Greek Orthodox See "A Very Bright Day" In America

Chicago Tribune - August 9, 1996

By Cathleen Falsani, Tribune Staff Writer

After months of speculation about who would lead the estimated 2.5 million-member Greek Orthodox Church in America into the next millennium, Chicago-area members have high hopes after the election of their first American-born archbishop, Metropolitan Spyridon of Italy, last week.

Metropolitan Spyridon, who was born in Warren, Ohio, and raised in this country through high school, is being lauded as the man who can balance the interests of both the assimilated, American-born Greek Orthodox middle class and the more traditional, Greek Orthodox immigrants of the last 25 years.

"It is hard to handle the interests of both groups when they are together," said Rev. George Scoulas of Sts. Peter and Paul Greek Orthodox Church in Glenview.

"(Metropolitan Spyridon) is an excellent choice and has a good possibility of being really pleasing to everyone because his childhood was spent here ... and at the same time he has lived, traveled and studied for many years in Europe and is familiar with the international life," Scoulas said.

On July 30, the 12-member Synod of Bishops in Istanbul, under the authority of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, elected Metropolitan Spyridon to head the church in America and to fill the position left by Archbishop Iakovos, who retired July 28.

Metropolitan Spyridon will be installed as archbishop in a ceremony Sept. 21 in New York's Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Spirit.

Metropolitan Spyridon, 51, graduated from Tarpon Springs High School in Florida in 1962 and studied at the Theological Faculty of Halki in Greece, graduating in 1966. He pursued graduate studies in Germany and Switzerland before settling into ecumenical work in Geneva.

In 1984, he was named executive secretary of a commission to foster dialogue between the Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches, and in 1991 was elected the first metropolitan, or bishop, of a new archdiocese based in Rome.

Supporters say Metropolitan Spyridon is the ideal man to shepherd the American Orthodox flock through the challenges of an increasingly secular and diverse society. There are an estimated 1.5 million Greek Orthodox in the United States.

"He was known as a great ecumenist in Italy, and I assume that's why he was elected," said Rev. Demetri Kantzavelos, spokesman for the Orthodox Diocese of Chicago, who called Metropolitan Spyridon's election a "very bright day for the church."

Archbishop Iakovos, who led the Greek Orthodox Church in America for 37 years and whose departure led to rumors of friction with Patriarch Bartholomew in Constantinople over the growing influence of the American church in the Orthodox world, is credited by many for making the Orthodox Church a major player on the American religious scene.

"(Archbishop Iakovos) was concerned that the Orthodox Church was not treated as some quaint form of exotic Catholicism," said George Pontikes, a member of the Orthodox Christian Laity organization.

"In his desire to bring the church into its prominent position in the American religious order ... we began to lose our soul," Pontikes said.

"Metropolitan Spyridon will move the church away from its concern with worldly position and concerns and back to traditional spirituality," Pontikes said.

Part of the return to Orthodox tradition is a reorganization of church leadership in America that accompanied Metropolitan Spyridon's election.

For years the archbishop of America represented North and South America. That changed last week when Patriarch Bartholomew created four new jurisdictions: the Metropolitanate of Canada, based in Toronto; the Metropolitanate of South America, based in Buenos Aires; the Metropolitanate of Central America, based in Mexico City; and the Metropolitanate of America, based in New York.

Calling the move "more Orthodox," Kantzavelos said, "The archbishops in each of those areas can administer more effectively."

The smaller the jurisdictions, the closer the prelates are to the people," Pontikes agreed.

Pontikes and others who lobby for greater lay participation in the life and direction of the church are encouraged by the smaller jurisdictions.

"We're moving toward larger congregational participation in all areas of liturgical practice, and eventually hope to contribute to the selection of bishops," Pontikes said.

The new divisions are also part of getting back to Orthodox tradition. According to Orthodox canon, it is not legal to have more than one bishop in a diocese. In Chicago alone there are multiple bishops because the Orthodox Church in America divides itself along ethnic lines. The Serbian Orthodox Church has its own bishop, as does the Romanian Church and the Greek Church.

The Orthodox Church in America is so divided because Orthodox immigrants from Eastern Europe, Africa and the Middle East wanted to worship in their native language, organized congregations along those lines and eventually created their own ethnic leadership.

In the new jurisdiction, the new archbishop will be able to focus on the needs and divisions of the American church.

"(Metropolitan Spyridon) and Patriarch Bartholomew are committed to the union of all the factions of churches in the U.S.," Pontikes said. "He will lay the groundwork for one American Orthodox Church."

In 1993, Metropolitan Spyridon visited Chicago as the patriarch's representative to the American archdiocese's Clergy-Laity Congress and spoke about reconciling the different Orthodox branches into one indigenous Orthodox Church.

Archbishop Iakovos also had been working toward such a unified church and assembled leaders of 11 ethnic Orthodox churches in 1994 to talk about creating a single Orthodox body in the United States. At the time, the plan reportedly did not sit well with Patriarch Bartholomew, who asked the archbishop to desist any planning. Apparently the patriarch has changed his mind.

"There is nothing wrong with ethnicity, but there is if it blocks unity," said Andrew Kopan, an Orthodox Christian Laity member and professor emeritus at DePaul University.

Kopan said Metropolitan Spyridon faces a difficult task and predicted opposition from "a group that thinks the church should not lose its Greek veneer."

Apart from ethnic squabbles and power issues, the new archbishop is sure to face the hearty challenge common to all religious leaders today: how to live a spiritual existence in a material world.

"The new archbishop encounters a culture that is without godly values," Scoulas said. "To maintain the integrity of the Christian message in a culture that champions relativism and instant gratification ... is a significant challenge."

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August 9, 1996 ]