The Ecclesiastical coup is the name given to the events staged by three bishops of the Orthodox Church of Cyprus against the President of the Republic of Cyprus, Archbishop Makarios III, in the period from March 1972 to July 1973.
The Ecclesiastical coup is the name given to the events staged by three bishops of the Orthodox Church of Cyprus against the President of the Republic of Cyprus, Archbishop Makarios III, in the period from March 1972 to July 1973.
At the session of the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church of Cyprus held on 2 March 1972, Metropolitan Gennadios (Machairiotis) of Paphos, Metropolitan Anthemos (Machairiotis) of Kition and Metropolitan Kyprianos (Kyriakides) of Kyrenia tabled a motion proposing that Archbishop Makarios III resign the Presidency of the Republic of Cyprus. They held that the holding of secular office by a cleric was against the canons of the Church. The Synod released an announcement reporting the position of the bishops, and stating that the Archbishop would announce his response at a later time. [1]
Makarios issued his response on 19 March. In it he accused the three bishops of having conspired among themselves and with other people outside the church, hinting at the Junta of the Colonels ruling Greece at the time, and at George Grivas, leader of the EOKA guerrilla organization, who had secretly returned to Cyprus. Makarios argued that the office of President of the Republic of Cyprus could not be called secular at a time when the Orthodox Greeks of Cyprus were struggling for their national survival, and that in the circumstances the holding of secular office did not confer on the Archbishop any personal reward, but was an onerous and bitter duty which he could not shirk.
The bishops maintained their position and the crisis continued. It finally came to a climax after the unopposed re-election of Makarios to the Presidency of the Republic of Cyprus on 8 February 1973. The three bishops summoned Makarios to account for himself before an extraordinary session of the Holy Synod which they called for 7 March 1973. Makarios replied on 6 March, stating that the Synod the three bishops had called was unconstitutional and therefore any decision it reached would be invalid. The three bishops met among themselves and decided to defrock Makarios. [2]
Makarios called a Major Synod comprising representatives from all Orthodox Patriarchates. They all responded, except the Church of Greece and the Ecumenical Patriarchate whose seat is in Istanbul, Turkey. The Major Synod convened on 5–6 July 1973. It decided to annul the defrocking of Makarios, and to call the three bishops to audience so they could express their views. The three bishops refused to attend the Major Synod, which convened again on 14 July and defrocked them.
When Makarios was forced to flee the island after the military coup of 15 July 1974, the three defrocked bishops entered the limelight again. The coup leaders, having appointed Nikos Giorgades Sampson as President of the Republic, also installed Gennadios as the new Archbishop of Cyprus. Sampson was sworn in as president in a ceremony conducted by Gennadios in the presence of Kyprianos and Anthemos. However, the coupist government collapsed on 23 July as a result of the Turkish military invasion of Cyprus on 20 July. Glafkos Klerides, as Speaker of the House of Representatives, constitutionally took over the powers of the President in the absence of Makarios, but agreed to be sworn in as President before Gennadios, an action which Klerides's detractors suggest was indicative of a pro-coupist orientation on his part at the time. With the return of Makarios to the Presidency and the Archbishopric in December 1974, the three defrocked bishops faded from the political scene.
The Eastern Orthodox Church, officially the Orthodox Catholic Church and commonly known simply as the Orthodox Church is a communion composed of up to seventeen separate autocephalous (self-governing) hierarchical churches that profess Eastern Orthodoxy and recognise each other as canonical (regular) Eastern Orthodox Christian churches.
The Orthodox Church in America (OCA) is an Eastern Orthodox Christian church based in North America. The OCA consists of more than 700 parishes, missions, communities, monasteries and institutions in the United States, Canada and Mexico. In 2011, it had an estimated 84,900 members in the United States.
The Church of Cyprus is one of the autocephalous Greek Orthodox churches that together with other Eastern Orthodox churches form the communion of the Eastern Orthodox Church. It is one of the oldest Eastern Orthodox autocephalous churches; it claims to have always been independent, although it may have been subject to the Church of Antioch before its autocephaly was recognized in 431 at the Council of Ephesus. The bishop of the ancient capital, Salamis was constituted metropolitan by Emperor Zeno, with the title archbishop.
Makarios III was a Greek Cypriot archbishop, primate, statesman and politician, who served as the first President of Cyprus between 1960 and 1977. He was also the Archbishop of the autocephalous Church of Cyprus from 1950 to 1977.
Macarius is a Latinized form of the old Greek given name Makários (Μακάριος), meaning "happy, fortunate, blessed"; compare the Latin beatus and felix. Ancient Greeks applied the epithet Makarios to the gods.
In several of the autocephalous Eastern Orthodox churches and Eastern Catholic Churches, the patriarch or head bishop is elected by a group of bishops called the Holy Synod. For instance, the Holy Synod is a ruling body of the Georgian Orthodox Church.
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kyiv Patriarchate is an Orthodox church in Ukraine, and self-identifies as the successor to the original Kyivan Ruthenian Patriarchate. It came into existence in 1992, and had the largest number of Orthodox Christian followers in all of Ukraine for most of its primary existence.
Patriarch Filaret is a Ukrainian religious leader, currently serving as the primate and Patriarch of the unrecognized Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kyiv Patriarchate. The Orthodox Church of Ukraine, that he left in 2019, views him as the Honorary Patriarch emeritus, while the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople recognises him as former Metropolitan of Kyiv. He was formerly the Metropolitan of Kiev and the Exarch of Ukraine in the Patriarchate of Moscow (1966–1992). After joining the Kyiv Patriarchate, he was defrocked and in 1997 excommunicated by the ROC.
Archbishop Iakovos of North and South America was the primate of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North and South America from 1959 until his resignation in 1996.
The 1974 Cypriot coup d'état was a military coup d'état executed by the Cypriot National Guard and sponsored by the Greek military junta. On 15 July 1974 the coup plotters removed the sitting President of Cyprus, Archbishop Makarios III, from office and installed pro-Enosis nationalist Nikos Sampson. The Sampson regime was described as a puppet state, whose ultimate aim was the annexation of the island by Greece; in the short term, the coupists proclaimed the establishment of the "Hellenic Republic of Cyprus". The coup was viewed as illegal by the United Nations.
The Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain is an archdiocese of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople in the Eastern Orthodox Church. The incumbent archeparch is Nikitas Loulias. Its jurisdiction covers those Orthodox Christians living in the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands. The adherents are largely of Cypriot Greek descent, mainland Greek migrants and their descendants, and more recently native British converts along with a few Poles, Belarusians, and Ukrainians. The episcopal seat is the Cathedral of Holy Wisdom which is situated in the city of London.
The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia is the Australian archdiocese of the Greek Orthodox Church, part of the wider communion of Eastern Orthodox Christianity. The archdiocese is a jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. As of 2023, there were over 130 parishes and eight monasteries in the seven diocesan districts of the archdiocese in Australia.
The Orthodox Church of Ukraine, also called Ukrainian Orthodox Church, is an Eastern Orthodox church in Ukraine. It is one of 16 autocephalous Eastern Orthodox churches, 15th listed in diptych.
This is a timeline of the presence of Orthodoxy in Greece from 1924 to 1974. The history of Greece traditionally encompasses the study of the Greek people, the areas they ruled historically, as well as the territory now composing the modern state of Greece.
The Pan-Orthodox Council, officially referred to as the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church, was a synod of set representative bishops of the universally recognised autocephalous local churches of the Eastern Orthodox Church held in Kolymvari, Crete. The Council sat from 19 to 26 June 2016.
This is a timeline of the presence of Eastern Orthodoxy in Greece from 2008. The history of Greece traditionally encompasses the study of the Greek people, the areas they ruled historically, as well as the territory now composing the modern state of Greece.
Gregorios Theocharous of Thyateira and Great Britain served as the Greek Orthodox Archbishop of Thyateira and Great Britain under the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. He was elected Archbishop by the Sacred and Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate on 16 April 1988. He resigned on 12 June 2019 for health reasons and has been succeeded by Nikitas Loulias. He died on 20 November 2019. His funeral took place on 5 December 2019 at St Mary's Greek Orthodox Church, Wood Green.
Ezekiel Kefalas is a retired hierarch of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople based in Melbourne, Australia. Titled Bishop of Dervis, Kefalas served as an assistant bishop within the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia from 1977 until his retirement in November, 2021 when he was elevated to the honorary title of Metropolitan of Dervis.