A group of Orthodox Christian lay leaders hopes to raise $1 million to help fund a campaign to make the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese in the U.S. independent of its historic ties to Greece and Istanbul

Christian Century, Nov 7, 2001

* A group of Orthodox Christian lay leaders hopes to raise $1 million to help fund a campaign to make the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese in the U.S. independent of its historic ties to Greece and Istanbul. In Chicago for their annual meeting, leaders of Orthodox Christian Laity launched the campaign with pledges of the first $100,000.

They hope to raise enough support to force the issue when Greek Orthodox clergy and laity convene next year in Los Angeles. The group wants a U.S. church that is "autocephalous and autonomous" and no longer under the authority of the leader of the world's Orthodox Christians, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomeos I, based in Istanbul, who does not support moves toward independence.