{"id":6758,"date":"2024-04-04T00:00:17","date_gmt":"2024-04-03T21:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ch.jfdi.cc\/?p=6758"},"modified":"2024-04-04T00:00:17","modified_gmt":"2024-04-03T21:00:17","slug":"church-runs-illegal-lottery-to-fund-unpermitted-monastery-construction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ch.jfdi.cc\/?p=6758","title":{"rendered":"Church runs illegal lottery to fund unpermitted monastery construction"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Church of Panagia Ayia Napa has come under fire for conducting an unlicensed raffle to raise funds for the completion of a monastery being built illegally in a protected area.<br \/>\nThe raffle, which offered prizes including a gold medallion, was organised without the necessary permits from either the Ministry of Interior or the Ministry of Finance, philenews reports.<br \/>\nThe funds raised were intended to support the Monastery of Saint Efraim and Saint Catherine, a controversial project currently facing demolition orders due to a lack of environmental approvals and building permits.<br \/>\nAccording to the Ministry of Finance, which oversees lotteries in Cyprus, the Church\u2019s actions constitute a serious offence.<br \/>\nThe Ministry plans to contact the Bishopric of Constantia and Famagusta demanding an immediate halt to the raffle. Additionally, the Ministry will forward a report detailing the illegalities to the Police for further investigation.<br \/>\nThe raffle tickets also included a section for collecting donations through specific bank accounts.<br \/>\nHowever, the Church has clarified that these accounts are not designated for the monastery project but are used for general charitable purposes, such as distributing food and medicine to low-income families.<br \/>\nEnvironmental groups, including the Ecologist Movement, have condemned the Church\u2019s actions.<br \/>\nGiorgos Perdikis, the Movement\u2019s President, questioned the legitimacy of the raffle and criticised the Church for promoting an unlawful construction project.<br \/>\nThe illegality of the Church\u2019s raffle highlights the ongoing controversy surrounding the Monastery of Saint Efraim and Saint Catherine.<br \/>\nThe project faces potential demolition due to its violation of environmental regulations and zoning laws.<br \/>\nRead more:<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-in-cyprus-com wp-block-embed-in-cyprus-com\"><\/figure>\n<p>Monastery. unlicensed raffle, completion of monastery, illegal construction<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Church of Panagia Ayia Napa conducted an unlicensed raffle to raise funds for an illegally built monastery in a protected area. The Ministry of Finance considers this a serious offense and plans to demand an immediate halt to the raffle, as well as forward a report to the police for investigation. The raffle tickets also included a section for collecting donations, but the Church clarified that the funds were for general charitable purposes, not specifically for the controversial monastery project. Environmental groups have condemned the Church&#8217;s actions, questioning the legitimacy of the raffle and criticizing the promotion of an unlawful construction project.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":6759,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[218,1902,4039,4423,233,2152,4899,1625,3,4893,181,203,765,1543,569,118,4382,2110,53,1703,2274,2294,1419,148,783,3933,2818,2153,184,4843,1536,4753,4428,4620,759,1358,114,4898,170],"class_list":["post-6758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-other","tag-ayia-napa","tag-bank","tag-building","tag-cape-greco","tag-church","tag-completion","tag-completion-of-monastery","tag-construction","tag-cyprus","tag-demand","tag-donations","tag-environment","tag-environmental-regulations","tag-famagusta","tag-finance","tag-fire","tag-food","tag-funds","tag-gold","tag-illegal-construction","tag-illegality","tag-income","tag-investigation","tag-local","tag-medicine","tag-ministry-of-finance","tag-ministry-of-interior","tag-monastery","tag-police","tag-president","tag-prizes","tag-project","tag-regulations","tag-report","tag-scandal","tag-support","tag-top-news","tag-unlicensed-raffle","tag-violation"],"acf":{"keyphrase":"","keywords":"","sourceimg":"","country-category":""},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Church runs illegal lottery to fund unpermitted monastery construction<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Church of Panagia Ayia Napa conducted an unlicensed raffle to raise funds for an illegally built monastery in a protected area. The Ministry of Finance considers this a serious offense and plans to demand an immediate halt to the raffle, as well as forward a report to the police for investigation. The raffle tickets also included a section for collecting donations, but the Church clarified that the funds were for general charitable purposes, not specifically for the controversial monastery project. Environmental groups have condemned the Church&#039;s actions, questioning the legitimacy of the raffle and criticizing the promotion of an unlawful construction project.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Church runs illegal lottery to fund unpermitted monastery construction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Church of Panagia Ayia Napa conducted an unlicensed raffle to raise funds for an illegally built monastery in a protected area. The Ministry of Finance considers this a serious offense and plans to demand an immediate halt to the raffle, as well as forward a report to the police for investigation. The raffle tickets also included a section for collecting donations, but the Church clarified that the funds were for general charitable purposes, not specifically for the controversial monastery project. Environmental groups have condemned the Church&#039;s actions, questioning the legitimacy of the raffle and criticizing the promotion of an unlawful construction project.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ch.jfdi.cc\/?p=6758\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"ch.jfdi.cc\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-04-03T21:00:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ch.jfdi.cc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/church-runs-illegal-lottery-to-fund-unpermitted-monastery-construction.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"576\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"PhileNews (Cyprus)\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"PhileNews (Cyprus)\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ch.jfdi.cc\\\/?p=6758#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ch.jfdi.cc\\\/?p=6758\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"PhileNews (Cyprus)\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ch.jfdi.cc\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/b84b88c4fd397cc2d0104b41d48fad84\"},\"headline\":\"Church runs illegal lottery to fund unpermitted monastery construction\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-04-03T21:00:17+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ch.jfdi.cc\\\/?p=6758\"},\"wordCount\":277,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ch.jfdi.cc\\\/?p=6758#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ch.jfdi.cc\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/04\\\/church-runs-illegal-lottery-to-fund-unpermitted-monastery-construction.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Ayia Napa\",\"bank\",\"building\",\"Cape Greco\",\"church\",\"completion\",\"completion of monastery\",\"construction\",\"Cyprus\",\"demand\",\"donations\",\"Environment\",\"Environmental regulations\",\"Famagusta\",\"finance\",\"fire\",\"food\",\"funds\",\"Gold\",\"illegal construction\",\"illegality\",\"income\",\"investigation\",\"Local\",\"medicine\",\"Ministry of Finance\",\"Ministry of Interior\",\"monastery\",\"Police\",\"president\",\"prizes\",\"project\",\"regulations\",\"report\",\"scandal\",\"support\",\"Top News\",\"unlicensed raffle\",\"violation\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Other\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/ch.jfdi.cc\\\/?p=6758#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ch.jfdi.cc\\\/?p=6758\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ch.jfdi.cc\\\/?p=6758\",\"name\":\"Church runs illegal lottery to fund unpermitted monastery construction\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ch.jfdi.cc\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ch.jfdi.cc\\\/?p=6758#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ch.jfdi.cc\\\/?p=6758#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ch.jfdi.cc\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/04\\\/church-runs-illegal-lottery-to-fund-unpermitted-monastery-construction.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-04-03T21:00:17+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ch.jfdi.cc\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/b84b88c4fd397cc2d0104b41d48fad84\"},\"description\":\"The Church of Panagia Ayia Napa conducted an unlicensed raffle to raise funds for an illegally built monastery in a protected area. 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