The Orthodox Church of Cyprus occupies a special, if not an exceptional, position within the religious landscape of Eastern Orthodox Christianity. It is a well-suited case, albeit insufficiently studied, that helps to shed light onto the hitherto under-explored relationship between Orthodox Christianity and economic life. This article cannot offer a full elaboration of the broader problematic concerning the relationship between religion and economy (see Dana, 2010; Oslington, 2014). It is necessary therefore to specify that the issue addressed here concerns solely the church’s actual economic activities and not the broader problematic of Orthodoxy Christianity’s relations with the economic sphere and development.
The following discussion begins with a brief primer on the historical evolution of the Church of Cyprus in order to explain why and how, unlike other Orthodox Churches, it has maintained an active role in economic matters. It argues that this has come about mainly as a resul...