Leader of U.S. Greek Church Resigns

Culminating a bitter and divisive power struggle that has rocked the Greek Orthodox Church in the United States for three years, Archbishop Spyridon resigned Thursday as head of the church in the United States.

Spyridon, 54, who fought to save his throne in the face of a rebellion by his bishops and lay organizations, submitted his resignation at the request of the worldwide spiritual leader of Orthodox Christians, His All Holiness Bartholomew I. He was temporarily reassigned to a post in Turkey, the Holy Metropolis of Chaldias.

Bartholomew, based in Istanbul, at first defended his appointment three years ago of Spyridon as archbishop of America. But as church members in the United States bristled under what they called Spyridon’s autocratic leadership, they called for an independent, self-governing church no longer directly under Bartholomew’s control. Some parishes withheld funds from New York headquarters.

Named to succeed Spyridon was 71-year-old Metropolitan Demetrios Trakatellis of Vresthena in Greece. Demetrios is expected to arrive in Istanbul today to receive Bartholomew’s blessing.

An ecumenist said to have close relations with the Roman Catholic Church, Demetrios is well known among his new U.S. flock. For a decade ending in 1993, he taught at the church’s Hellenic College--Holy Cross Seminary in Brookline, Mass. He also taught at Harvard University, where he earned a doctorate in New Testament studies.

In announcing his resignation, Spyridon had bitter words for those who opposed him, even as he pronounced his forgiveness. In a three-page resignation letter, he wrote that a “few of every grade” have “spared little ordnance in an attack of words that has done far more damage to our Greek Orthodox family than it has to those entrusted with its leadership.”

Spyridon was born in Warren, Ohio, but spent most of his life in Europe. Critics said he could not grasp the multiethnic reality of America and damaged the Greek Orthodox Church by trying to keep it inflexible and inaccessible to faithful who feel more American than Greek. They also charged that he largely ignored his metropolitan bishops in making decisions. Spyridon said he was only trying to buttress Greek culture and values.

It was unclear whether the rare removal of an archbishop would restore calm to the church, which has 1.5 million members in the United States.

Last Saturday, the church’s ranking American metropolitan bishops urged Bartholomew to appoint one of them as the new archbishop, arguing that their familiarity with America was essential to restoring unity.

“The election of any other would be unacceptable by the large majority of both the clergy and the laity, who have been extremely stressed and unacceptably mistreated during the recent past,” the metropolitan bishops wrote.

But the Very Rev. John Bakas, dean of St. Sophia’s Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Los Angeles, said he believed that Demetrios’ elevation as archbishop was likely in keeping with the spirit of the American metropolitan bishops’ plea.

“I think the intent of the metropolitans is that someone be selected who has had experience in America,” Bakas said. Demetrios “speaks English very well, and I think he understands the unique position of the church in America.” Bakas added, “But it all depends on him too.”