The Church of Cyprus will likely open a primary or secondary school in the Faneromeni building in Nicosia after a deal to lease the property to the University of Cyprus collapsed, Archbishop Georgios told Philenews.
The agreement to hand over the building to the university has reached a dead end, the archbishop said, attributing the failure to the finance ministry’s refusal to fund construction of a new building behind Faneromeni that would allow the university’s architecture school to operate properly with all necessary space.
The church wanted the university to move into old Nicosia because it would help support the old city, which is why a related agreement was signed, he said. However, that agreement is now collapsing through no fault of the church’s, he added.
When asked about the reasons behind the deal’s collapse, the archbishop repeated that it stemmed purely from the finance ministry’s decision not to fund construction of the new building behind Faneromeni.
The university considers the existing Faneromeni building’s space insufficient for the architecture school to function smoothly, so government funding for a new building had been agreed. But the finance ministry later decided against funding the new building for its own reasons, he said.
From a financial perspective, the church would have benefited from the university using Faneromeni because the building would have been renovated and the church would have received income from the long-term lease, the archbishop said. However, implementing the agreement did not depend on the church, he added.
Asked about reports that the University of Cyprus still wants the building for other purposes beyond the architecture school, the archbishop said the university does not want Faneromeni to house another school but rather to use it as offices for research programmes.
If they wanted the building for another school, he said, that would be covered by the agreement, and such use would be welcome. But from what he has learnt, they do not want the building for another school.
Regarding the building’s future use, Archbishop Georgios said: Based on how things are shaping up, we want the building for our own purposes.
One of these involves creating the church’s own school—either primary or secondary. The building could be given to another organisation, but for now there has been no discussion of offering it to third parties, he said.
Asked about the school the archbishopric will operate, he said it would function as a private school and its curriculum would include increased teaching hours in Greek language and history. Students planning to study philology, theology and similar subjects would gain more preparation at this school, he explained.
He noted that one of the church’s aims was to operate its own educational institutions, pointing out that the archbishopric already runs three kindergartens. They are housed in church-owned buildings with all necessary staff and follow the ministry’s curriculum, the archbishop said.
Asked about University of Cyprus rector’s comments to Philenews that he was approached by the president of Kapodistrian University effectively requesting the Faneromeni building, the archbishop said what he knows is that Kapodistrian University has not requested Faneromeni from the owner, which is the archbishopric.
