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The National Herald - October 21-27, 2017

     EDITORIALS

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To His Eminence:

On the Need for New Leadership

Your Eminence,
All informed and enlightened Greek Americans are keenly aware of the service you have rendered our Church and our communities over the past 18 years. | You took over the Archdiocese after the tumultuous and divisive tenure of Archbishop Spyridon and brought us stability, unity and peace. Unlike your predecessor, you understood from the start that in this greatest of all democracies what Greek Americans need most is a spiritual leader than an authoritarian figure.

We appreciate your devotion to our Greek Orthodox faith, your scholarship, and your penetrating insights into the Gospels. No one who has listened to your sermons and attended your Bible studies has failed to be moved by the clarity and vision with which you illuminated Christ’s teachings.

But the Archdiocese can not be only a spiritual center, to the extend that it was, but also a demanding religious enterprise requiring energy, administrative skills and a good understanding of finances that have grown increasingly way beyond a man of your cloistered early life and advanced age.

Nothing demonstrates that more dramatically than the recent revelations in The National Herald of the disarray in the finances of the Archdiocese that disclosed an $8,5 million deficit in this year’s budget, extensive layoffs of staff, misplacement of funds, and irregular use of monies legally designated for specific purposes such as the St. Nicholas Church at Ground Zero. All very serious issues that might trigger unfortunate developments and threaten the function of our Archdioceses for years to come.

The situation became so dramatic that even the Registry of the church is at stake, as we are reporting in today’s edition.

Meanwhile, the extensive financial mismanagement has increased the burden on our hard-pressed communities, which provide the bulk of the Archdiocese’s funds; created reluctance in large donors to continue contributing to the Church, at any level and eroded confidence among the faithful in the work of the Archdiocese and it is even hurting the Ecumenical Patriarch which selected you for this position.

All of these unfortunate developments make it clear that the Archdiocese needs younger, energetic, able leadership to deal with the formidable challenges faced by our Church and our communities.

We hope and trust, Your Eminence, that your devotion to our Church, your concern for our communities and your love for our people will move you to recognize that, at 90 years of age, the time has come for you to step aside and lift the awesome burdens you are now carrying.

[ The National Herald - October 21-27, 2017 - pp. 1 & 12 ]