Anglican Church in South East Cyprus

The Ayia Napa Chaplaincy was begun purely as a ministry to holiday makers at the artificially created post-1974 holiday resort at what once upon a time was a fishing shelter surrounded by a few cottages and with a disused monastery on the hill above. In May 1978 the old monastery became an ecumenical Christian conference centre. Ministry to the tourists and the small number of local ex-pat residents was the brain child of the then Provost of St. Paul’s Cathedral, Nicosia, Patrick Blair, as there was no Anglican presence beyond Larnaca except at the Dhekelia and Ayios Nikolaos British bases, access to which was becoming increasingly difficult and now almost impossible to obtain.

Worship was until very recently held in the Gatehouse Chapel of the old monastery. The first references to there being Anglican services on file were Easter and Pentecost Sundays of 1992. For a number of years from 1993 the ministry was only seasonal and almost always taken by visiting retired and/or holiday priests. The first entry in a Chaplaincy Journal – now abandoned -was from a Rev John Peters on Sunday 25th April 1993. A succession of chaplains followed whom many remember their going about on a chaplaincy bicycle – that we still have as a garden ornament – until the middle of December that year (see appendix). In 1996 the newly arrived chaplain was still taking about cycling to Ayia Napa to collect the mail from the house that the chaplain still occupies in Paralimni. The next years the pattern was repeated until the arrival of the Rev & Mrs Michael and Eileen Watkins in January 1997 who stayed until December that year, were back from March to September in 1998 and were involved on the fringes of the interview process of Rev Robin & Val Brookes the present chaplain and wife, and finally returned to hold the fort with others in January 1999 until the Brookes’ arrival in May 1999. Robin & Val Brookes were appointed in conjunction with the Intercontinental Church Society whom Patrick Blair had always involved in the ministry to Ayia Napa from the beginning. The ministry is now described as covering Southeast Cyprus as those attending worship and midweek activities travel in from as far afield as Oroklini, inland from Larnaca and Boğaz, some considerable distance around the Famagusta Bay in the Turkish Northern sector.

The present ministry has five main strands:

1	Ministry to local expatriate residents who, whilst these could be once upon a time almost be counted on one hand, are increasing exponentially as the immediately pre and post EU entry housing boom continues apace;
2	Ministry to migrant workers, mostly from Philippines and India
3	Ministry to tourists
4	Prayerful and practical support for the 24-7 prayer ministry teams that come each summer to work in the nightclubs and bars and on the beaches and wherever young people can be reached for Christ
5	Marriage ministry, for couples mainly from the UK. This latter ministry is exceedingly time consuming for the chaplain at all times of the year, but especially in the ‘marriage season’ between April and October

All strands of ministry are upheld by the offering of regular worship and a focus on prayer.

Reflections by the Rev Douglas Gibson

The tourist ministry was established in 1993. Before this, the Ven.Patrick Blair held three services in the Monastery Easter and Whitsun 1992, and Easter 1993; but because of commitments as Provost of Nicosia, these had to be in the evening. The Rev. Riad Jarjour, who along with his wife, Rosa, was in charge of the Ayia Napa Conference Centre, at the Monastery, had always been keen that there should be a service in English in the mornings. As soon as the first chaplain came out, a regular service was begun at 11 a.m. This left the evening free for a separate service in the Protaras area, and the first chaplain was soon able to start one in the Sunrise Beach Hotel.

In 1993 the chaplain was based at a small flat at one end of Ayia Napa. In 1994 the *Vicarage" was moved to a larger one Flat No.5. Geo Xenia Court, Protaras. Also during the year, a small car was purchased for the chaplaincy, thanks to a special grant from the Intercontinental Church Society in London. This relieved the local accounts of the heavy cost of car rental.

My own involvement with the chaplaincy came through ICS. After retiring in April 1988, I began 8 years of Young at Heart ministry with Thomsons the following winter. I also did holiday duty in Ostend, Bruges and Knocke, took part in a feasibility study at Grenoble and helped during an interregnum at St. Barnabas, Limassol in July /August 1992. It was whilst on the latter that we became acquainted with Patrick, who was Rural Dean of Cyprus.

We opened the chaplaincy on Palm Sunday, 19th March 1994 following a gap since the previous Christmas. The same thing happened in 1995, by which time the Vicarage had moved to No.176, 1' April Street, Paralimni. Soon after our arrival in 1994, I approached the Programme Director at Napa Radio, Suzanne Melas, who readily agreed that I should contribute a three minute Pause for Thought" on Sunday mornings at 10.05 a.m. My experience whilst working with Radio Derby between 1975 and 1977 helped in the negotiations. I was able to establish a good relationship with the disc jockey, Matthew French, who would plug the services in between the pop music. Other chaplains, who felt competent, took up this opportunity.

We established good relationships with the R.C. priest from Larnaca, who conducted a service at 5 p.m. on Sundays in the Gatehouse Chapel, also the German Lutheran pastor who held an Easter Day service at 10 a.m. in the Cloisters prior to our own service there. We also had good fellowship with the Swedish/Norwegian chaplains.