Greek Orthodox Church head forged ties with others

If you’ve ever heard of the Greek Orthodox Church, chances are it’s because of Archbishop Iakovos, who died Sunday in Connecticut at age 93.

”He really made the United States aware of the Orthodox faith,” said the Rev. Nick Theodosion, pastor of Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in St. Augustine.

”People were very aware of the Catholics and the Protestants, but the Orthodox faith was something people weren’t too much aware of,” he said.

That changed dramatically under Archbishop Iakovos (pronounced YAWK-oh-vose), spiritual leader of Greek Orthodox Christians in the Western Hemisphere from 1959 to 1996.

Iakovos died Sunday at Stamford Hospital from a pulmonary ailment, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America said in a statement.

During his 37-year tenure, Iakovos forged ties with other faiths and opened the traditionally ethnic church to Americans of non-Greek or Orthodox descent.

He also was a champion of human and civil rights. In 1965 he marched beside the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma, Ala., the statement said.

He met nine U.S. presidents and in 1980 Iakovos received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Carter. In 1959 he became the first Greek Orthodox leader to meet with a Roman Catholic prelate, according to The Associated Press.

”He was comfortable with kings and average folk; just a remarkable, remarkable man,” said the Rev. Nicholas Graff, pastor of St. John the Divine Greek Orthodox Church in Jacksonville.

Graff knows: He met the archbishop as a seminarian.

”He was my spiritual father and I had the privilege of serving as his deacon for a short time,” Graff said.

The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese today represents 540 parishes, 800 priests and approximately 1.5 million faithful in the United States. St. John the Divine reports 350 registered families plus another approximately 1,000 families living in Duval County, Graff said. Holy Trinity has 115 registered families and an undetermined number of other Greek Orthodox living in St. Johns County, Theodosion said.
The Orthodox — there are also Russian, Syrian and other branches collectively known as Eastern Orthodox — trace their roots to the earliest years of Christianity and once were united with the Roman Catholic Church.

But a split came in 1054.

Born in Turkey, Iakovos was instrumental in setting up talks between the different branches of Orthodox churches, and with the Catholic and Protestant churches, the archdiocese said.

Iakovos came into conflict withthe leader of world Orthodoxy in 1994 after he convened a meeting of 29 bishops from the 10 North American branches of Eastern Orthodoxy, the Associated Press reported.

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 Iakovos was forced to resign in 1996 because he had endorsed the idea, The Associated Press reported.

Iakovos also had an impact on the First Coast. In 1982 he dedicated the St. Photios Greek Orthodox National Shrine in St. Augustine, devoted to the first Orthodox Christians to come to the New World.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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