c. 1997 Religion News Service
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. _ Assembled in a blue-domed edifice overlooking the Pacific, the sun-kissed congregation of St. Barbara’s Greek Orthodox Church seems the fulfillment of the immigrant dream.
The sanctuary is filled with young, affluent families, drawn to the beauty and unchanging teachings of this most ancient expression of Christian faith: A sensual liturgy fragrant with incense, awash in music, bright with icons of angels and saints, their stylized gaze fixed on the richness of mystical life.
This thriving parish long ago outgrew its original church, built by struggling immigrants. Now, little Greek is spoken, even from the altar. And St. Barbara’s has embraced so many converts that its pastor, the Rev. Constantine Zozos, jokes that there are more blondes in the pews than dark-haired Greeks.
As they prepare for the upcoming visit of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, the”first among equals”of Orthodox patriarchs, the people of St. Barbara’s will apply their ancient faith to modern problems, with a symposium on one of the patriarch’s signature issues: the sacred obligation to care for the environment.
Among them are Connie Pappas Hillman and her musician-husband Chris. After a brief encounter with evangelical Christianity, Chris Hillman, a founding member of The Byrds, who turned Pete Seeger’s biblically inspired song,”Turn, Turn, Turn,”into a hit in the mid-1960s, has now turned to Orthodoxy, embracing the faith into which his wife was born and their two children are being raised.”This is the peaceful part of our lives; this is where we get our strength,”says Connie Hillman, who is donating her professional skills as manager of the singer Elton John to organizing the patriarch’s environmental conference.”My faith is so important to me. The whole essence of Orthodoxy is that it has not changed to adapt to the fashion; to find solace and hope and relevance down through the centuries.” Faith may be flourishing, but things are far from peaceful among America’s 1.5 million Greek Orthodox Christians.
Intended to celebrate Greek Orthodoxy’s 75 years in America and garner support for the patriarch as pre-eminent leader of nearly 300 million Orthodox Christians around the world, Bartholomew’s Oct. 19-Nov. 17 visit is rapidly becoming a public relations disaster.
While church members are united in love for their church, widespread dissatisfaction with the policies and personality of Spyridon, the archbishop who Bartholomew named last year to lead the American archdiocese, is tearing them apart.
When Bartholomew arrives in Washington, D.C., Oct. 19, he will encounter a restive church, equally passionate about their ancient beliefs and American notions of independence.”I’m not an activist and never would have imagined I would be doing this. But never have we had a more divisive time as we have since Spyridon was appointed,”said Harry Coin, a Greek Orthodox layman from Boston who presides over a dissident Web site inveighing against the policies of the patriarch and his appointee.”The ecumenical patriarch has an opportunity to come here and redress the injustices perpetrated by Spyridon on the clergy and faithful of America: He can take Spyridon back with him.” Even Spyridon’s supporters acknowledge the archbishop has stumbled badly as successor to the imperious but beloved Archbishop Iakovos, who led Greek Orthodox in America for 37 years until Bartholomew forced his retirement in 1996 and named Spyridon his successor.
A skillful pastor, canny church diplomat and assiduous fund-raiser, Iakovos shaped a distinctly American church in which clergy and laity were intensely involved. But Iakovos’ attempts to organize Russian, Serbian, Ukrainian and other ethnic branches of Orthodoxy in America into an independent, or”autocephalic,”American church angered church hierarchy at the Phanar, the Greek enclave in present-day Istanbul that has been the seat of the ecumenical patriarch since the early days of the Christian church. The subsequent appointment of the 57-year-old Spyridon, born in Ohio but schooled and groomed for the episcopacy in Europe, was widely perceived as Bartholomew’s assertion of authority over a headstrong American church.
Nevertheless, hopes were high among Greek Orthodox that a young and vigorous archbishop would provide renewed spiritual leadership for a church whose members have completed the three-generation journey from struggling immigrants to educated, affluent participants in the American mainstream.
But exactly the opposite seems to have occurred.
Spyridon’s autocratic management style and administrative changes at the New York-based archdiocese have raised fears the democratic charter and conciliar form of church government that evolved under Iakovos would be scrapped. Spyridon’s tendency to speak Greek rather than English when visiting parishes has puzzled converts and assimilated Greeks, who voice concerns his vision of the church is more Hellenic than American.
His proposal to shift real estate now owned by individual Greek Orthodox parishes to the archdiocese have raised fears the treasure amassed for their church by American Greeks will be funneled into the depleted coffers of the ecumenical patriarch, forbidden by law in primarily Muslim Turkey to own or develop property.
But chief among their complaints is Spyridon’s alleged cover-up earlier this year of an incident in which a student at Holy Cross Seminary punched a visiting Greek cleric, whom the student said had repeatedly made sexual advances. The offending cleric was sent home and Spyridon’s subsequent decision to fire tenured faculty members who protested his decision made international headlines and outraged the school’s board of trustees.
The fired faculty members included four priests: the school’s president, Alkiviadis Calivas; librarian George Papademetrious, and theologians Emmanual Clapsis and Theodore Stylianopoulos. The scandal put the academic accreditation of the Weston, Mass., school at risk and invited the scrutiny of the Massachusetts attorney general after Valerie Karras, a laywoman and member of the administrative staff at the seminary, filed a complaint.
At a mid-September press conference in New York, Spyridon acknowledged the difficulties of his first year in office, but offered few apologies.”With the introduction of new faces or new persons, it is inevitable that there will be dissatisfaction and problems,”he said.”I am sorry if there are some people who are displeased, but the church must move forward and the archbishop must be granted the means to contribute to the advancement of actions which are in the church’s best interests.” Such statements do little to quell the archbishop’s critics. Coin’s web site (http://www.voithia.com), a potent mix of fact, rumor and speculation, registers more than 500 visitors a day. The Greek-American press, secular and religious, seethes with stories and rumors. The 2,000-member Orthodox Christian Laity has organized public forums around the country to discuss Spyridon’s policies and challenge his authority. Some leaders of the Greek community, concerned that insufficient funds are being raised to pay for the Ecumenical Patriarch’s $2.5 million visit, have proposed that Bartholomew postpone his trip.
Nick Karakas, a St. Louis businessman and longtime lay leader of the church, condemns as”unspiritual”the criticism of Spyridon, who, he concedes, has exhibited”an unusually long learning curve”as he adjusts to American ways.”Spyridon has made mistakes. He has been bull-headed and some of his actions have not been appropriate. But to pick up the cudgel as the dissidents have done, asking for his resignation is ill-conceived,”said Karakas.”Yes, things have gotten off-track; it can happen in any organization. But Archbishop Spyridon is taking strong steps to remedy things. I believe that the laity will continue to be a strong voice in the governance of the church. I believe Spyridon will prove himself to be a strong leader and spiritual light for Orthodoxy in the United States.” (BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM)
Already, according to the archbishop’s spokesman, the Rev. Alex Karloutsos,the fired Holy Cross faculty members, all priests, have been reinstated to new posts at the school while the Archdiocesan Council probes the alleged abuse, and possible violation of state regulations and the school’s bylaws.
Meanwhile, Spyridon has mended fences with the leaders of the other branches of Orthodoxy in America that might have caused them to boycott the ecumenical patriarch’s visit. American Orthodox leaders had been miffed by Spyridon’s demand that he automatically assume the post of president of SCOBA _ the Standing Canonical Orthodox Bishops in America _ rather than stand for election.”Our micro-crisis with Archbishop Spyridon has been resolved,”said Archbishop Peter of the Orthodox Church in America, an independent Russian Orthodox body.”We agreed that Spyridon will be elected president by acclamation, but not a formal election. Now we hope that there will be strong cooperation again among Orthodox leaders in the United States.” (END OPTIONAL TRIM)
Still, Orthodox Christians are viewing the month-long visit of the ecumenical patriarch with a mixture of anxiety and anticipation. As parishioners of St. Barbara’s assemble a program of theologians, scientists and luminaries such as Jean-Michel Cousteau to discuss Orthodoxy and the environment with Bartholomew, dissidents like Harry Coin are predicting disaster.”Greeks express their displeasure with a situation by closing their wallets and staying home,”Coin said, noting that contributions to pay for the ecumenical patriarch’s visit and sales of tickets to banquets honoring the patriarch are far below expectations.
The whole situation moved Spyridon’s spokesman, Alex Karloutsos, to quote the Greek playwright Euripides:”Unhappy Greeks are barbarians to each other,”he said with a sigh last week, referring to the troubled relationship between Spyridon and his critics.”The most important concern of the ecumenical patriarch when he comes to this country is that he wants the family of Greek Orthodox believers to come together to celebrate all they have achieved in 75 years in America,”Karloutsos said.”And most of all, he wants the members of the family to speak the truth and listen to one another with love.”
MJP END CONNELL
