Archbishop for the Americas

A Harvard Divinity School graduate with a lingering devotion to the Boston Red Sox last week became the spiritual ruler of 1,300,000 Greek Orthodox believers in North and South America. Elected Archbishop of the Americas: black-bearded, handsome Metropolitan James of Malta, 48, a U.S. citizen who was born Jacob A. Koukouzes on the Turkish island of Imros. His impressive qualifications for the position, second biggest in his church: 16 years as a Greek Orthodox theologian and chief vicar of congregations in New York and New England, four years as Greek Orthodoxy's highly effective liaison agent at World Council of Churches headquarters in Geneva.

Nothing seemed more logical than to give the American post to Archbishop James, succeeding Metropolitan Michael, who died in New York last July. But behind his election loomed a split in the Greek Orthodox Church, and outright mutiny against towering, white-bearded Athenagoras I of Constantinople, 268th Ecumenical Patriarch of the Eastern Orthodox Church. Athenagoras' enemies call him a "religio-politician," while his friends point to the unique problems of a job in which his predecessor went mad. The Patriarch of Constantinople has only the power of persuasion among three others of equal rank, ruling the patriarchates of Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem. For "Elder Brother" Patriarch Athenagoras, 72, adroit politics is the main healing art in a strife-torn church that includes some 250 million souls.

Last month in Istanbul, Athenagoras backed James for election to the New York see against stiff opposition. The battle arena: Greek Orthodoxy's twelve-seat Holy Synod, composed of 16 metropolitans (on a revolving basis), whose actual or titular sees are in Turkey. To elect James, Athenagoras needed a minimum of six votes plus his own tiebreaker, but could muster only five. The majority considered strongly anti-Communist Archbishop James too "progressive." When four anti-James metropolitans took their case outside the synod, leaking word to Turkish newspapers that James was "an enemy of the Turkish people," Athenagoras promptly took the strong action of dismissing the four metropolitans from the current synod. Then, in a surprise rump-session, he put across James's election.

Last week, the announcement made, the problem was whether Religio-Politician Athenagoras could also swiftly heal the wounds opened by his maneuver. Some worried that the rumbling dissidents might try to force him out. Should they succeed, the seat of Eastern Orthodox Church power could well shift to the patriarchy called "the third Vatican"--Moscow. Against such fears stood the new reconciliation between Greece and Turkey over Cyprus (see FOREIGN NEWS), which tended to downgrade "anti-Turkish" charges against Metropolitan James. One of the Cyprus reconcilers: James himself, who in London last week helped swing Archbishop Makarios behind the agreement, then prepared to move on to New York for his, formal installation.

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