Basil

Published by The National Herald, January 14, 2005

Bishop Savas: Basil Livanos Must Resign

NEW YORK – The only solution to the ongoing issue of the Transfiguration Church in Corona is for its Parish Council President-Elect, Basil Livanos, to apologize and resign, His Grace Bishop Savas of Troas, Chancellor of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, told the National Herald in an interview.

The Archdiocese has declared Mr. Livanos – who was elected last month and is expected to be sworn-in this coming Sunday, January 16 – unwanted.

In the event that the Archdiocese continues to refuse to assign a priest for the swearing-in ceremony or orders other priests against officiating the ceremony, members of the Transfiguration community told the Herald that its board has already decided to hold the ceremony with a judge or other legal representative.

The Archdiocese recently returned documents of a marriage license to the community, which had been mailed to Archdiocesan headquarters in Manhattan. The wedding is also expected to take place on January 16.

Bishop Savas said that the documents had not been signed by a priest and were mailed to the Archdiocese by the community in general, and not a specific person. He added that the issue would be resolved as soon as a priest signs the license documents.

The crisis began when the community started making persistent appeals to the Archdiocese to remove its former pastor, the Very Rev. Cleopas Strongylis, who is now serving a parish in Lowell, Massachusetts.

Bishop Savas said that Mr. Livanos had complained to the Archdiocese about the former priest, but when Mr. Livanos was asked to provide proof of Rev. Strongylis’ alleged misconduct, "he did not bring us anything."

His Grace told the Herald that the Archdiocese would consider any attempt to invite a priest from an unrecognized Church to the community as an act of schism, and will only be appointing temporary priests to the community until the problem is resolved.

The Bishop added that the Archdiocese is willing to receive a Transfiguration representative committee in order to put an end to the issue as soon as possible, but only if asked to meet with community members "under their function as interested members of the community, and not members of the board."

Bishop Savas also made it clear that, in the future, Mr. Livanos can only become involved with the community’s School, "provided that he apologizes for his conduct," adding that the Archdiocese is prepared to call Mr. Livanos into spiritual court and said that the community must now hold ecclesiastically valid elections.

The Archdiocesan Chancellor said that the Corona community must conform to Archdiocese Uniform Parish Regulations. According to Bishop Savas, parish board nominees are obligated to learn the UPR through seminars. Board members must also declare, in writing, that they understand, and are willing to abide by, the UPR.

"Nothing of the kind has happened in the Transfiguration Church in Corona," he said.

"We know nothing (at the Archdiocese), other than what we read in the press," said His Grace, who specifically cited Paragraph 4 of Article IX and Paragraph 6 of Article V in the official UPR text. The former contains the board members’ oath, and the latter refers to their religious, moral and social obligations as members of an Archdiocesan church community.

Bishop Savas also said that events in the Corona community during the past few months have been dealt with by Archbishop Demetrios with "great patience."

Many of Mr. Livanos’ followers are heavily influenced by him, he added, and that Mr. Livanos is taking advantage the community’s sensitivities with respect to its school.

Bishop Savas also referred to the Archbishop’s open letter to the community, which was read to the Transfiguration Church’s congregation by Rev. Miltiades Efthimiou at the end of a recent Divine Liturgy service.

The letter clearly mentions that the Archdiocese does not recognize Mr. Livanos as president of the Corona community, and that he has no right to call a general council.

"Those were not my words, they were the Archbishop’s words," Bishop Savas said, adding that Mr. Livanos is, in a sense, hijacking the Transfiguration parish community.

"Mr. Livanos is committing mutiny. If he resigns, he must first apologize to the Archbishop so that he can be allowed to participate in the School committee," the Bishop added.

The Corona community still owes the Archdiocese $15,000 in annual contributions, Bishop Savas said, and Mr. Livanos and the current community board have spent a lot more on legal services.

According to the Bishop, Rev. Efthimiou, who was recently replaced by the Romanian-born Rev. Mikail Dobre, left the Transfiguration Church temporarily last month voluntarily.

A priest is not sent to a community by the Archdiocese alone, the Archdiocesan Chancellor explained, but is appointed upon consensus reached between the Archdiocese and the community.

"Communities pay for their priests, and we cannot send whoever we like there without the approval of their presidents," he said.

"By sending a temporary priest to the Transfiguration community, we are not trying to punish them. There are faithful people there, and we do not want to deprive them of their religious rights and way of life. We are interested in both the community and the school. We are trying to think of ways to find a solution to the problem, according to the Regulations on a daily basis," he added.

Meanwhile, George Georgiades, who the Archdiocese has appointed as community president, told the Herald that he is in favor of a peaceful transfer of the presidency from Mr. Livanos to himself, adding that he holds the majority of votes on the original legal board. Thus, he said, "the Archdiocese can give us a permanent priest, and in six months, we can hold legal elections, in which the community can decide on the appropriate persons."

Asked about what caused the conflict, Mr. Georgiades said that it was the result of actions taken against Rev. Strongylis, pointing out that 11 Board members under Mr. Livanos’ presidency had asked the Archdiocese to remove Mr. Livanos from his office.

Mr. Georgiades also said that Mr. Livanos never showed the Archdiocese any accounting forms supporting his allegations against Rev. Strongylis, but only informal papers and compared Mr. Livanos’ behavior with that of "cowboy."

"How is it possible that a swearing-in ceremony can be held without a priest," he asked, and said that such actions cannot intimidate the Archdiocese. "Whatever they do is not going to count; neither did the elections nor the general council," he added.

Mr. Georgiades said that members of the community would not have voted for Mr. Livanos had they known the truth: namely that he was asked to resign from the presidency by the latest legal board, and that Bishop Savas "adheres to the Archbishop’s instructions."

"I am not interested in the presidency," Mr. Georgiades concluded. "Al I want is for peace to be restored in the community. If Father Strongylis left, so should Mr. Livanos. I can not accept the notion that he did not know what was happening at the time."



Volume 7 Number 3 - Tuesday, January 18th, 2005	A Publication of the ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN LAITY