c. 1998 Religion News Service

UNDATED _ Two small Greek Orthodox congregations in Maine and Vermont have opened a new front for church dissidents seeking the ouster of the head of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America by voting to withhold their mandatory contributions to national headquarters.

A much larger and influential congregation in Oakland, Calif., also voted to suspend its monthly National Stewardship fund payments, only to back off for the time being following a request to do so from its regional church head.

Archbishop Spyridon has been under attack from church dissidents _ led by the group Greek Orthodox American Leaders, Inc. (GOAL) _ who seek his removal because of his allegedly autocratic style that they argue has divided the 1.5-million member denomination. Critics also say Spyridon has mismanaged church funds, an allegation rejected by Spyridon’s defenders.

Spyridon’s chief spokesman, the Rev. Mark Arey, Monday (Dec. 28) called the dissidents a disgruntled minority”inspired by political concerns”who are upset because the archbishop has reduced their influence within the church.

GOAL spokesman Dean Popps said he expects a number of the church’s 550 congregations to follow the lead of the Maine and Vermont parishes. However, Popps insisted that GOAL was not orchestrating the move to withhold funds.”We don’t want to appear to be hurting the archdiocese financially,”he said.

Lay leaders at St. Nicholas Church in Rutland, Vt., and Holy Trinity Church in Lewiston, Maine, said their parish councils took the actions on their own, even as they voiced support for GOAL and its desire to oust Spyridon.”The sentiment among the members is the church would be better off if the (Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew) reassigned the archbishop,”said Holy Trinity member John Clifford. The Istanbul-based Bartholomew, who has jurisdiction over the archdiocese, appointed Spyridon in 1996.

The combined donations by the two New England churches represent a drop in the bucket for the New York-based archdiocese’s National Stewardship fund, which brought in about $9 million during the past year, according to Arey. The fund is the archdiocese’s main source for funding national church programs.

St. Nicholas, a 60-family congregation, contributes $100 a month. Holy Trinity, which has about 150 members, contributes about $7,500 a year.

However, Oakland’s 1,200-member Ascension Cathedral, which is scheduled to contribute $73,000 during 1999 to the archdiocese, is committed to making monthly payments to the fund for January and February only, and will reconsider its position in March, according to its pastor, the Rev. Thomas J. Paris.

Paris said his parish council voted to suspend sending contributions to the archdiocese, but then”caved in”after Metropolitan Anthony, who leads the church’s Diocese of San Francisco, asked it not to follow through with the action.”We don’t want to make this a divisive measure,”Paris said.”It’s a drastic step, but we think the archbishop’s policies are dividing the church rather than unifying it.” Arey criticized the local churches for withholding or threatening to withhold donations offered by individuals with the knowledge that they help fund archdiocese programs.”Once given to the church, it’s not yours anymore. It’s God’s and it is not to be taken back,”he said.”What’s most disturbing is that people have equated money with power.” The decision to withhold funds from the archdiocese is the latest fault line in the increasingly nasty dispute between the archdiocese and its critics. The dispute first erupted in 1997 when Spyridon fired the president and three faculty members at the archdiocese’s Hellenic College/Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Brookline, Mass. _ a move critics said was designed to cover up a sex scandal involving a priest and a seminarian. The school’s accreditation is now under review because of the episode.

More recently, the archdiocese went to court to stop GOAL from using the church’s national membership list for mailings, despite all five regional metropolitans, including Anthony, urging the church to drop the litigation. On Christmas Eve day, the archdiocese appealed a New York federal judge’s ruling issued in favor of GOAL.

DEA END RIFKIN