. Because, if tomorrow we meddle in their own elections, let them not take offence and pull a long face" - Chrysostomos "How is it possible for a man of God to play the stock market, which has sucked common folk dry?" - Limassol bishop Athanasios, having an oblique dig at Nikiforos
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