c. 1997 Religion News Service
Orthodox Christian leader elevates status of U.S. bishops
(RNS) Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew has elevated the status of six American bishops of the Greek Orthodox and Carpatho-Russian Orthodox churches.
Meanwhile, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America has released a memorandum intended to quiet growing unrest within the church over the leadership of its administrative head, Archbishop Spyridon.
Named metropolitans, a step up from bishop in the Orthodox Christian hierarchy, were Greek Bishops Iakovos of Chicago, Anthony of San Francisco, Maximos of Pittsburgh, Methodios of Boston and Isaiah of Denver. The two remaining Greek Orthodox dioceses in the United States, Detroit and Atlanta, are currently without reigning bishops.
Bishop Nicholas of the Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Church, headquartered in Johnstown, Pa., also was elevated to the rank of metropolitan.
The Carpatho-Russian church, a nationwide ethnic diocese, is under the direct authority of the ecumenical patriarch, as is the Greek church. Other U.S. Orthodox churches with roots in the former Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and the Middle East have their own lines of authority.
Bartholomew recently completed a monthlong U.S. tour, during which he signaled his intent to elevate the bishops.
The Rev. Alex Karloutsos, spokesman for the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America in New York, said Tuesday (Nov. 25) that the ecumenical patriarch’s decision was made to”honor”the bishops.
The move elevates the bishops’ liturgical standing, making them”spiritually”answerable directly to the ecumenical patriarch. As bishops, they were answerable to Spyridon.
However, the new titles carry no additional administrative duties, leaving Spyridon in charge of managing the 1.5 million-member American Greek Orthodox church, Karloutsos. Spyridon, who was named archbishop by Bartholomew last year, has alienated some U.S. Greek Orthodox Christians with what they perceive as his authoritarian style.
In a memorandum to church members released Monday (Nov. 24), Spyridon’s top aide, the Rev. John Heropoulos sought to quiet the discontent by addressing the concerns. His memo pulled together into one document comments previously stated by Spyridon, but broke no new ground, Karloutsos said.
In his memo, Heropoulos said, among other things, that laymen may continue to participate in the church as they did prior to Spyridon’s appointment; that services in Greek are not required; that women may continue to sing in church choirs; that Greek Orthodox priests are encouraged, not ordered, to wear beards and cassocks; and that the Standing Conference of the Canonical Bishops of America, which has led the effort to unite American Orthodoxy under autonomous leadership removed from Bartholomew, still has church support.
The memo also noted that the archdiocese is”strongly committed to preventing sexual misconduct.”Spyridon has been accused by church dissidents of seeking to cover up sexual harassment of a student at the archdiocese’s Hellenic College and Holy Cross Seminary in Boston.
Judge grants happy holidays to homeless served by Calif. pastor
(RNS) An Orange County, Calif., judge Monday (Nov. 24) granted a reprieve to 70 homeless people sheltered at a church led by a controversial Southern Baptist pastor, allowing them to stay put until after the holiday season.
In July, an Orange County Superior Court jury reluctantly convicted the Rev. Wiley Drake and his church on four counts of misdemeanor building code violations for his Here’s Hope Social Ministry Center, which shelters and feeds the poor.
Drake, known for his support of a boycott of the Walt Disney Co., said Tuesday (Nov. 25) that he still refuses to move the people off the property.”I’m not gonna kick anybody off. Read my lips _ I’m not gonna take anybody off,”said Drake, pastor of First Southern Baptist Church of Buena Park, which is about six miles from Disneyland.
He was sentenced in July to 1,500 hours of community service _ which Superior Court Judge Gregg Prickett gave him credit for through his church work _ and ordered to resolve the ongoing dispute with city officials.
Attorneys for Drake and city officials Monday told Prickett that 70 people were still living in the church’s shelter or in campers in its parking lot. Prickett said”there has to be a line drawn”for how much help the church can give the homeless.
Based on an agreement reached between Drake and city prosecutors, the judge gave Drake until Jan. 5 to pare the number of homeless staying at his church to 52.”This is a primitive circumstance,”Drake said.”Nobody wants to stay here. They (city prosecutors) just don’t like the fact that we’re fighting City Hall and we’re not going to kowtow to their needs.” For now, Drake, 54, is looking forward to serving his homeless flock a Thanksgiving Day”turkey chili”made by his lawyer. He’s also planning a Christmas party for them.”The judge wants to be tough, the judge wants to be mean,”Drake said.”He just doesn’t have the guts to do it right now.” Southern Baptists of Texas move to form separate convention
(RNS) The board of directors of the Southern Baptists of Texas, a conservative group unhappy with recent decisions by the moderate-dominated Baptist General Convention of Texas, has made its first move to form a new state convention.
Meeting Nov. 20 in Dallas, directors of the Southern Baptists of Texas voted unanimously to direct its staff to begin the process of starting a new state convention.
The decision was sparked by a Nov. 10-11 annual meeting in Austin in which the Baptist General Convention of Texas approved an”Effectiveness/Efficiency Committee”plan. The plan gives Texas Baptists the authority to appoint missionaries, offer new options for theological education, publish their own Sunday school literature and create mission partnerships with Southern Baptist Convention and non-Southern Baptist Convention groups.
The partnerships would include the moderate Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.
Officials of Southern Baptists of Texas criticized the plan, saying it distances the state convention from national conservative viewpoints. Dee Slocum, vice president of the Southern Baptists of Texas, said the vote to organize a new state convention is due to what conservatives see as”a broadening and distancing of the (Baptist General Convention of Texas) from the SBC,”reported Baptist Press, the official news service of the Southern Baptist Convention.”Loyal Southern Baptists in Texas are going to remain just that: loyal Southern Baptists in Texas,”Slocum said.”The Baptist General Convention of Texas has left us as Southern Baptists. It has done so under the auspices of autonomy.” The vote by Slocum’s group marks the second time a state convention of Southern Baptists has embarked on an official split along theological lines. In 1996, Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia formed in a split from the moderate-dominated Baptist General Association of Virginia.
Maine education department sued over tuition payments
(RNS) The American Center for Law and Justice filed suit Friday (Nov. 21) against the State of Maine Department of Education over the constitutionality of a state law regarding tuition payments.
The suit was filed on behalf of three families who have chosen to send their children to a Catholic school because there is no secondary school in the towns of Minot and West Minot. State law requires that tuition be paid for high-school-age residents in the towns to attend a private school, but sectarian schools are excluded from the policy.
The suit was filed in U.S. District Court in Portland.”This is a case where the state discriminates against people of faith who are only trying to give their children an education that reflects their religious beliefs,”said Vincent P. McCarthy, Northeast regional counsel for the ACLJ, a public-interest law firm founded by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson.”The state law is unconstitutional and discriminatory because it refuses to extend a generally available public benefit _ tuition payments for secondary education _ to parents who send their children to a religious school.” The three families have sent their children to St. Dominic’s Regional High School in Lewiston. The state declined to pay the annual tuition of about $3,850 for the 1996-97 and 1997-98 school years.
Mike Higgins, director of special projects and external affairs for the Maine Department of Education, said Commissioner J. Duke Albanese, who heads the education department, had no choice but to follow current state law.”Under Maine law, the commissioner has no discretion on permitting payment of state funds to private parochial schools,”Higgins said, adding that a statute was passed around 1981″that made it unlawful for the commissioner to approve expenditures of funds to parochial schools.” Higgins said education department officials are concerned about potential outcomes of the case.”We’re concerned about the overall strength of the public school system,”he said.”If substantial amounts of funds were diverted to parochial schools, that could undermine one of the primary purposes of a public school district, (which is) to provide an education to everyone throughout the state.”
Quote of the Day: Richard Foltin of the American Jewish Committee
(RNS)”The workplace should not be a religious-free zone. You shouldn’t have to check your religion at the door, any more than you should have to check your race.” _ Richard Foltin, legislative affairs director for the American Jewish Committee in Washington, D.C., commenting in USA Today (Nov. 21) on the need for Congress to pass the Workplace Religious Freedom Act, a bill that would protect religious expression on the job.
MJP END RNS
