Theology Today - Vol 31, No. 4 - January 1975 - CRITICSCORNER

356 - Carnegie Samuel Calian

A Profile of Makarios
By Carnegie Samuel Calian

IT was a pleasant morning in April, 1970, when Archbishop Makarios III of Cyprus granted me an interview. I was on sabbatical leave, surveying contemporary Eastern Orthodoxy.

As I now recall the interview, in the light of the present crisis on Cyprus, I remember the serenity and poise of the Archbishop sitting behind his desk, personifying his dual offices as primate of the Orthodox Church of Cyprus and as president of the Republic. His mannerisms were unpretentious, his voice soft-spoken, and his penetrating eyes seemed to observe all of my thoughts as well as my being.

Two weeks prior to this interview, there had been an assassination attempt on his life. This event, and the more recent coup of the summer of 1974, remind us that here is a man whose life has been lived in the midst of crisis. Crisis has been his life style ever since he left his studies at Boston University where he was preparing for an academic career in the service of the church. It was in 1948, he related to me, when a telegram from Cyprus informed him that be had been elected bishop of Kition. He was 34 years old at that time. "I didn't want to leave my studies, and so I cabled back my wishes." The reply came back, "You have no choice-the people want you and the church needs you."

Makarios is the son of a Cypriot shepherd farmer. He entered Kykko monastery in Cyprus when he was thirteen years old, and soon thereafter exchanged his family name, Mikkail Khristodolou Mouskos, for the religious name of Makarios or "Blessed."

Soon after his return from Boston to Cyprus, he became actively engaged in the nationalistic aspirations of the Cypriots. Not an easy task in any event, it was made more complicated by the divided nature of the population, approximately 80% are Greek Cypriots and 20% are Turkish Cypriots. The total population today is nearly 650,000 inhabitants. Most of the Greek Cypriots are adherents to the Orthodox Church of Cyprus (approximately 450,000 members). The church was instrumental directly and indirectly in furthering the nationalistic aspirations of the people.

Following the death of Archbishop Makarios II in 1950, Makarios III was elected to succeed him as the youngest archbishop and ethnarch in Cypriot history. The Orthodox Church in Cyprus traces its origin to St. Barnabas in the days of the Apostles. It has been an

Carnegie Samuel Calian is Professor of Theology at the Theological Seminary of the University of Dubuque, Iowa. He has written extensively about Eastern Orthodoxy, applying his Protestant perspective to ecumenical interpretation. Among his books are Berdyaev's Philosophy of Hope (1968), Icon and Pulpit (1968), and The New Man: An Orthodox and Reformed Dialogue (1973). He has recently prepared the article on "Eastern Rite Churches" for the new edition of Encyclopaedia Britannica.

357 - Carnegie Samuel Calian

autocephalous (self-governing) church since the fifth century. Under the leadership of Archbishop Makarios III the church has extended its influence beyond its limited island boundaries. In more recent years, the church has sent help to African Orthodox Christians in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. As he spoke to me, the Archbishop was proud of his church's key role in building the new Orthodox seminary in Nairobi with funds from the Church of Cyprus.

The dual offices-ecclesiastic and governmental-held by Makarios for well over a decade may appear puzzling to the western observer. The Archbishop's role of clerical leadership in secular areas of life is in fact contrary to the historic Byzantine understanding of church-state relations which might be described as a dynarch or symphonia between two coordinated powers. This pointed to the sacerdotium rule of the patriarch and the imperium rule of the emperor, synchronized in harmonious fashion. This symphony of patriarch and emperor symbolized the victory of Christ over the world. Byzantine history reveals, however, that the harmonics of this symphonic relation could not be maintained. Cyprus is a case in point.

With the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks in the fifteenth century, the Byzantine Patriarchate and its traditional practices have regularly undergone numerous subjections and subordinating adjustments to the Turkish authorities. This is true in church-state relations. Under the Turkish sultan, ethnarchs were established through ecclesiastical leadership. The church's influence was paradoxically heightened by her forced concern in secular affairs. As a result, the Ecumenical Patriarch in Constantinople found himself in an unusual two-fold office (both political and ecclesiastical). Makarios inherited this imposed dual position which is actually quite different from the accepted Byzantine stance on church-state relations.

From this more immediate Ottoman tradition, Archbishop Iakovos of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North and South America, has rightly pointed out that the single rule of church and state under Makarios is "eminently explainable and consistent." According toIakovos, "during the centuries of Turkish rule over traditional Hellenic territories in Greece, Asia Minor, Cyprus, and the Mediterranean islands, the Greek people looked for ethnic leadership to the church…. In assuming their roles as Ethnarchs, the Greek Orthodox Church leaders, and the faithful priests of Orthodoxy, are certainly not instigators nor politically ambitious troublemakers. They are simply doing what their people want them to do." While in more recent years there have been rumbles and unsuccessful attempts by some of Makarios' fellow bishops to bring his duality of positions to an end, the fact remains that Cypriots have elected him to both offices, conditioned by the ethnarch tradition inherited from their former Turkish overlords.

Saddled then with the responsibility of providing clerical leadership in secular affairs, Makarios' policies throughout the years have placed

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him in opposition to British, Turkish, and Greek officials at various times. The British resisted him in the 1950's for his advocacy of enosis (union with Greece). They exiled him to the Seychelles Islands and kept him from entering Cyprus for another two years. In 1959, Makarios comprised by dropping his demands for enosis, and an independent Cyprus was formed with Makarios as president along with a Turkish vice-president. Makarios sought an integrated government of Greek and Turkish Cypriots, but he met opposition from Turks who wished to maintain separate control. A United Nations peace-keeping force has been on the island since 1964. More recently, the Greek government under the junta became suspicious of Makarios' friendly gestures toward the Soviet block of nations. Still motivated by the desire for enosis, the Greek government inspired the coup of July, 1974. The coup not only overthrew Makarios' government, but destroyed the fragile balance between the Greek and Turkish Cypriots and thus provided the opportunity for Turkey's invasion of Cyprus.

The Archbishop's program for a nationally independent Cyprus with just accommodations for the Turkish minority is a realistic and sensitive approach to a difficult and complex situation. There are no instant solutions to the Cyprus crisis. With the long and bloody history of hostility between Greeks and Turks, the present painful fighting must be taken in perspective. The goal for a politically unified Cyprus for all Cypriots is still the most viable solution. In retrospect, Makarios' policy for Cypriot nationalism and accommodation for all the people may well be seen as the wisest and best course for the future.

When the second decade of this nation's history is recorded, I have no doubt that the courageous and graceful Archbishop Makarios III of Cyprus will be honored not only as a founding father, but also as the realistic reconciler between Greeks and Turks on Cyprus.

Once the present smoke clears, Archbishop Makarios' tenure as president may be over. Makarios himself is disarming at this point; he views the presidency as temporary, forced upon him by circumstances. If circumstances require the end of his presidency, it is to be hoped that he will continue as the primate of his church, helping the young nation accept new dimensions of political pluralism.