Istanbul, Turkey - Orthodox Church leaders gathered here for a governing council meeting decided on Wednesday to dismiss Jerusalem's beleaguered Greek Orthodox Patriarch Irineos I from office over his alleged involvement in a damaging land sale scandal.
"The [Jerusalem] patriarch has been dismissed," Kesarios Vasilios, the metropolitan of Jerusalem, told reporters after the meeting of the pan-Orthodox synod, or governing council, here.
"He will not be recited as part of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem. He has been dismissed by all Orthodox churches," said Vasilios, who is ranked the first metropolitan in the hierarchy of the Jerusalem patriarchate.
The head of the Orthodox Church, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, who chaired the synod meeting, announced that Orthodox leaders decided to back Irineos' dismissal after he refused to resign.
"We had to take a very sad decision about the Patriarchate of Jerusalem. Sad things happened there and the metropolitans [of Jerusalem] decided not to recognize him," Bartholomew I, the spiritual leader of the 250 million Orthodox faithful, told reporters.
The Greek government called on the patriarch to accept his dismissal.
Athens has twice previously called on the patriarch to resign since mid-March when a newspaper reported an alleged transaction in which ideologically motivated Jewish businessmen acquired church land in a mainly Palestinian area of the Old City, part of occupied East Jerusalem.
Irineos was effectively turfed out of office by his own flock on May 7 when 12 out of the 18 bishops in the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem voted for his removal.
After he refused the Istanbul Synod's call to step down, participants from the 12 sister churches and patriarchates held a vote and overwhelmingly backed the decision of the Synod of the Jerusalem Patriarchate, the Metropolitan of Petra, Cornelios, said.
But Irineos, who has repeatedly denied involvement in the sale, signaled with his hand that he would not step down when queried by reporters after the meeting if he would resign.
Before the Istanbul Synod got underway, one of Irineos' two lawyers had said that they would take the matter to international courts should the synod decide against the patriarch. His supporters claim that the Holy Synod in Jerusalem cannot decide on a dismissal unless the patriarch himself calls the meeting, loses his mental capacities or violates the teachings of the Church.