Poignant Anniversary

The news from Istanbul fell like a bomb on a gathering in Houston's Rice Hotel last week. There the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North and South America was holding a formal dinner as part of its 21st Biennial Clergy-Laity Congress. Archbishop Iakovos, Primate of North and South America, rose to give a scheduled speech about the Ecumenical Patriarch, then told the delegates in a breaking voice: "Athenagoras is not with us any more. He is with God." The Patriarch's death was especially poignant because the congress was celebrating a "Double Jubilee," Athenagoras' 50th year as a bishop and the 50th anniversary of the American archdiocese. The congress immediately adjourned in mourning, but it had already heard the most important message--a plea from Iakovos for Greek Orthodoxy in the Americas to take on a heroic new spiritual tone.

In its first half-century, the archdiocese has grown prosperous and large: twelve subordinate dioceses scattered through the hemisphere, some 480 parishes and an estimated 2,000,000 members (1.3 million in the U.S.). But in his keynote address to the Congress, the soft-voiced, gray-bearded Iakovos, now 60, sounded no note of triumph. Greek Orthodoxy in the Americas, he said, needs to add "truth and love" to the "enthusiasm, ambition and pride" that have been its "principal attributes" to date. It needs, he said, to return to the "meaning of Christianity," to "become more of a church than we are."

The Iakovos of Houston--evangelical, reformist, emphasizing his points with exhortations from the Apostle Paul --seemed something of a departure from the ambitious hierarch who has made himself so visible on the ecumenical circuit in his 13 years as Primate of the Americas. "I have not always talked this way," he conceded in an interview with TIME'S Mayo Mohs. For years his passion was ecumenism, his hope to lead a union of the Orthodox churches in the U.S. But now, says Iakovos, "the trend is not to fight for power and supremacy: it is to fight the inequities of our times."

Cleansing Agent. Too many Greek Orthodox congregations have become what Iakovos admits are "social clubs labeled with the name of a saint," a fact that many of his church members are beginning to recognize. In a survey of American-born parishioners last fall, Iakovos found, the "greatest need" cited by 87% of the respondents was for "more religious enlightenment and edification." The Orthodox, says Iakovos, "must not be afraid to break away from the masses," must become less secular, less materialistic, more concerned with the real meaning behind the formalities of their faith.

Iakovos wants Greek Orthodoxy to become a cleansing agent for a sick society. "Without spiritual strength and invincible faith," he says, "I don't think we can correct any of the ills of our society. The issues of our time will not be resolved without men of spiritual clairvoyance and moral conviction. The revolution started as a social one, but it must be completed as a spiritual one."

Iakovos may have an outside chance to pursue his spiritual revolution beyond the Americas. When the Holy Synod of the Constantinople Patriarchate meets to choose Athenagoras' successor, Iakovos will be one of the candidates considered. He is not the leading contender; Metropolitan Meliton of Chalcedon, who worked closely with Athenagoras as his Grand Vicar, is the favorite. Meliton is also a Turkish citizen, and the Turks say that only a Turkish citizen will be acceptable. Iakovos was born in Turkey, but he is a naturalized U.S. citizen. Because he has taken what they regard as anti-Turkish stands on such issues as the union of Cyprus with Greece and alleged religious persecution in Turkey, the Turks would probably not allow him to reassume his native citizenship.

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