HUNDREDS of pilgrims travelled to Apostolos Andreas monastery in the Karpas peninsula on Sunday to take part in the service to mark the saint’s name day.
With the monastery currently under renovation, the liturgy was carried out at the temporary church set up in one of the monastery’s auxiliary buildings by Karpasia’s Bishop Christophoros.
Speaking at another Apostle Andreas church in Strovolos, Archbishop Chrysostomos said that the renovation work at the crumbling monastery in the north was going smoothly.
The work, for which the Cyprus church and the Turkish Cypriot religious foundation EVKAF signed a €2.5m agreement each, is being carried out by a partnership between a Greek Cypriot and a Turkish Cypriot construction company and is being overseen by the United Nations development programme.
The project is in accordance with the designs of the University of Patras of Greece and is expected to be completed in April 2016.
The archbishop said that he had asked the Turkish Cypriot Mufti Dr Talip Atalay for his help in plans to also renovate the monastery near Famagusta dedicated to the founder of the church in Cyprus, Apostle Varnavas. The saint’s grave is located at the monastery.
“We have to preserve our monuments before they collapse because then it will be too late and we will not be able to rebuild them,” the archbishop said.
Cyprus Mail