Above the Law and Reporting Only to Istanbul?

Metropolitan Isaiah in Court

Metropolitan (Bishop) Isaiah of the Greek Orthodox diocese of Denver (about 50 churches from Montana to Texas) is spending some time in a Houston court these days. He was summoned there by the action of 12 parish council members of Houston’s Annunciation Cathedral, after he had relieved them of their duties earlier this year.

The dispute apparently started when council members expressed dissatisfaction with the pastor, Father Gabriel Karambis, and now includes the issue of the Metropolitan’s authority. The case is still going on, with the next court date set for early October.

After a court appearance in June, the Metropolitan wrote a three and a half page letter to the Annunciation community, which included this paragraph:

”Although I was not at the meeting with the attorneys of both sides in the judge’s chambers after the public hearing, I was told that the judge told the attorneys that they should arbitrate the matter so that both sides would come together. Unfortunately there are two reasons why this cannot be done. First, civil attorneys cannot enter into ecclesiastical matters in order to arbitrate anything, since they place themselves above church authorities because there is the separation of church and state in our country, and secondly, it is too late, in that the one party sued the bishop of the Church who derives his power from the Ecumenical Patriarchate and is responsible only to the Holy Synod of Constantinople. I cannot place the position of our Patriarch under any attorney including those who support the Church. For if I were to undergo civil arbitration, I would in essence place the Patriarch and the whole Church under individuals who represent worldly society.”

I submit that the American principle of separation of church and state that he refers to applies to the freedom we have in the United States to practice our own religious beliefs, and not to whether government can have a voice in certain church matters. Churches are subject to a rane of laws and regulations, from the conditions of tax-exemption, to the recent Catholic cases of sexual misconduct, for instance. Has the Metropolitan perhaps forgotten that his Archdiocese sought the intervention of the ”worldly society” when it brought suit against the group of faithful known as GOAL (Greek Orthodox American Leaders)?

In the current case, the Metropolitan has reportedly stated a number of times that he will not participate in any arbitration or negotiation. Is he above the law? Or has he been away this past year, in particular, when Catholic bishops have had to appear in courts and negotiate agreements with civil authorities? Is he unaware of those momentous developments in Boston or Phoenix and even in his old home-town of Manchester, New Hampshire, where bishops have apologized for their oversight failures in abuse cases and made financial settlements and other agreements with prosecutors?

While the Houston matter does not involve child abuse, the Metropolitan’s insistence that he cannot subject the Patriarch to the decision-making power of those outside the Church does make one wonder: would he refuse to cooperate with a judge if the issue concerned the sexual molestation of a child by a priest or church worker? Orthodox sexual misconduct has not been spotlighted in the media recently, but it is certainly known.

On the matter of who he is responsible to, the Metropolitan writes that a bishop ”derives his power from the Patriarchate and is responsible only to the Holy Synod of Constantinople.” Would he not even stop-over in New York to report to Archbishop Demetrios? Article 6 of the Patriarchal charter says that the Archbishop ”Represents the Archdiocese and the Ecumenical Patriarchate in their dealings with all ecclesiastical and civil authorities in the United States of America.” What happened to the ”unity” of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America that church leaders have proclaimed after this year’s publication of the charter that was imposed by the Patriarch? The official line of the Archdiocese has been that even with their new titles, the bishops are now ”Metropolitans of the Archdiocese”, and not ”Metropolitans of the Patriarchal Throne”. Well, which is it?

We now have it in black and white, and in court behavior. Metropolitan Isaiah is responsible only to the Holy Synod across the seas. Is it any wonder that in spite of some words to the contrary, Archbishop Demetrios is seen as having been undermined in the charter process and by the actions of certain Metropolitans?

Paul Cromidas Dallas, Texas