[World Council of Churches] The World Council of Churches president for Eastern Orthodox Churches, Metropolitan Vasilios of Ammochostos, has three-quarters of his diocese on the island of Cyprus under Turkish occupation, but no Christians are still living in the occupied part.

He was part of the WCC central committee which, at its June 21-27 meeting, expressed ongoing concern about two significant territorial crises in the eastern Mediterranean: those within Palestine and Israel, and those within Cyprus.

Vasilios, who studied theology in Athens and Fribourg in Switzerland, spoke to the WCC communications team during the central committee meeting about “the painful past” of his Mediterranean island, of which his part is an independent republic. “These politically driven conflicts have resulted in illegal occupations that have spanned decades,” read a minute, or statement, released by the WCC’s governing body.

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