Submitted October 8, 2004

Letter from Houston

The Role of the Laity in Church Governance

Two other parishioners and I were properly elected to the Parish Council (“Board”) of the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Houston in late 2002. Early the next year, Bishop Isaiah of Denver refused to ratify our election and dismissed – unlawfully and improperly – the entire Board. They had written him to request temporary removal or re-assignment of the head priest on the grounds that he needed “counseling” to deal with issues that were then – and are now – seriously interfering with his performance. The three newly-elected, never-to-be-ratified, board members openly agreed with this request. But that is another story….

The real issue in experiences like ours – which I know now have been occurring throughout America over the last several years, most recently in Marlborough, Massachusetts -- is not the legal one we are dealing with in Houston and others are dealing with elsewhere. It is not even how best to deal with dysfunctional priests – or bishops. It is rather whether the laity in American Orthodoxy will continue to exercise a real role in governance of their churches and of the Church as a whole. The role of the laity is not a technical or legal issue, and it is not peculiar to the Church in America. It goes to the heart of the theological concept of the Community of the Faithful as the Body of Christ. The Church hierarchy or organization is in no way equivalent to the Body of Christ -- the Community of the Faithful is the Body of Christ. Church organization is but a part of it -- an important part -- but not the whole of it. Likewise, bishops are called to be good shepherds, not Pharisees or centurions. Apostolic succession is not a manifestation of the heretical and discredited doctrine of the divine right of kings. In these skirmishes that are going on in parishes across America, in my humble opinion, the law can be helpful tactically. But the outcome of our lawsuits, even if we win, will not resolve the issue of governance in the Church. That will not happen unless and until the People of God begin to behave as if they were the People of God.

In my view, we are witnessing the recurrence of a disorder that has plagued Eastern Christianity to one degree or another since the Turkish conquest. It was then that the sultan gave the Patriarch of Constantinople secular authority over and political responsibility for all Christians in the empire. His role became a distorted and imperfect mirror image of the authority and political role of the Papacy in the West. The present Patriarch and many of his bishops seem hell bent on “Romanizing” Orthodoxy by re-asserting this Ottoman perversion of the Patriarchate. The war against this particular cancer – “hierarchic megalomania”, the “gift” of the Ottomans -- needs to be fought on every front -- in our parishes, in our dioceses (aka “metropolises”), in the archdiocese, and in Istanbul.

Bartholomew, it seems to me, strongly leans toward ghetto Orthodoxy in America, especially since moving in any other direction, he seems to believe (wrongly in my opinion), will weaken his power and influence. The road to true Christian leadership is humility and love, not arrogance and anger. In my opinion too -- one not shared by many Greek Orthodox, I admit -- moving the seat of the Patriarchate out of Turkey (and out of the tiny Greek ghetto in the Phanar) is essential to maintaining and increasing its role as the first among equals in the Orthodox world. Bartholomew's misguided efforts at top down hegemony -- mostly in Greek -- will have -- in fact are having -- precisely the opposite of the intended effect. That bent stems in part from the narrow-minded myopia -- and understandable paranoia -- of the Phanariotes and in part from the 500 years of Ottoman domination and its residue in the Turkish Republic, including the authoritarian and imperialist attitudes embedded in the Patriarchate as it served as a political instrument for the control of Christians in the Empire.

Since our Church is a Texas non-profit corporation, the elected board sued the bishop, the priest, and the “interim board” to seek to have the charter and by-laws of the Cathedral properly applied under state law. Needless to say, neither the law, nor the charter, nor the by-laws authorize the action the bishop took. (Though we did not raise the issue in the suit, the bishop’s action also violated the Uniform Parish Regulations in effect at the time.) The dismissals were subsequently repudiated by a General Assembly of the parish – the sole legal repository of such authority – but that action was also ignored. The suit was dismissed by a lower court and is on appeal.

Without the stupendous success of two consecutive Greek Festivals, one chaired by my wife and me, just before I was barred from the Parish Council, and one last year, the Cathedral would be in very serious financial difficulties. Parishioners have expressed their concerns about the state of affairs by reducing pledges or leaving the parish. Annunciation is (or was) one of the largest parishes in America. Earlier in 2002, it had completed an $8 million redevelopment of its facilities. I was a member of the Redevelopment Committee that managed the effort. One of the dismissed Board members was Chairman of the committee, and a number of the other dismissed served on it as well.

The families of both of my parents had been active in the parish, founded in 1916, since the late 20’s and early 30’s. I was baptized and participated in services as a child when services at Annunciation were mostly in Greek. As I recall, very little effort was made to teach the meaning of the Faith. I grew away from the Church, returning only when Father Nick Triantafilou, now President of Hellenic College / Holy Cross, brought me back around as an adult. In his almost 20 years at Annunciation, Father Nick emphasized religious education and expanding the use of English in services.

For 8 years I served on the Board of the Annunciation Orthodox School, now one of the finest private and Christian schools in the city. I was President of the School Board at one time. Several years ago, I served on the Parish Council for three years and was Treasurer of the Cathedral. I raised my son, now a second-year college student and a deeply committed Orthodox Christian, in the Church and taught him the Faith as I taught myself.

In time, I became very involved with several others in teaching adults the history and theology of Orthodoxy. I must say that, many, if not most, of my fellow parishioner students, many “cradle Orthodox” and their spouses, were nearly clueless about the history and theology of Orthodoxy, as I had been. For several years, this learning and teaching process was exciting and spiritually enriching. I was a history major at Yale and, finally, after years in the law and business, returned to my first intellectual love, history, and my new spiritual – and intellectual -- love, the Orthodox Church.

For me, Annunciation now feels like “occupied territory,” a once healthy Orthodox community commandeered by self-aggrandizing hierarchs and their hirelings. Despite the departure of some and the reduced support of others, most parishioners endure the situation. For me, the Cathedral we once thought was becoming a “beacon for Orthodoxy” is spiritually and intellectually stagnant. I do believe that in the fullness of time, the Holy Spirit will restore the parish to its people, and that He will do the same for Greek Orthodoxy in America. But, in the meantime, I now participate in the Liturgy at St. George Antiochian Orthodox Christian Church in Houston.



Volume 6 Number 42 - Tuesday, October 19th, 2004	A Publication of the ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN LAITY