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The National Herald - October 27, 2007

Looking Back
on the Life of the Church in America
over the Past Ten Years

__________________

By Theodore Kalmoukos
Special to The National Herald

BOSTON, Mass. – The establishment of the National Herald, the weekly English-language edition of the Εθνικός Κήρυξ, ten years ago coincided with some very serious and important events in the Greek American community’s ecclesial life.

First and foremost, the English-language weekly was born shortly after Archbishop Iakovos, then of North & South America, resigned after almost 38 years of archpastoral ministry on the archiepiscopal throne of the Greek Orthodox Church in America.

The late Archbishop Iakovos was a towering figure in the Greek American community. His retirement in 1996 left a chaotic void in the life of the Church

Archbishop Iakovos had said many times in the past, and had even conveyed his message to the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople, that he wanted to resign from his post, as recorded in the books published by Rev. Dr. Demetrios J. Constantelos, a prominent Greek Orthodox priest and scholar, from Iakovos’ archives, but he did not do so until his relationship with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew was on non-speaking terms.

Iakovos’ resignation sparked the subsequent turmoil which afflicted the life of the Church in America. The appointment of then Metropolitan Spyridon of Italy as Archbishop of America in 1996 became a focal point of controversy which threatened the unity of the Greek American community.

It became evident fairly quickly that the Patriarchate had miscalculated with respect to its largest and most dynamic eparchy, and had caused an almost irreparable rift in the community. The Internet movement voithia began, and the self-appointed group GOAL (Greek Orthodox American Leaders) was formed. Their primary aim: topple Spyridon.

GOAL, a small but highly vocal group, contended that Spyridon was an “unloving primate” and argued that, though he was American-born, he “doesn’t understand America” because he had been serving the Church in Europe for many years before the Patriarchate elected him to be Iakovos’ successor.

In turn, the Patriarchate had already divided the Archdiocese of North & South America into several eparchies, with an eye to further decentralize the Archdiocese of America to an archdiocesan district with several independent metropolises, as opposed to an archdiocese with dioceses of its own, as it had been under Iakovos. Spyridon was opposed to this, arguing that it would weaken the Archdiocese’s administrative effectiveness, thereby incurring the Patriarch’s wrath and drawing a sharp response from America’s diocesan bishops, who were eventually elevated to titular metropolitical status and were awaiting their subsequent elevation as metropolitans with geographic territories of their own – as full-fledged metropolitans who liturgically commemorate the Patriarch and answer to him directly, rather than to the Archbishop of America.

Archbishop Spyridon - his election as Archbisop Iakovos' successor sparked controversy and a stormy 3-year archpastoral ministry

The larger crisis in the Archdiocese was precipitated by a smaller-scale crisis at Hellenic College/Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology, after Archbishop Spyridon’s controversial decision to dismiss then HC/HC President Rev. Dr. Alkiviades Calivas and several longtime professors from the School. An incident of alleged sexual misconduct involving a lay student and an ordained student (an archimandrite on leave from Mount Athos) at the School’s dormitory had fueled the climate of disarray.

It was in the midst of this turbulence, with several large parishes withholding funds from their annual contributions to the Archdiocese, that Patriarch Bartholomew made his first official visit to the United States as Ecumenical Patriarch, receiving the Congressional Medal of Honor. He could not visit America as long as Iakovos was at the helm because Iakovos had made it clear he did not want Bartholomew to even set foot in the Archdiocese while he was still in charge (the same held true for the late Archbishop Seraphim of Greece, who also would not allow Bartholomew to visit Athens. Bartholomew made his first Patriarchal visit to Athens under Archbishop Christodoulos’ tenure).

The crisis escalated to a point where the Patriarch had ceased supporting Spyridon who, under tremendous pressure from GOAL and his fellow hierarchs, both here and at the Patriarchate, was compelled to resign in August 1999.

The Patriarchate found itself unprepared for the succession of Archbishop Spyridon. Archbishop Iakovos had rallied for the candidacy of Bishop Demetrios of Vresthena, who had also served as a professor of Old Testament Studies at Holy Cross for a number of years. Neither Bartholomew nor Metropolitans Joachim of Chalcedon, Evangelos of Pergamon and the late Chrysostomos of Ephesus favored Demetrios’ candidacy – for several reasons:

First, a number of people did not believe Demetrios had the necessary administrative wherewithal to govern the Archdiocese. Second, Demetrios was a member of the Zoe Brotherhood, considered a para-ecclesial movement by the Phanar and many others. Third, the late Archbishop Ieronimos of Athens, who was appointed head of the Church of Greece by the dictatorship of 1967-74, had ordained Demetrios. Ieronimos was considered an enemy of the Patriarchate because he had attempted to completely sever the Church of Greece from the Mother Church because he wanted to establish a patriarchate in Greece.

Bartholomew tried to compromise. He called Demetrios to the Phanar and offered him the position of locum tenens (acting or temporary archbishop) of the Archdiocese of America, but Demetrios refused the offer, telling Bartholomew, “Either I will go as Archbishop, or I am not going, at all.”

Bartholomew then summoned Metropolitan Methodios of Boston (then of Aneon) to the Patriarchate in Constantinople, and offered him the Church in America’s archiepiscopal throne, but Methodios declined because he did not feel he was ready to step in at that time.

Two influential hierarchs of the Patriarchate, Demetrios of Sevasteia and Meliton of Philadelphia, favored Archbishop Stylianos of Australia’s candidacy, but Stylianos had reservations about the Patriarch’s decentralization plans, so that prospect fizzled out. Thus, the Patriarch, left with little choice, moved to elect the then auxiliary bishop of Vresthena as Archbishop of America, hoping Demetrios could help “pacify the condition” of the Church in America, which was in an unsettled state.

The complete reorganization of the Archdiocese and its Dioceses into separate Metropolises and the adoption of a new Church Charter were also significant events. The new charter took almost three years to be formalized and put into effect. It caused quite a stir because Demetrios had promised to endeavor for semi-autonomous administrative status similar to the Archdiocese of Crete in Greece. Much of the 2000 Clergy-Laity Congress in Philadelphia was actually spent on the charter issue, with many assurances from the Archbishop, which he did not deliver.

Seven new hierarchs were elected either as metropolitans or as auxiliary bishops: George of New Jersey, Alexios of Atlanta, Nicholas of Detroit, Gerasimos of San Francisco, Evangelos of New Jersey, Savas of Troas and Andonios of Phasiane. Bishop George – a widowed priest and longtime pastor of the parish in Bethesda, Maryland – was the first bishop in the American Archdiocese to rise from the ranks of the married clergy. He died just a few months after he was enthroned, and was eventually succeeded by Evangelos. Gerasimos was Archbishop Iakovos’ archdeacon, and had served for many years as dean of Student Life at HC/HC.

The death of Archbishop Iakovos in April of 2005 (on the same day as the annual Greek Independence Day Parade in Manhattan); his funeral service at the Archdiocesan Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Manhattan; and his burial on the grounds of Holy Cross were a major development of the life of the Church in America, and signified the end of an era. Patriarch Bartholomew did not come to officiate at Iakovos’ funeral, although he had gone to Athens a few months earlier and officiated the funeral of Panagiotis Angelopoulos (a great benefactor of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, who in 1987 funded the rebuilding of the Patriarchate’s headquarters, which was destroyed by a fire in 1941), and had also attended the funeral service of Pope John Paul II, who died just a few days before Iakovos passed away.

Archbishop Christodoulos of Athens & All Greece attended Iakovos’ funeral service and delivered a moving eulogy, but the prelate of the Church of Greece was not extended the courtesy to participate liturgically during the funeral, which was handled primarily by Archbishop Demetrios, with the rest of the hierarchs simply standing by in silence.

When Demetrios started eight years ago, the Archdiocese had a debt of less than $2 million. That debt was supposedly paid off at the Philadelphia Clergy-Laity through the generosity of several affluent lay people. Under Demetrios, the Archdiocese has since run up a debt of almost $10 million, and today still finds itself in an incessant state of nagging debt, currently hovering at $6-7 million, thereby compromising the effectiveness of the Archdiocese’s ministries.

Meanwhile, the Archdiocese has had to pay more than $10 million in legal settlements and fees during the past five years as a result of clergy sexual misconduct cases.

The Archdiocese has recently been hit very hard with cases of alleged clergy sexual misconduct with minors, most notably with the current cases of Rev. Nicholas Katinas, who was defrocked this past summer, and the Very Rev. Nicholas Graff, pastor of Saint John the Divine Church in Jacksonville, Florida for 17 years.

Mr. Katinas, who had served as pastor of Holy Trinity Church in Dallas for 28 years and was one of the Archdiocese’s most prominent clergymen, was accused of sexual misconduct with several young boys during his ministries in Dallas and Olympia Fields, Illinois. The allegations hit after he retired in June 2006 and Archbishop Demetrios had requested his transfer from the Metropolis of Denver to the Direct Archdiocesan District of New York. Demetrios tried hard to prevent Mr. Katinas from being defrocked. He had suspended Mr. Katinas from priestly duties, and argued, even to prominent members of the Archdiocesan Council, that suspension was a strict enough punishment; meanwhile, Metropolitan Isaiah of Denver supported Mr. Katinas openly in his sermons at the Dallas parish, which is still reeling from the news that their beloved former pastor had allegedly abused young boys sexually. Finally, due to the public outcry, the Archbishop relented and sent Mr. Katinas’ case before the Archdiocese Spiritual Court for defrocking.

A civil lawsuit has also been filed on behalf of his victims against Mr. Katinas personally (who has fled the country and is now residing in the island of Rhodes), Holy Trinity Church, the Metropolis of Denver and the Archdiocese.

A local television station in Jacksonville (WJXT 4) recently aired a story about Father Graff, an archimandrite who is now accused of engaging in pedophilia with a young boy 12 years ago. A lawsuit has been filed stating that the boy was a minor at the time, and alleging that Father Graff began exhibiting “undue, obsessive and inappropriate interest in “undue, obsessive and inappropriate interest in him,” and that the archimandrite “sexually assaulted” the plaintiff. Father Graff is now suspended from all priestly functions, according to Metropolitan Alexios.

The case of another prominent clergyman also recently came to light. Rev. Michael Pappas, (now former) pastor of Holy Trinity Church in San Francisco, openly admitted his extramarital infidelity. Father Pappas, who has three children, had also been serving on the Archdiocese Clergy Sexual Misconduct Committee. He has been suspended from active ministry by Metropolitan Gerasimos, who has sent Father Pappas’ case to Spiritual Court for defrocking.

In February 2006, the Herald reported that another clergyman in Florida, James Gavrilos, then pastor of Saint Mark’s Church in Boca Ra-ton, a prosperous parish with more than 750 families, had left his wife and his four under-aged children for another woman. Mr. Gavrilos, who was defrocked at the end of last year, had served the Boca Raton parish community for nine years. The woman with whom he was said to have had an affair was recently found dead in her apartment, and police reported they suspect she killed her young daughter and then shot herself.

And the Archdiocese is still paying out settlements to at least one victim of the late Stanley Adamakis, a former archimandrite who was convicted of molesting two adolescent boys in 1986, and who was murdered by a male companion in July 2003.

The Clergy-Laity Congresses in Orlando (1998), Philadelphia (2000), Los Angeles (2002), New York (2004) and Nashville (2006) were ecclesiastical events of limited significance for the life of the Church, since most of them generally lacked clear, cohesive agendas. But one particularly glaring development sprang from the Nashville Clergy-Laity, which changed the way the Archdiocese will be funded by its parishes, which are now required to send their allocations based on their expenses, rather than their revenue. This is putting a tremendous strain on smaller parishes, which are struggling to keep afloat financially, even as the number of available priests continues to diminish.

HC/HC has also undergone a number of administrative changes. Bishop (now Metropolitan) Isaiah succeeded Father Calivas as the institution’s president, and was traveling back and forth from Denver to govern the School’s affairs; Isaiah was succeeded by the Very Rev. Damaskinos Ganas, an archimandrite from Brooklyn; and Archbishop Demetrios appointed Rev. Nicholas Triantafilou, who continues to serve as the institution’s president, to succeed Father Ganas.

After several acting deans (Rev. Dr. John Chryssavgis and Dr. James Skedros), Rev. Dr. Emmanuel Clapsis became dean of Holy Cross, and was succeeded after almost four years by Rev. Dr. Thomas Fitzgerald. Leon Zaimes resigned as the School’s chief finance officer, and James Karloutsos, a former elementary school principle (and the brother of Rev. Alexander Karloutsos, a highly influential priest with strong ties to the Patriarchate, as well as to a number of the Greek American community’s wealthiest members), was appointed HC/HC’s chief administrator. Mr. Karloutsos has had conflicts with at least one longtime professor since he assumed the School’s administrative reins.

Several faculty members, former and otherwise, had also urged Holy Cross’s accrediting bodies to investigate its state of affairs, placing its status as an accredited theological school in jeopardy. Thankfully, the accrediting organizations did not revoke accreditation, but they continue to monitor the seminary.

Meanwhile, there have also been active attempts to change Hellenic College’s mission statement; to remove it from the Archdiocese’s oversight; and to dilute its Hellenic character. Its current dean receives no salary, and many members of the community are now questioning the college’s long-term survivability as a viable undergraduate institution.

In short, the School has had more than its fair share of administrative ups and downs, and through it all, its enrollment levels have remained at 200 or less; the number of students who are converts to Orthodoxy has increased; the number of “cradle” Greek Orthodox students has decreased; and few graduate with even a working knowledge of the Greek language.

A number of parish communities celebrated their 100-year anniversaries since their inception (e.g., Houston, Salt Lake City and Pueblo, Colorado), established by early Greek immigrants who came to the U.S. from various parts of Greece.

The Archdiocese Faith Endowment Fund for Hellenism & Orthodoxy was established for Hellenism and Orthodoxy, with major donors contributing or pledging to contribute at least $1 million each. Archdiocesan Council Vice Chairman Emmanuel (Michael) Jaharis came up with the idea and helped turn it into a reality. The Faith Endowment is being administered by Father Karloutsos, who was previously longtime executive director of the Archbishop Iakovos Leadership 100 Endowment Fund.

Ioannis Efthymiopoulos, a retired education attaché of the Greek Government’s Education Ministry, was chosen by Archbishop Demetrios, after a five-year search, to head up the Archdiocese Greek Education Department.

The formerly old-calendarist monastery of Saint Irene Chrysovalantou in Astoria, New York repented and was ecclesiastically and canonically recognized by, and reentered communion with, the Ecumenical Patriarchate, relinquishing its ties to the “Genuine Orthodox Church” and its synod here, and was converted to a stavropegial monastery of the Patriarchate.

Hieromonk Ephraim, former abbot of the Philotheou Monastery on Mount Athos, left his place (or penance) at the Holy Mountain and came to the U.S., initially without canonical permission, and established more than 16 monasteries and convents throughout the country. His base of operations today is at Saint Anthony’s Monastery in the southern Arizona desert.

Archbishop Demetrios interrupted the administering of communion for, and served restraining orders against, some 19 parishioners of the Transfiguration Church in Corona, Queens because they violated the Uniform Parish Regulations on, as well as his verbal and written directives not to go ahead with, parish council elections. The problem persists today, while both sides have spent considerable sums of money trying to defend their respective positions in court.

Hurricane Katrina’s flooding of the historic Holy Trinity Cathedral in New Orleans, the first Greek Orthodox parish established in the United States, in September 2005 and the total destruction of Saint Nicholas Church in downtown Manhattan during the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001 also marked the past decade’s ecclesiastical history.

And the presence of Patriarch Bartholomew at the centennial Epiphany celebrations in Tarpon Springs, Florida in 2006 was historic because it was the first time an Ecumenical Patriarch came to attend and officiate the annual Epiphany ceremonies in Tarpon Springs.

[ The National Herald
  {Special Insert:} "The First Decade - 1997-2007 - 10 Years - 'The National Herald'"
  October 27, 2007 - pp. 21-22 ]

[ The National Herald - newsletter@ekirikas.com - October 27, 2007 ]