First Holy Liturgy in Church of Panagia of Lysi since 1974
8 Sep 2019

H.E Bishop Porfyrios Of Neapolis officiated the holy liturgy celebrating the birth of Theotokos, mother of Jesus Christ, at the Church of Panagia of Lysi for the first time ever since 1974.

The Church was packed with a thousand worshippers of all ages. H.E. Bishop Porfyrios expressed the appreciation of the Church Of Cyprus and prayed for all who intervened for today’s church service, in particular, “the Office For the RTCYPP for its continuous support and efforts to advance religious freedom in Cyprus”.

The Church of Panagia of Lysi was built in 1888 by Master builder Yiakoumis from the village of Kontea with heavy influences from the medieval Gothic Cathedrals of St Sophia in Nicosia and St Nicholas in Famagusta.

“It was very emotional to witness one of the priests, a native of Lysi and a valued member of the RTCYPP, assisting the liturgy., said Salpy Eskidjian of the Office for the RTCYPP. Father Savvas was only 12 when he last prayed at this church. After decades he had the opportunity to be part of this historic day in the life of his local community and church as their priest.

The worshippers and clerics expressed their gratitude to all who made this day possible in particular to those who supported and approved their application to pray at their Church on this special occasion. Office for the RTCYPP in its turn extended its appreciation to all who cooperated, facilitated and respected the right to worship.

(Photo credits: Office of Bishop Porfyrios of Neapolis and Mr Pavlos Nacouzi)

16th Special Pilgrimage to Hala Sultan Tekke

RTCYPP coordinated pilgrimage to HalaSultanTekke with 305 pilgrims took place on 13 August 2019 led by the Mufti of Cyprus Prof. Dr Talip Atalay on the occasion of Eid al-Adha/Qurban Bayram 2019.

Executive Director of the Office of RTCYPP who oversaw the crossings and pilgrimage thanked His Excellency the Mufti for the excellent organization and extended the greetings and best wishes of the Christian religious leaders of Cyprus, His Beatitude Archbishop Chrysostomos II, His Eminence Archbishop Khoren Doghramadjian, His Excellency Archbishop Youssef Soueif and the Reverend Father Jerzy Kraj.

Director of Office of RTCYPP winner of International Award for Religious Freedom

U.S. State Department announces on 16 July 2019 that Salpy Eskidjian, Executive Director of the Office of the Religious Track of the Cyprus Peace Process Cyprus, is one of the winners of the International Award for Religious Freedom.

Press Release from the U.S. State Department:

"On July 17, Secretary Pompeo will host the State Department’s first-ever International Religious Freedom Awards ceremony to honor extraordinary advocates of religious freedom from around the world at 6:00 p.m.

The full biographies of the 2019 awardees can be found here and their names are listed below:

• Mohamed Yosaif Abdalrahan of Sudan has worked tirelessly to defend the rights of Sudan’s religious minorities, both in his legal casework and through public advocacy.
• Imam Abubakar Abdullahi of Nigeria selflessly risked his own life to save members of another religious community, who would have likely been killed without his intervention.
• Ivanir dos Santos of Brazil worked exhaustively to support interfaith dialogue, combat discrimination, and create mechanisms for the protection of vulnerable groups.
• William and Pascale Warda of Iraq have devoted their lives to advancing religious freedom and other human rights causes in Iraq.
• Salpy Eskidjian Weiderud of Cyprus has fully committed herself to working with religious leaders, faith-based organizations, and religious communities on a broad range of issues, including religious freedom. She is also one of the architects and facilitators of an unprecedented peacebuilding initiative in Cyprus known as the Religious Track of the Cyprus Peace Process under the Auspices of the Embassy of Sweden based in Nicosia, Cyprus.

This event will be livestreamed on www.state.gov and a press pool will cover the event.

We invite you to use #IRFAwards to follow along with conversations on this year’s awards and #IRFMinisterial for discussions on the Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom. For press inquiries, please contact IRFMinisterialPress@state.gov."

RTCYPP Language Classes Conclude its Fourth Successful Semester

27 June 2019

RTCYPP Language Classes concluded it’s fourth successful semester and welcomed Ambassador of Sweden, Mrs Anna Olsson Vrang, who honoured the unprecedented initiative with her presence and handed certificates to the participants of the 2018-2019 term.

“The RTCYPP Language Classes are one of the most practical peacebuilding initiative and long term investment that gives me hope. I thank each one of you for being here”, Ambassador Olsson Vrang told the participants. “Learning each other’s language is a concrete way to contribute to further nurture mutual respect between the different faith communities of Cyprus and build trust through knowledge as well as interpersonal encounters.”

The Office of RTCYPP initiated the RTCYPP Language Classes in 2017 as a concrete confidence building measure with the approval, full support and blessings of the Christian and Muslim Religious Leaders of Cyprus. For the very first time clerics and laypersons from the mainline religious communities of Cyprus jointly started learning each other’s language.

Organized and hosted by the Office of RTCYPP, classes for Greek and Turkish took place weekly in adjacent rooms at the Home for Cooperation giving the participants a unique opportunity to come together to meet, interact, learn and practise each other’s languages in a friendly environment.   During this time, 25 clerics, laypersons, and nuns from five faith communities endorsed by their respective religious leader, have participated in the course learning either Greek or Turkish. The joint classes and excursions offered a unique opportunity for all to practise their newly learned skills with each other, enter a positive cycle of increased understanding and trust-building through getting to know each other better, and learn about each other’s traditions and cultures more closely.

“Learning and speaking each other’s language is one of the most significant steps toward a unified peaceful coexistence in a divided island where members of the two main communities do not know and speak each other’s language”, said the Director of the Office of RTCYPP Mrs Salpy Eskidjian. “We hope that the members of faith communities learning each others language can be role models in Cyprus, inspiring others to follow in their footsteps.”

The course participants thanked the Office of RTCYPP for this opportunity and the Ambassador of Sweden for all her support. All the participants echoed one another with the same heart-warming message.  “We thank you for providing us with this opportunity, not only to learn each other’s language but to have built friendships on a level we did not expect. We have become a family! We do not come here only as students to learn, we come here to see our family.” The Language Classes are part of the RTCYPP #KnowYourNeighbour initiative and fully funded by the Office of RTCYPP. The current academic term there were 3 priests, 3 imams and 4 laypersons enrolled.

Joint initiatives of the RTCYPP Language Classes during 2018-2019 Term:

The participants helped the Office of RTCYPP to organise four joint excursions to different places of worship, including historic monuments like St John’s Cathedral at the Archbishopric of the Greek Orthodox Church of Cyprus, Bayrakdar Mosque and the St Maroun Chapel and the newly refurbished Betmoroun socio-cultural and pastoral Centre of the Maronite Church of Cyprus. During Ramadan, the RTCYPP Language Course team were welcomed to Hala Sultan Tekke for an Iftar.  Together with the Home for Cooperation, two soap-making workshops in three languages were offered to participants from across the island. Participants also enjoyed a visit to the Centre of Visual Arts and Research (CVAR) – the only bi-communal museum in Cyprus – where they were given a personal tour by its founder and Director and appreciated the Swedish Embassy’s photo exhibition “Swedish Dads”.

The Director of the Office of RTCYPP joins the Ambassador of Sweden to bid farewell to the Swedish contingent of UNFICYP UNPOL, upon the completion of their one-year term of serving UN police. 

Salpy Eskidjian expressed the appreciation of the Office of RTCYPP: “On behalf of the Religious Track, I thank you for being such great role models and for your committed service. We are especially grateful for your valuable role in the three annual special pilgrimages to Hala Sultan Tekke.” 

The two Swedish police officers were the first Swedes to serve in UNFICYP since 1993, and will now join the group of nearly 28 000 veterans who served on the island between 1964 and 1993. They will be succeeded by two new police officers from Sweden.  In addition to its full support to the peacebuilding efforts the Office of RTCPP, Sweden currently has one person seconded to UNFICYP Civil Affairs.