Greek Church to Fight Takeover of Land

The Greek Orthodox Church said Friday that it will take the Socialist government to court over a law that gives its huge landholdings to farm cooperatives and puts laymen in charge of church administration.

Leaders of the state church said they will not comply with the law and might seek union with the international body of Eastern Orthodoxy, which is not subject to Greek law.

The Socialist-dominated Parliament passed the bill early Friday after three weeks of acrimonious debate and street demonstrations. Opposition members walked out in protest, and the measure was approved by voice vote.

The Holy Synod, the 78-member body of bishops that runs church affairs, issued a statement saying the law put the church “under siege” from the state.

“In order to safeguard its liberty and spiritual and administrative jurisdiction, the church will contest orders and actions taken under this law in Greek, European and international courts,” it said.

Under the law, the church’s 350,000 acres are to be transferred to farm cooperatives dominated by members of Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou’s Socialist Party, and laymen will take control of local administrative affairs.

‘Church Is Ready to Fight’

“The church is ready to fight in any way it can to maintain control over its administrative affairs. This issue isn’t over yet,” a church spokesman said on condition his name not be used.

He said the bishops will meet on Tuesday to discuss whether to seek union with the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul, the spiritual governing body of Eastern Orthodoxy.

When Greece gained independence in 1833, after nearly 400 years of Ottoman Turkish rule, the Greek church declared itself autonomous and removed itself from the Patriarchate’s jurisdiction.

Antonis Tritis, minister of education and religion, said in Parliament that the church’s threat to accept the Patriarchate’s authority “shows contempt for the constitution and the desire of the nation since independence.”

The land owned by Greece’s 470 monasteries and convents is to be turned over to the cooperatives within six months. Committees dominated by laymen will control local church councils and the Organization for Administering Eccelesiastical Property, which handles church-owned hotels, marble quarries and seaside lots.

It is considered the boldest domestic program in six years of Socialist rule and fulfills a platform pledge Papandreou’s party made in 1981.

In rural areas, where the church had great social and political control in the past, expanding the government’s farm cooperative system is seen as a way to boost flagging popular support for the Socialists.

More than 97% of Greece’s 10 million people are baptized into the church, but fewer than 10% are believed to attend services regularly.