Elders Cut Ties with Jerusalem Patriarch
Greek Orthodox Church elders are cutting off ties with Jerusalem Patriarch Irineos I, accusing him of being “incorrigibly caught up” in lies and mismanagement of church property over a land sale scandal.
Elders of the of the Greek Orthodox Church declared in a letter today that they are breaking ties with Patriarch Irineos I of Jerusalem following allegations that he sold church property to Jewish investors.
According to the Agence France Presse, the elders reportedly decided to "strip Irineos I of his duties as patriarch in the Holy Land, no longer work with him and considered him persona non grata in the Church."
Irineos leads around 100,000 mostly Palestinian Christians in Jerusalem many of whom were incensed by the allegations. He has denied involvement in the land deal.
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“If I have done this, let them cut off my hands,” he said to BBC.
The 38 elders said that he was “incorrigibly caught up in a syndrome of lying, religious distortion, degradation of the patiarchate’s role, and irresponsible mishandling of patriarchate property."
The letter represents popular opposition to Irineos’ leadership since only a plenary session of the 17-member regional Greek Orthodox Holy Synod can formally remove the Patriarch, said Dimitri Diliani - leader of a secular group of nationalist Palestinian Christians. The letter contained the signatures of 13 voting-eligible bishops and 25 archimandrites.
“In practice, this decision will isolate Irineos within the Church and demonstrates the extent of the opposition he faces amongst the clergy,” he told AFP.
The land-sale scandal began in mid-March, when an Israeli newspaper reported that a multi-million dollar deal had taken place in the predominantly Palestinian area of the Old City in Jerusalem.
The elders said to AP that they would work against Irineos through legal channels "to revoke all suspect deals and restore all that was sold."
