The Question of Service and the Language Crisis in the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese from the 1970s to the Tenure of Metropolitan Spyridon

At the 1970 Greek Orthodox Archdiocese Clergy-Laity Congress Archbishop Iakovos proposed that a standard English translation of the Divine Liturgy be developed for use in parishes. While the Congress ultimately approved the proposal, it was never implemented because the reaction outside of the Congress became a public storm of opposition. Later that fall, while Iakovos contemplated resignation, Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras quieted the storm, supported Iakovos' position as archbishop, while deftly "tabling" the proposals themselves. Using documents from the Archives of the Archdiocese combined with public sources, the paper will detail this tumultuous period which focused on the "language issue.”