Ahead of Cypriot gay pride parade, Synod issues statement

(CyprusMail) - The Christian Orthodox Church is against any form of discrimination and violence but homosexuality was a disease that must undergo medical and spiritual treatment, a senior clergyman said yesterday.

Tamasos Bishop Isaias said while the Church accepted everybody, irrespective of their passions, beliefs, and behaviours, and affords them the help they need, it “rejects and condemns sin and that is why when God forgives a sinner, he advises him and tells him to go and sin no more.”

In a written statement, Isaias said a Church statement on Thursday aimed at stressing this forgiveness and advice.

“It was done with love, concern, and understanding towards all humans,” he said.

The statement was released at the request of many believers who asked the Church to take a stand, “feeling provoked due to recent publications and activities of homosexuals which offend morals and erode the principles of the Christian family.”

The Church’s positions agree with serious scientific studies in relation with homosexuality and that is why the Church and bioethics consider it “a disease and human passion that must undergo medical and spiritual treatment and help.”

On Thursday, the Holy Synod said “Men and women, misled by foreign groups or confused by their own conscience are protesting and claiming that homosexuality is normal and that it should be socially accepted and legally protected. To that end they are also planning a so called ‘pride parade,” the statement said.

The Synod said homosexuality has led to a global lax in morality, which in turn has led to an increase in divorces, paedophilia, AIDS, broken families, unnatural adoption of children and many more.

“These are the strongest arguments against this unnatural way of life,” it said.

The statements come a couple of weeks before the LGBT community holds its first gay pride parade on May 31.