A recently organized group of lay members plans to challenge operations of the Greek Orthodox Church's biennial Lay-Clergy Congress this weekend in Washington D.C., demanding more representative participation.
"The laity has been pretty much regulated, controlled and stifled and authority has become more centralized," said George D. Karcazes, a Chicago attorney and president of Orthodox Christian Laity."We want to restore the participatory process in the tradition of our faith."
Such democratic-style procedures in which both clergy and laity take part in church decisionmaking, including the choosing of bishops, is part of the Eastern Orthodox heritage.
But the lay organization says that policy has been eroded in the orderly running of the 2 million-member U.S. church. The protest comes during the national convention of the Greek Orthodox Church in the Americas.
Unlike the Roman Catholic system, "Orthodoxy has a long tradition way back from the beginning of the church of lay participation and democratic processes," Karcazes said in an interview.
"But that has been eliminated. The laity has become totally subservient and blind followers. It's a trend over the past years with ever-increasing centralization and less lay participation.
"We want to energize the laity into more responsible involvement. It's a necessary role. We're not doing something against the interest of the church, but are coming to its aid."