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Published by The National Herald, July 1, 2005

The Archdiocese has made the right decision

That the Archdiocese has decided during a recent Council meeting, held at its Manhattan Headquarters, to go as far as firing employees might at first glance look heartless. Dismissing an employee is a hard task for any employer, let alone a Church. But given the Archdiocese’s chronic and serious deficit, its leaders were left with no other choice.

In fact it could be argued that this and other belt-tightening decisions were long over-due for the Greek Church in America and, if anything, they are perhaps rather modest in scope, considering the current dire financial situation of the Archdiocese. Saving five hundred to nine hundred thousand dollars a year, either though dismissing some employees or offering early-retirement packages to others, is a drop in the ocean in relation to the red ink that has been generated by the Archdiocese over the past six years. The Archdiocesan deficit is fast approaching the twelve million dollar mark.

We are concerned that the opinion that prevailed in the recent Council meeting places all hopes of balancing the budget and paying off this debt on the unrealistic expectation that somehow, sharply higher revenues will come to the Church’s way in the future. Such wishful thinking could make things much worse for the Archdiocese and serve to mortgage the future of the Greek Church in America for years to come.

This paper has strived to accurately inform its readers by penetrating the cult of secrecy the Church’s leaders have promoted over the true magnitude of its deficit and has repeatedly argued on this page in favor of putting some order in the administrative costs of the Church and its poor management practices.

Unfortunately, instead of acting quickly and decisively, the leadership of the Church – contrary to the clear and compelling information it has in its possession – has cultivated a misleading image of substantial progress in all of its endeavors. The truth is that few things seem to have worked well for the Archdiocese lately and that is reflected in its finances.

This misleading picture does not serve the truth, it does not serve the Church and it most certainly does not serve any individual. On the contrary, by postponing the day of reckoning, the Archdiocese has only made things worse both ethically as well as practically.

We certainly owe a great amount of gratitude to businessman Nick Bouras for contributing hundreds of thousands of dollars towards covering the payroll of the Archdiocese for the past two months at least. However, it is neither fair to him nor is it proper procedure, nor does it speak well for the rest of us to have one member of the community discharge the responsibilities faced by us all.

The question before us now is not who is responsible for this unprecedented situation but rather, how can we correct the problem.

Firstly, the leadership of the Church must first come to terms with reality. Secondly, it must examine the reasons that have brought us to this point in depth. Thirdly, the Archdiocese should, to put it simply and mildly, do something about it.

Among other things, it should consider why communities around the country have been refusing to pay the money appropriated for the needs of the Archdiocese, or why they fail to pay them in time. It should consider why people are not as generous as they used to be and why such a small percentage of the members of our community in America are also members of our Church.

Until these questions are answered and until brave decisions are taken to correct the current situation, our Archdiocese will go from one crisis to the next and back again, posing an embarrassment to all of us who care about its well-being and who long for it to perform its services to the community and fulfill its great mission.



Volume 7 Number 27 - Tuesday, July 5th, 2005	A Publication of the ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN LAITY