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Save Apostolos Andreas
The Apostolos Andreas Monastery
The Lady at Apostolos Andreas
Monastery, Cyprus. At St. Andrew's monastery in Cyprus,
lives 89-year-old Despina. She is the sole guardian and
caretaker of the monastery, which is one of the most
important pilgrimage sites for Orthodox Christians,
because the tradition is St. Andrew visited and stayed
there. She is an amazing woman and is still very active.
The reason for her isolation, is that all the members of
the committee are either too old or passed away, and it
is uncertain if the Turkish government will allow new
Orthodox Christians to move into the area, so it is
vitally important to get some volunteers to help keep
the monastery alive.
The monastery is in serious need of repair and is
currently being held up by scaffolding and supports. The
Turkish police are the only people allowed to stay in
the monastery. If you raise a paint brush or try and
straighten a grave you will be arrested. There is
restoration work planned on the monastery, and as a
Bi-Communal initiative on the Hala Sultan mosque in the
south, so there is some hope. However despite the
donations of 8,000,000 Euros and permission from Turkey,
the work scheduled to be completed by St. Andrew’s day
2009 has not started.
<The Monastery is in need of volunteers, and repair
This is because the non-Cypriot market, whose
customers are mostly from the south needs to move to
allow the building machines access. New market stalls
have been built with funding from the south and the
traders have agreed to move. However they still have not
and are blocking the machines’ access to the site. We
need to negotiate with them effectively and swiftly.
Apostolos Andreas is an important place for all Cypriots
as the Greek speakers worship there, and the Turkish
Cypriots also visit to make a wish and venerate St.
Andrew. It is also an important symbol of the freedom to
worship in the north of Cyprus.
A desecrated graveyard on North Cyprus
It will be a tragedy if this beautiful and historic site falls into the sea. Most of the churches in north Cyprus, approximately 5000 of them, have been looted and the graves yards desecrated. It is therefore likely that looters will strip the monastery of the priceless art work if Despina is forced to retire, and is not replaced by other staff, volunteers or otherwise. If we allow Apostolos Andreas to close with Despina, we will lose for ever the tradition that started in Cyprus almost 2000 years ago.
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