c. 1999 Religion News Service

NEW YORK _ Just days prior to a meeting that could determine his future, the embattled head of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America sought to strengthen his position with a series of”good news”and”new initiative”announcements Friday (Jan. 8) that critics dismissed as meaningless window dressing.

On Tuesday (Jan. 12), Archbishop Spyridon is scheduled to meet in Istanbul, Turkey, with the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the international Orthodox leader who appointed him head of the American church in 1996 and holds the key to his future.

Also there will be the archdiocese’s five metropolitans, or regional bishops, who have openly charged Spyridon with”losing the church”through such actions as filing an unprecedented _ and so far unsuccessful _ lawsuit that seeks to prevent church dissidents from using the archdiocese’s mailing list.

Greek Orthodox Church insiders say the meeting could well climax the increasingly bitter dispute between Spyridon and his metropolitans, a substantial and growing number of his priests, and lay dissidents who want Bartholomew to reassign the archbishop. Given Bartholomew’s past support for Spyridon it is unclear what the ecumenical patriarch will do.

A sign of how wide the gulf between Spyridon and his critics has become is a recent public letter from the metropolitans in which they pointedly accused him of acting unilaterally and against the church’s best interests.”The Archdiocese did not begin with you. It pre-existed you by many decades,”the metropolitans said in their letter. Given the staunch hierarchical and tradition-bound nature of the Greek Orthodox Church, the metropolitans’ public opposition bordered on the extraordinary.

Other critics have alleged financial mismanagement by Spyridon and said he is autocratic and out of touch with the needs of the American church.

Friday, at a rare news conference _ he’s held less than a handful since assuming office _ a somber Spyridon made a series of announcements he touted as positive church developments.

He insisted his timing was unconnected to his troubles and the upcoming meeting with Bartholomew. But critics, noting that Spyridon usually releases information through press releases, found the timing suspect.”Clearly, he’s looking for a boost in the ratings before he heads over there,”said Dean Popp, a spokesman for Greek Orthodox American Leaders (GOAL), a dissident lay group.”His hope clearly is that the announcements will strike a number of chords with the people in America and the ecumenical patriarch in particular.” Speaking first in Greek and then English at his office just off Manhattan’s Central Park, Spyridon said his church’s 350 parishes around the nation have contributed a record $8.9 million to the archdiocese during 1998; that a long-awaited legal reorganization of the church’s $40-million Leadership 100 endowment fund has been completed, and that he was launching a concerted effort to get Washington to pressure the Turkish government to reopen the long-closed Greek Orthodox Seminary at Halki, near Istanbul.

The record contributions, he said, were a”sign of robust health and vigor”of the archdiocese and a”sign of (the parishes’) loyalty to the archdiocese.” Popp said parish contributions are generally earmarked at least two years in advance. He noted that the archbishop did not mention the two small parishes in Maine and Vermont that have said they will withhold future contributions, and an influential Oakland, Calif., parish that voted to suspend its payments, but backed off after being urged to do so by its local metropolitan.

He also called the Leadership 100 reorganization”very pro forma, not newsworthy and something that has long been in the works.”Lobbying on behalf of the Halki seminary _ which was shut by the Turkish government in 1972 as part of broad Greek-Turkish hostilities _”is something we have the Greek Embassy for,”added Popp.

Spyridon also met with the ecumenical patriarch last summer over the problems within the archdiocese, which claims 1.5 million members. Greek-American newspapers reported at the time that the Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarch, the highest executive body for Orthodox churches aligned under Bartholomew, unofficially voted to remove Spyridon. The reports said Bartholomew rejected that idea and gave Spyridon additional time to solve his problems.

In a letter to the American metropolitans summoning them to the Tuesday meeting, Bartholomew said the four months he had granted Spyridon were up with no solution in sight.

Bartholomew noted”the continuation of the disorderly situation resulting in the greatest scandal and the division of the Christ-named flock,”according to a copy of the communique obtained by The National Herald, a Greek-American newspaper.

At his news conference, Spyridon said only the ecumenical patriarch could resolve the differences between him and the metropolitans. Asked if he would step aside if ordered to do so by Bartholomew, Spyridon replied:”The Mother Church has the right to impose any decision it wants on its soldiers.”

DEA END RIFKIN