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A video of a church wedding in Cyprus has gone viral, showing a male guest getting yelled at by the priest during the Dance of Isaiah portion of the ceremony.
Comments varied on a social media post on Monday, where a video shot in Cyprus showed a local priest raising his voice inside a church during a religious wedding ceremony.
The video shows a man stepping up close to the bride and groom, both of whom were partaking in the Dance of Isaiah, after the crowning portion of the wedding ceremony when the married couple walk three times around the altar while holding hands.
At that point, the guest is seen tapping the best man on the shoulder for fun.
Following the incident, the top priest is seen in the video calling out the slapper and raising his voice while asking him to leave the church.
“Get out of the church right now,” the priest said, with the slapper seeming unsure how to react.
Another guest tried to calm the priest down, asking him to keep his voice down.
“Stop yelling Father,” the man said.
“Silence, this is my church and I can do whatever I want,” the priest told the two men.
The priest went on to lecture the two men over the incident, explaining that the slap on the shoulder was an Ottoman custom and highly offensive, while the just-married couple and their guests looked on speechless.
“This is what the Turks used to do to the women,” the priest was heard saying, while the rest of the phrase was inaudible in the video.
Comments on Facebook ranged from criticizing an “authoritarian priest” to badmouthing the “rude guest” during the religious ceremony.
The source of the media story was faux news site Xeroteana while the report appeared in Philenews with the title “priest kicks wedding guest out of church.”
Knews did not attempt to confirm time or location of the incident.
