BOSTON- At 83 years old and beleaguered by a raft of questions about his ability to keep leading, Archbishop Demetrios may leave his position at the Archbishopric Throne of America, it emerged after intense discussions at the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople, where he traveled unannounced, as well as among prominent Greek-American leaders who want him retained. The National Herald was unable to reach him at press time.Read the rest here.
Those familiar with the issue attribute the possible development to his age the constant accumulation of various unresolved problems under his tenure recently.
Sources said it was believed at the Patriarchate that these questions have stagnated the ecclesial life of the Archdiocese of America. TNH also has learned that a group of prominent Greek Americans do not agree with the possibility of Archbishop Demetrios leaving his post and threatened to stop all financial and other support to the Ecumenical Patriarchate if he does not stay.
Hat tip Fr. David.
Please take particular note of the blurb near the bottom of the article...
Patriarch Bartholomew discussed with Archbishop Demetrios various issues of the Archdiocese including the upcoming Synaxis of all the canonical Bishops in America and Canada on May 26. Patriarch Bartholomew appears to be angry with Archbishop Demetrio’s decision to include the OCA (former Russian Metropolia,) to which the Patriarchate of Moscow gave autocephalous ecclesiastical status which is not recognized by the Ecumenical Patriarchate despite the clear directive of Patriarch Bartholomew not to include them. Archbishop Demetrios claims it was included by mistake, but Fr. Mark Arey, Director of Interchurch Relations, gave a different explanation.
There are hierarchs at the Phanar who fear that such a Synaxis convened with the knowledge if not the directive of the Patriarchate, could get out of control and develop into some type of an ecclesiastical coup for the creation of an American Orthodox Autocephalous Church, similar to that attempted by the late Archbishop Iakovos at the Ligonier on Pennsylvania in 1994 which became the beginning of the end of his Archbishopric tenure.
Let us always remember that it took just one to betray the trust at Ligonier (http://www.uocofusa.org/news_071229_1.html) when he phoned the Phanar and threw Iakovos et al. to the wolves. Just one kiss of Judas (that is, a man without repentance) and much is lost. I was at Ligonier, and knew Vsevolod for decades at SCOBA, and this last act of betrayal to America memorializes his true character. Is there another Vsevolod lurking? Lord, have mercy on your people!
ReplyDeleteEyes to see, ears to hear: Protopresbyter Alex Karloutsos. Subplanted within the GOA as the satellite-go-to-man of the Phanar, and the most intimate(!) amicus curiae of Bartholomew, he's posted as the "Spiritual Advisor" to the Constantinopolitan Archons of the Order of St Andrew in the U.S. (second to Abp. Demetrios), the choreographer of Abp. Spyridon's demise, and liaison-trememdum to the wealthiest Greeks in the US and Greece. His motif: The man who would be God regardless of injury and devastation, feared by his peers, spoken ill of only in private.
ReplyDeleteIf H.E. Dimitrios is 'on way out' is not because of OCA. The Church of Phanar claims ecumenic leadership and now can place Phanariotes.
ReplyDeleteOCA, Antiochians, Greeks (lets not forget the 2 squabbling Romanian jurisdictions) my my my. Looks like full blown American denominationalism has hit the Orthodox Churches hard.
ReplyDeleteNothing is sacred anymore. So much for 'Orthodoxy'.
It's all politics.
Matthew,
ReplyDeleteIt's annoying, uncannonical, and arguably even scandalous, but let's get real here. In the the long history of the Church this is hiccup that will probably not merit more than a footnote in any comprehensive history of the Orthodox Church written a couple of hundred years from now. If you see this as a reason to write off Orthodoxy I shudder to think how you would have handled Arianism.
Christ is risen!
John
If one can handle reading http://www.orthodoxchristianity.net/forum/index.php/topic,27268.0/all.html
ReplyDeletethere is some evidence that the cited story may lack credibility.
Christ is Risen!
Bill, tGf