Losing Faith

Steeple Case: A feud over who should lead the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of Saint George has reached Common Pleas Court.
Photo By: Michael T. Regan

A Greek Orthodox congregation is split over its church's future.

by Mike Newall

For nearly 85 years, the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of Saint George, at Eighth and Locust streets, has served as the spiritual and cultural center of Greek life in Philadelphia. Generations upon generations of Philly Greeks have been baptized, married and eulogized within its gilded walls. But now, it stands as a house divided.

A recent feud stemming from the removal of a beloved priest has torn the congregation in half. Scores of parishioners have departed, leaving empty pews and bitter feelings in their wake. Nearly all of Saint George's parish activities have suffered. The choir is gone. Sunday school is down to a trickle of students. There aren't even any altar boys left.

"Unless this is resolved quickly, the parish will not exist much longer," says parishioner Stephen McGrath, a convert who served as president of parish council until being removed by the metropolitan, or bishop, last January. "It's in a death spiral. It's losing its congregation, its youth, its future."

There seems little hope of the fractured church fully binding its wounds anytime soon. Nine parishioners removed from the parish council — the governing body of the cathedral's business affairs — have filed suit for reinstatement in Common Pleas Court. A judge is expected to issue a ruling sometime this summer, a decision that will most likely only sow further division within Saint George's. Moreover, the judge's ruling could have wide-ranging effects throughout the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, a church grappling to find an agreeable balance of power between laity and hierarchy.

Photo By: sofia s. kostos

For outsiders, the exact origins of Saint George's feud can at times seem as murky as the depths as the Aegean Sea. This much is clear, however: Tempers erupted last summer when Metropolitan Evangelos Kourounis, head of the New Jersey Metropolis — which includes the cathedral — decided to replace Saint George's longtime and widely beloved parish priest, the Rev. Demetrios Katerlis.

A relatively small, but wealthy and influential, band of parishioners had complained to the metropolitan that "Father D" was growing old and out of touch. Like many religions, attendance in the Greek Orthodox Church is dropping off. A younger priest was needed, they argued, to attract younger parishioners and to turn more attention to fundraising. The Greek Orthodox Church is unlike other major religions in that it is a nonprofit entity, a business in which parishioners own the actual churches.

"It wasn't a case of the church leader in Greece sending over a billion dollars to establish all these churches," says parishioner John Manos. "Immigrants strained and sweated to build these churches with no money from Greece."

A patriarch in Istanbul, Turkey appoints metropolitans (which usually means affirming the results of a vote by the Council of Bishops) who provide spiritual leadership to the flock. In recent years, the church hierarchy has taken steps to strengthen its power. According to former parish council members involved in the lawsuit, parishioners struck an agreement with the metropolitan allowing Father D to stay on as assistant priest of Saint George's. (Father D, a 74-year-old who has served at Saint George's for nearly 50 years, is vacationing in Greece and unavailable for comment.)

A week before the new priest was to arrive, Father D was summoned to the metropolitan's office in Kenilworth. N.J., and told that he would be retired immediately, say the former council members.

"Word of this got out and there was a big uproar," says parishioner Andrew Pogas. "We were in shock."

When the new priest arrived to serve his first Sunday mass, dozens of parishioners were waiting outside the Cathedral in protest.

"People were upset and yelled at the new priest," says Pogas. "They told him they wanted Father D and that he should go home."

When the metropolitan heard of the incident, he suspected Father D had organized the protest and, as punishment, stripped him of his prayer shawl, a symbolic gesture prohibiting Father D from serving or worshiping in any Greek Orthodox Church in the area. (Both rights were restored this February.) The protesters deny Father D played any role. The office of the metropolitan did not return phone calls for this story. Saint George's new priest, Rev. Nektarios Cottros, also did not return calls.

Father D's suspension further stoked the coals of anger at Saint George's. Parishioners began to flock in droves. (Forty-five worshippers attended last Sunday's service at Saint George. Parishioners estimated that to be about a third of last summer's average Sunday attendance.) Parents removed their children from the Sunday school and Greek culture school when the teachers of both were fired for vocally supporting Father D. The Christmas pageant fell apart. The Greek Orthodox Youth of America Organization disbanded. The "Friends of the Poor" ladies' society all but disbanded.

"It's heartbreaking," says parishioner Barbara Kay Tarnoff, who resigned from her role as a parish youth advisor after Father D's removal. "The community is like an old Greek village, so many are related either through blood or marriage. Families are being torn apart over this."

The situation further deteriorated when Parish Council elections were held last December, in which representatives of both sides squared off. When supporters of Father D won in a landslide, the metropolitan refused to acknowledge the results, saying the nominations were made at an illegal general assembly meeting, and appointed his own supporters to the council, which controls the $364,000 parish budget as well as two valuable Center City senior centers owned by the cathedral.

The nine displaced council members sued, claiming that the metropolitan overstepped his boundaries as spiritual leader. They also contend that the metropolitan hijacked the elections after his supporters promised to build him a Center City residence and office with parish funds.

Attorneys representing the metropolitan argue that constitutional separation of church and state prohibits civil courts from intervening. The former council members, and supporters of Father D, contend that the metropolitan violated the church's bylaws and nonprofit status, and argue that they should be reinstated to their governing positions on the council.

"This parish has always been run democratically," says Manos, who was legal counsel for the cathedral until the new board members removed him. "They appoint the priests and tell us what to do religiously. Now they are trying to take over our bank accounts and throw out our elected officials."

Many parishioners worry that the rift has caused irreparable damage to the parish community.

"I'd be sinning if I went to church there," says former parishioner Pogas. "Because of the anger in my heart I would feel when I walked through the doors."