Iakovos Coucouzis, the longest serving Greek Orthodox Archbishop of North and South America (1959-1996), died yesterday at age 93. He had already held his position for a decade when I was received into the Church, and, as the years went by, it was hard not to fall into the habit of thinking that he would be Archbishop forever. His beard was as white when I first glimpsed him as when he retired; his voice could have been central casting’s idea of the voice of Yahweh on Mount Sinai; he seemed like an unaging icon of equanimity.
He was born in the Ottoman Empire, on the Aegean island of Imvros, and educated in Turkey but came to America as a relatively young man, to serve as a deacon under Archbishop Athenagoras (later Ecumenical Patriarch). In 1942 he became Dean of the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Boston, where he served until his elevation in 1954 to a titular bishopric, coupled with appointment as Patriarch Athenagoras’ personal representative to the World Council of Churches. On February 14, 1959, he was elected Archbishop of North and South America in succession to the deceased Archbishop Michael.
The secular world took notice of him only twice: when he marched in Selma with Martin Luther King in 1965 and when he stepped down in 1996, reportedly “forced out” by the Ecumenical Patriarch for having supported a proposal to unify the Orthodox jurisdictions in America. The former event was well deserving of attention. It reflected Iakovos’ lofty moral principles, in which the media were less interested when he spoke out against abortion, euthanasia and declining standards of conduct.
Regarding his retirement, I have no inside information but know better than to trust the media version of ecclesiastical news. It may be that Patriarch Bartholomew was offended by the prospect of weakened ties between Constantinople and its largest archdiocese. It is equally possible that he saw the proposed structure, a compromise that would have preserved each existing jurisdiction’s ties to its mother Church while setting up a centralized administration, as too Rube Goldberg-ish to lead to any outcome but confusion. And, of course, Iakovos may have retired simply because he was 85 years old, not because he and his superior didn’t see eye to eye on organizational issues.
In his influence of the spiritual life of his flock, the Archbishop was, so far as I can judge, wholly a force for good. He preached the doctrines of the Church, promoted education and ministries to youth, fostered cooperation among Orthodox Christians of all jurisdictions, and cooperated in the ecumenical movement without letting the Church be coopted by left-wing Protestantism. There can be little doubt that he will be remembered within the Archdiocese of America as one of its seminal leaders.
May his memory be eternal.
Further reading: Fr. Alexander F. C. Webster, “Death of a Patriarch”
Farewell Remarks of Archbishop Iakovos Upon His Retirement in 1996
Fr. Alexander Veronis, “Archbishop Iakovos and the Establishment of the Orthodox Christian Mission Center”
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