An eight-year campaign within the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America to gain more independence from the faith's leaders overseas has been rejected in a new charter governing the U.S. church.
The Greek Archdiocese, which has 1.5 million members in 508 parishes nationwide and is based in New York, is the largest of the ethnic Orthodox branches in the United States. However, it has less autonomy than other groups.
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and a hierarchy based in Istanbul, Turkey, control many important church matters — including approval of the charter.
The new document was approved in Istanbul on Dec. 20 and now has been issued in English by the archdiocese. It retains the system of bishop appointments from the previous charter, which was approved in 1977.
Istanbul has complete control when selecting the archbishop who heads the U.S. church, although U.S. bishops and the Archdiocesan Council, which includes clergy and lay members, may offer advice.
On other appointments to the hierarchy, the U.S. bishops consult the Archdiocesan Council and submit three nominees to Istanbul, which makes the final decision.
Last July, delegates at the archdiocese's Clergy-Laity Congress in Los Angeles petitioned the patriarchate to change that system. The congress said that, in the future, American archbishops should be selected in Istanbul from three names submitted by the U.S. church, and that Americans should elect all their other bishops on their own.
U.S. church members have been pushing for the change since 1995.
The archdiocese said in a written statement that that the Istanbul patriarchate conducted a "careful review and consideration" of the Clergy-Laity Congress proposals, and noted that the charter emphasizes lay participation.
But George Matsoukas, executive director of a protest group called Orthodox Christian Laity, said the July congress proposed 30 amendments and "every single one of them has been ignored. It's as if the congress never met."
The church leaders in Istanbul "don't understand American people who are Orthodox," Matsoukas said. "This is an indigenous church, here for 200 years."
The archdiocese has posted the charter text on its Web site and plans to mail printed copies to all parishes.