Greek Orthodox Leader in U.S. Faces Calls for His Removal

The New York Times - February 21, 1999

By NADINE BROZAN

When 54-year-old Archbishop Spyridon was enthroned as the leader of the Greek Orthodox archdiocese in the United States in 1996, he was widely regarded as a visionary who would lead his flock of 1.5 million into the 21st century, with new ideas firmly woven into the fabric of tradition.

Less than three years later, the Archbishop is viewed with bitterness, disappointment and suspicion by some members of both the clergy and laity of his denomination.

Demands made to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople that he replace Archbishop Spyridon have grown more insistent, and there is increasingly frequent discussion of autocephaly, or the creation of an autonomous American Orthodox church, independent of the mother church in Istanbul, Turkey.

Even the five American metropolitans, senior bishops who preside over large dioceses and who are next in rank to Archbishop Spyridon, have petitioned Patriarch Bartholomew, who has direct authority over the Greek Orthodox Church in the Western Hemisphere, for the removal of the Archbishop.

Underlying the debate is an issue that faces many denominations caught between the pull of the Old World and the new, between tradition and modernity.

"This is an immigrant church that has come of age, but its leaders still refer to us as the diaspora, hoping that maybe someday we'll return to Greece," said Dean G. Popps, a satellite communications executive and a founding member of a dissident organization, Greek Orthodox American Leaders, or GOAL. "It is a cultural battle, a failure of the eastern Turkish culture from which the Patriarch comes to understand the American experience of the Greek Orthodox Church."

The Archbishop's supporters maintain that the seriousness of the divisions is greatly exaggerated and that the breach can be healed as Archbishop Spyridon adjusts to American ways of making decisions. Though the Archbishop was born in this country and received part of his education here, he spent most of his life in Greee and Italy.

Speaking at a news conference in Athens on Monday at the end of his first official visit to Greece, the Archbishop denied that he faced serious opposition. Challenging reporters to judge for themselves, he said: "Come to America, follow us on tour, and see if there is a trace of this problem. If you can find a problem, then I will resign."

While Archbishop Spyridon's critics applauded the offer, the Rev. Mark Arey, the spokesman for the archdiocese, said that was "purely a rhetorical comment" and emphasized that the Archbishop had no intention of resigning.

Still there is little doubt that the church is in serious turmoil, with accusations involving everything from internal politics to financial impropriety to personality clashes that have led several churches to withhold money from the archdiocese and have pitted the archdiocese against the laity in two lawsuits.

Matters came to a head last month when the five metropolitans went to Istanbul to deliver to the Patriarch a report they had produced "Concerning the Disorderly State of Affairs in the Archdiocese of America."

They wrote: "The archdiocese is presently suffocating in an atmosphere of fear, suspicion, insecurity, lack of trust and vindictiveness. The majority of the clergy and laity have lost their trust in their ecclesiastical leadership, which during the last two and a half years has not been able to create and promote new visions and new dreams for the future." Their conclusion: replace the Archbishop.

Patriarch Bartholomew and members of his Synod of Bishops turned them down and told them to go home and learn to cooperate.

In a recent interview, Maximos, the Metropolitan in charge of Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, said: "Everything changes, so I am taking this with a grain of salt. For today it is convenient; tomorrow things may change. The mother church has the whole picture and we expect it to do what is appropriate. They gave instructions to Spyridon. Now we expect him to deliver."

The stage for the report and for the organization of GOAL was set at Hellenic College and its Holy Cross School of Theology in Brookline, Mass., 11 months after the Archbishop's elevation.

A theology student there accused a visiting priest of making a homosexual advance at a party. In response, the president of the college, the Rev. Alkividias C. Calivas, formed a committee to investigate the incident, and it recommended expulsion of the priest. Shortly after, Mr. Calivas and the dean and librarian were demoted to teaching positions, and two members of the faculty were removed from the classroom for parish assignments. The visiting priest has left the school.

That the changes were made shortly after the party incident was merely an unfortunate coincidence of timing, said Mr. Arey, the spokesman for the archdiocese.

But many people associated with the college saw it differently. "The Archbishop got rid of the best theologians we had and since then, because of the upheaval and continued oppressive environment at the school, additional faculty have left," said Valerie Karras, who was assistant director of institutional planning and has since left the college.

As a result of a complaint by Ms. Karras, the accreditations of the college and seminary are under review.

The Very Rev. George G. Passias, chancellor of the archdiocese, said the Archbishop had been bombarded with requests to make changes at the college.

"It was not a Spyridon problem, but how he acted was," Chancellor Passias said. "He chose to make a European unilateral authoritative decision to reassign the priests. There is no doubt that the situation could have been handled in a better way, but in all fairness, he did what he felt he had to do."

Since then, the Archbishop has also been under fire for the reassignment of other respected figures in the church, among them the popular Rev. Dr. Robert G. Stephanopoulos, dean of the Archdiocesan Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Manhattan.

Though Mr. Stephanopoulos was given new duties planning social ministries, he lost most of the responsibility he held for administration and liturgical operations of the cathedral to the Very Rev. Gabriel Karambis, vicar of the cathedral. The move was widely considered to be a punishment for signing a letter critical of the Archbishop.

Asked about his new position, Mr. Stephanopoulos, whose son is George, the former Presidential adviser, said: "My title as dean is the same, but I will do whatever needs to be done as directed by Father Gabriel. I am not happy about it, but we have to accept things that come down the line."

The Archbishop's supporters and critics agree that he is still adjusting to a more open American system, having come from a rigid European hierarchy.

Some people believe that the bitter divisions serve as an impetus for independence from Istanbul.

"The continuing support of Spyridon and the blind eye turned toward the concerns and protests of the laity, the parish clergy and the entire Synod of Bishops is simply strengthening that movement every day," Ms. Karras said.

Though he blamed unwarranted gossip for the unrest, Mr. Arey said: "When you are on a ship at sea, you realize that you can have only one hand on the rudder. He is our captain and we don't want anyone to jump overboard."

Taking a long-range view, Helen Hadjiyannakis Bender, an associate professor at Fordham Law School and a former archdiocesan treasurer, said: "All of this could be God's work. He could have had in mind that we have been complacent and have taken our church for granted. Now He is forcing us to fight for it."

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   leader-in-us-faces-calls-for-his-removal.html
   February 21, 1999 ]