Nearly three dozen Greek Orthodox worshipers, including several prominent figures, are suing the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America and Archbishop Demetrios for what they say are violations of its 1978 governing charter.
The suing parishioners are backed by the Orthodox Christian Laity, a group founded “to restore and strengthen the role of the laity in the life of the Orthodox church, and the renewal of the Apostolic Lay Ministry,” and that wants to see “the creation of a united, autocephalous Orthodox Church in the United States.” Thus, while the legal issues at stake are whether church officials violated the old charter by creating a new charter in 2002—without the approval of the American church’s Clergy-Laity Congress—the real issues are over the power of the laity and the autonomy of the American church.
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