Huge challenges for next Archbishop of America after Demetrios’ resignation

By George Gilson

Greek Orthodox Archbishop Demetrios of America assumed his position as a result of a revolt in the body of the Church and he is now stepping down largely as the result of a major financial scandal that has rocked the nearly bankrupted the Archdiocese and scandalised the flock.

On 4 May in the Phanar (Fener) section of Istanbul Demetrios at a meeting with the man who chose him for the position, Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomeos, finally tendered his written resignation from the throne of the patriarchate's largest and most prosperous eparchy, the jewel in the crown of the Patriarchate of Constantinople.

Demetrios had received three extensions to submit his resignation, the last at a December, 2018, meeting with the Patriarch in Geneva, when he assured Vartholomeos that he would resign after Easter. His request for yet another extension was not granted.

The Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate is expected to elect a successor at its 9-11 May meetings.

A pristine reputation marred

The exit is an inglorious end of the tenure of a hierarch who throughout his life has enjoyed the utmost respect as one of the top Eastern Orthodox theologians of the 20th century.

His work on the early Christian theologian and philosopher Justin Martyr is considered seminal.

When he received his Ph.D. (jointly from Harvard's Divinity School and Philosophy Department in 1972) the faculty had not seen such a high GPA in a quarter of a century.

His universally acknowledged ethos was epitomised by his refusal in 1968 to accept his election as Metropolitan Bishop of Attica, by far the largest and wealthiest diocese in the Orthodox Church of Greece, because the Synod that elected him was packed by the...