Cyprus News Agency: News in English, 10-01-11

Cyprus News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article

From: The Cyprus News Agency at <http://www.cyna.org.cy>

CONTENTS

[01] ISRAELI FM CYPRUS VISIT

[02] ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY CYPRUS HERITAGE

[03] AKROTIRI PENINSULA EXCAVATIONS

[01] ISRAELI FM CYPRUS VISIT

The Israeli Foreign Minister will be received by President of the Republic Demetris Christofias, President of the House of Representatives Marios Garoyian and Archbishop of Cyprus Chrysostomos II. He will also meet the Minister of Communications and Works Nicos Nicolaides with whom he will sign a Maritime Agreement between Cyprus and Israel.

Kyprianou and Lieberman will have talks, with the participation of delegations from the Foreign Ministries of both countries, to discuss bilateral relations, relations between Israel and the EU, the Middle East issue and other regional issues of mutual interest.

[02] ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY CYPRUS HERITAGE

The Archbishop was addressing a luncheon hosted by the Cypriot community in Margate in honour of its guest, after a church service for Epiphany Day and the sanctification of water, headed by the Archbishop of Thyateira and Great Britain Grigorios.

During his speech, Williams said that much has already been said - and I wouldnt add a great deal to that - about the situation in which Cyprus still finds itself. A situation, he added, in which people are not able to visit, in a natural and routine way, the houses of their families and their ancestors and where, sadly, as some photographs I studied over the years have shown, the long, rich and beautiful Greek Christian heritage of the island have been left to decay or deliberately destroyed.

And that is a tragedy not only for Cyprus but the whole of our continent, the whole European family, he noted. He assured that we, your friends in the Church of England, continue to offer prayers on that.

[03] AKROTIRI PENINSULA EXCAVATIONS

This was the third season of systematic excavations (12.10-20.11.2009), conducted at the site of Katalymmata ton Plakoton, of the Akrotiri peninsula, on the south coast, under the directions of the Senior Archaeological Officer of the Department Eleni Procopiou.

During this season the excavation of the rest of the western part of what was most probably the narthex of a very important ecclesiastical building of the end of the 6th or the beginning of the 7th century A.D., which began in 2007, was completed. The narthex has a total length of 14m on an E-W axis and a width of 36m on a N-S axis. It consists of a raised central area, which extends to the west and terminates with an apse. On the east of the raised area, the stylobates of the aisles of the central nave have been found. The remainder of the nave has not yet been excavated. It has been established that this area communicates with the pulpit (ambo) and the Holy Bema to the East by means of a narrow corridor (solea) along the axis of the central aisle.

The arrangement of the central raised area allows its identification with a mitatorium, (the area used by the clergy during the certain parts of the liturgies held at that period in the narthex). According to the Antiquities Department, it is clear from the above evidence that the building was planned and executed with great care from bishops with a deep knowledge of the religious rites and by the most skilled builders of the island or the empire, so as to honour those buried there, who must have been very important people but their memory, for some unknown reason, was not preserved in the tradition of the area.

Cyprus News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article