The news from Istanbul fell like a bomb on a gathering in Houston's Rice Hotel last week. There the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North and South America was holding a formal dinner as part of its 21st Biennial Clergy-Laity Congress. Archbishop Iakovos, Primate of North and South America, rose to give a scheduled speech about the Ecumenical Patriarch, then told the delegates in a breaking voice: "Athenagoras is not with us any more. He is with God." The Patriarch's death was especially poignant because the congress was celebrating a "Double Jubilee," Athenagoras' 50th year as a bishop and the 50th...
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