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Published by
The Salt Lake Tribune,
April 13, 2005
Archbishop
Iakovos remolded Orthodox Church |
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Courted controversy: The one-time leader of Greek
Orthodoxy in the Americas died Sunday
Archbishop Iakovos: The former top authority of
the Greek Christians in America died Sunday at the
age of 93
By Peggy
Fletcher Stack
The Salt Lake
Tribune
Archbishop Iakovos was the Pope John Paul
II of the Greek Orthodox Church - at least on this
side of the Atlantic.
Iakovos,
spiritual leader of more than 2 million members of
the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North and South
America from 1959 to 1996, elevated the immigrant,
outsider church to become a major player among
U.S. religions. He reached out to other faiths,
including Catholics, Anglicans, Lutherans and
Southern BaptistsΒ. He met every U.S. president
from Eisenhower to Clinton and was the first Greek
Orthodox leader in 350 years to meet with a pope.
He also met two LDS Church presidents - David O.
McKay and Ezra Taft Benson.
He
championed human rights, marching alongside the
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma, Ala., in
1965. And the black-garbed leader energized a
generation of young believers with his charisma,
sermons and openness. He brought English into the
liturgy, while holding steady on traditional
beliefs. And he loved baseball, especially the
Boston Red Sox.
Iakovos'
death Sunday in Stamford, Conn., at the age of 93
marks "the end of the golden age of orthodoxy in
America,'' said the Rev. George Poulos, who wrote
a book on Iakovos. ''There's no one on the horizon
who can equal his abilities and his character and
his faith.''
"He
exemplified what a clergyman and spiritual father
should be," said the Rev. Michael Kouremetis, head
priest of Salt Lake City's Greek Orthodox
community. "Many of us who serve the church today
model our ministry on his example."
And many
Utahns agree.
"It's too
bad," said Con Skedros, who met Iakovos on many
occasions. "He was
controversial on some issues, but overall people
were proud to say he was the leader of their
church. We need leaders like him in the church
today."
Iakovos
visited Utah a number of times between 1960 and
1991, when he came to consecrate Prophet Elias
Greek Orthodox Church in Holladay.
Many in the
Greek church here thrilled to meet him or hear him
preach. Some had long-standing personal
relationships with the leader, including the late
Bill Cocorinis, who used to make the Orthodox
primate laugh.
"He could be
intimidating, but he had a warm, human side," said
Cocorinis' son-in-law, Geoffrey Mangum, whose two
children were baptized by Iakovos.
Born
Demetrios Coucouzis in Turkey, he took the name
Iakovos, which means James, when he was ordained
a deacon after earning
a master's degree at the Ecumenical Patriarch's
Theological School in Istanbul in 1934. Arriving
in the United States in 1939, he was ordained to
the priesthood in Lowell, Mass., in 1940 and
became a U.S. citizen 10 years later. He spoke
several languages and could hold children as well
as adults spellbound by his sermons, Poulos said.
But Iakovos'
outspokenness on human rights at home and abroad
made him an outcast in his homeland, which refused
to allow him to attend his parents' funerals.
And his
drive towards Christian unity may have led to his
retirement.
Iakovos came
into conflict with Ecumenical Patriarch
Bartholomew, the titular leader of world
Orthodoxy, in 1994 after he convened a meeting of
29 bishops from the 10 North American branches of
Eastern Orthodoxy.
In an unprecedented
move, the bishops recommended placing all of the
churches under one administrative umbrella while
maintaining ties to their separate ''mother
churches'' in Greece, Russia and the other
countries.
It is widely
assumed that Bartholomew forced Iakovos to resign
in 1996 because he had endorsed the idea.
After Iakovos'
retirement, church officials split the North and
South American Greek Orthodox archdiocese into
four sections, and Metropolitan Spyridon was
appointed as Archbishop of America, serving
followers in the United States only.
He resigned
in 1999 and was replaced by the current
archbishop, Demetrios.
In a
statement, Demetrios hailed Iakovos as ''a superb
archbishop who offered to the church an intense,
continuous, multifaceted and creative pastoral
activity.''
Iakovos will
lie in state at the Archdiocesan Cathedral of the
Holy Trinity in New York City throughout today and
his funeral, which Kouremetis will attend, is
scheduled for Thursday morning.
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The
Associated Press contributed to this report. |
