NEWS STORY: Greek Orthodox church installs new archbishop

c. 1999 Religion News Service NEW YORK _ Demetrios of Vresthena formally assumed the position of archbishop of the nation’s largest Orthodox Christian denomination Saturday (Sept. 18), calling for a new era of unity in a church recovering from years of controversy and bitter infighting. Demetrios became”evangelical shepherd”and”spiritual father”of the 1.5-million Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of […]

c. 1999 Religion News Service

NEW YORK _ Demetrios of Vresthena formally assumed the position of archbishop of the nation’s largest Orthodox Christian denomination Saturday (Sept. 18), calling for a new era of unity in a church recovering from years of controversy and bitter infighting.

Demetrios became”evangelical shepherd”and”spiritual father”of the 1.5-million Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America in a nearly two-hour service at the church’s Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, a red-brick structure on an otherwise residential street on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.


First lady Hillary Rodham Clinton was among the many ecumenical, diplomatic and New York political figures who, along with those faithful able to secure tickets, jammed the 500-seat cathedral way beyond its official capacity. Republican Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, Clinton’s chief rival in New York’s undeclared Senate race, was notably absent.

Urging church members to set aside the”distances”that rocked the denomination during the three-year reign of his ousted predecessor, Archbishop Spyridon, Demetrios said that for the church to prosper”the future can only be on the basis of unity.” The 71-year-old, Greek-born Demetrios called for better understanding between the generations, between clergy and laity, between immigrant and second- and third-generation church members, and between the archdiocese and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the Istanbul, Turkey-based international Orthodox leader who has final say over the American church.

In short, he used his installation speech to touch on many of the church’s most serious fault-lines, most of which worsened under Spyridon, who was forced to resign in August after alienating many in the archdiocese by what critics said was his autocractic personal style and fiscal mismanagement.

Anger at Spyridon pitted church factions against each other and led some of the denomination’s more than 500 parishes to withhold financial support from the archdiocese. It prompted a revolt by lay leaders who lobbied on the Internet for Spyridon’s removal, and calls for his ouster from the church’s five metropolitans, or regional leaders.

More than 100 priests also signed a petition demanding the Bartholomew remove Spyridon. Among them was the Rev. Robert Stephanopoulos, dean of Holy Trinity, who was stripped of most of his authority by Spyridon.

Stephanopoulos, the father of former White House aide George Stephanopoulos, who was on hand Saturday, has since had his authority restored by Demetrios.

In the end, Bartholomew withdrew his support for Spyridon. But not before talk mounted among church dissidents that the patriarch’s delay underscored the need for full administrative autonomy for the American church,


Saturday, however, Demetrios _ who studied and taught at Harvard University during some 20 years earlier spent in the United States _ sought to convey a sense that the church’s recent strains, if not yet put to rest, would at least be approached in a new spirit of openness and revitalized Orthodox religiosity.

His message was well-received by church members anxious to put the past behind them.”This is like the resurrection period for the church,”said the Rev. Alex Karloutsos, an influential priest who worked behind the scenes to engineer Spyridon’s removal.”Demetrios is providing the church with a sense of new life. That’s what everybody wants and that’s what we’re celebrating,”said Karloutsos, who leads a parish in Southampton, N.Y., and has close ties to Bartholomew.

Even Spyridon supporters on hand for the installation said what the church needs now is reconciliation.”We had a great love for Spyridon, but maybe what he tried to do just didn’t work,”said Thomas N. Dallas, president of the parish council at St. Andrew’s Greek Orthodox Church in Chicago.”This installation is a way to recover and move forward from our problems. Archbishop Demetrios is a very spiritual man. We need a mended spirit.” Retired Archbishop Iakovos, who preceded Spyridon, and was among those who turned against him, also alluded to the church’s troubles in his installation talk.

He likened Demetrios’ selection as archbishop to”a day of awakening from whatever deep slumbers and nightmares may have existed.” In his address, Demetrios also called for strengthening Greek cultural and Orthodox religious education within his church.

In addition, he said, he would involve the archdiocese more fully in the problems of society at large, and he urged individual church members to follow suit”as a distinctive sign of our Orthodox ethos.” Born Demetrios Tralkatellis in Thessaloniki, Greece, the new archbishop served in the Church of Greece until his appointment to replace Spyridon. Fluent in six languages and known as New Testament scholar, in 1968 Demetrios declined a high post in the Church of Greece to protest the policies of the military junta then ruling the nation.

In 1991, he was given the title Metropolitan of Vresthena, a region in Greece. He is the author of three highly respected books on Orthodox theology and was ordained a priest in 1964.


DEA END RIFKIN

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