CRETE: As dusk settled on the Kyrenia range, Greek Orthodox Bishop Neophitos swept between two lines of Turkish Cypriot police and into the courtyard of the Church of Saint Mamas, the patron of the little town of Morphou.
He was received with applause and cries of "bravo" from the 1,200 Greek Cypriots who had assembled to attend vespers in this church for the first time in 30 years. The bishop and his entourage hastened to the front door where the icon of St Mamas had been placed. He bent and kissed the cheek of the saint, a third-century Christian martyr born in Anatolia who is portrayed as a young man bearing a lamb in his arms and riding on the back of a lion.
In the background loomed a massive, new white mosque with twin minarets between which had been strung two huge flags, one Turkish, one Turkish Cypriot bearing star and crescent. Since the Turkish occupation of northern Cyprus Morphou has been called Guzelyurt. Its inhabitants are Turkish Cypriots and settlers from the mainland.
Inside the squat domed church, a blend of Byzantine and gothic styles, a posse of priests in stovepipe hats sang the opening of the service commemorating the name day of the saint, whose sarcophagus rests here. The church, one of the few spared looting and desecration during the Turkish invasion in 1974, is now an icon museum.
Greek Cypriots squeezed into the church to catch a glimpse of the bishop, clad in a fine cloak of red and gold. He had tried and failed to worship here on previous occasions. But this time he came to an arrangement with Mr Mehmet Ali Talat, the Turkish Cypriot Prime Minister, who agreed that yesterday's celebration would initiate regular services in Saint Mamas. Mr Talat attended the service.
Most of the Greek Cypriots who came were refugees from the area. Many were middle-aged or elderly, clutching bundles of candles. Three old women sat in plastic chairs on the porch under the watchful gaze of their Sri Lankan maids. Eyes shining, Ms Stella Savidou, a young Greek Cypriot woman from Nicosia, said, "I want to cry with happiness and with sadness at the same time." There were few tears and many smiles as refugees who had not met for years greeted one another.
The resumption of worship at Saint Mamas is controversial on both sides of the Green Line, which divides the island into a Christian south and Muslim north. Greek and Turkish Cypriot hardliners who oppose the reunification of Cyprus protested. Last Friday a bomb, believed to have been planted by extreme Turkish nationalists, exploded outside the front door of Saint Mamas, damaging the porch. Mr Talat vowed to repair the wreckage in time for the service, and kept his promise.