c. 1998 Religion News Service

UNDATED _ The Greek Orthodox Church’s undergraduate college and graduate seminary in Brookline, Mass., under review by two accrediting groups, has been given until early 1999 to correct what one agency termed”major inadequacies”or face a possible loss of its accreditation.

The warning was contained in separate reports by the New England Association of Schools & Colleges’ Commission on Institutions of Higher Education (NEASC) and the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada (ATS).

The two accrediting agencies reviewed actions at Hellenic College-Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology following complaints that Archbishop Spyridon, who heads the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, had violated school policies and accreditation standards last year when he ousted the institution’s president and an untenured professor and reassigned two other faculty members.

The accrediting agencies agreed with the charges but gave the school a chance to correct its problems over the next half-year before facing possible disciplinary action. Both noted a willingness on the part of the school and the archdiocese to resolve the problems.

Critics say the school personnel ousted or reassigned ran afoul of Spyridon because they refused to cooperate in the coverup of an alleged sexual incident at the school involving a visiting Greek cleric and a seminarian.

The critics _ most of whom are associated with Greek Orthodox American Leaders, Inc. (GOAL), a dissident church group _ also say Spyridon’s actions at the school are indicative of his authoritarian leadership style, which they say is dividing the 1.5-million member Greek Orthodox archdiocese. GOAL has called for Spyridon to step down.

The archdiocese, for its part, characterizes the changes Spyridon instituted at the school as part of a routine reorganization on the part of a newly installed archbishop and denies any cover up. Archdiocese officials also dismiss GOAL as an insignificant minority of church malcontents.

In its June 19 report, NEASC concluded that Hellenic-Holy Cross”has not adhered to its governance policies and procedures in making certain personnel actions in the summer of 1997.”NEASC gave the school until Feb. 1, 1999 to”effectively respond”to its findings or face”adverse action.” Chief among the”critical issues”to be addressed, NEASC said, is clarification of the”role and place of ecclesiastical authority”within the governance of Hellenic-Holy Cross, the archdiocese’s only such institution.

NEASC said its concern was”to safeguard accepted values and practices of American higher education”and to be”mindful of the related issue of academic freedom.” ATS, in a June 16 report, also found the personnel moves improper and placed the school”on warning”_ which it defined as”major inadequacies with regard to one or more standards.”ATS gave the school until Jan. 15, 1999 to show it has strengthened its governing procedures or face possible”probation.” ATS also concluded that”one critical factor contributing to this failure to comply”with its standards was that Hellenic-Holy Cross governing documents”do not fully set forth nor provide sufficient guidance about the ways in which the ecclesiastical authority of the archbishop is related to the institutional authority”in bylaws and other school guidelines that relate to faculty.

Despite those findings, Spyridon said in a statement Wednesday (June 24) he welcomed the two reports.”I am pleased to report that the (school’s) accreditation will not be affected in any adverse way by the actions of either body,”the archbishop said.”On the contrary, the dialogue between the school and the accrediting bodies, necessitated by the complaints, has led to an illumination of some problems that remain in the institutional documents and practices of the school. The weaknesses noted by the accrediting bodies concern the very issues surrounding last summer’s administrative changes.” Rev. Mark Arey, archdiocese communications director, also downplayed the seriousness of the agencies’ reports.”We don’t see the rulings as negative,”he said.”We see them as professional and fair. We’re not particularly upset. We see them as not reflecting on the archbishop but on the institution. The problems with the bylaws predate the archbishop’s arrival”in 1996, he said in an interview.

But Dr. John Collis, a Cleveland neurosurgeon and school trustee who is sharply critical of Spyridon, called the accrediting agencies’ reports”very serious.” Collis _ who along with a former school administrator filed the complaints triggering the agencies’ reviews _ said”any knowledgeable administrator would be embarrassed to death”by the reports.”It’s almost as if the archdiocese is living in a dream world.” Thomas Lelon, a former Hellenic-Holy Cross president whose decade-long tenure preceded Spyridon’s coming, also called the agencies’ findings”extremely serious.”He also blamed the school’s problems on the”inept actions our archbishop has taken.” Officials at both NEASC and ATS, citing longstanding policy, declined to comment.

Hellenic-Holy Cross is a 60-year-old institution with about 150 students. In addition to producing priests for the Greek Orthodox Church, it offers undergraduate and masters degrees”intimately related to the Greek cultural heritage and the Orthodox Christian faith,”according to a church document.

DEA END RIFKIN