UTAH
The Salt Lake Tribune
By Mike Gorrell | The Salt Lake Tribune
It was far from a consensus, but the Salt Lake Valley’s Greek Orthodox community decided Sunday to restore full pay to its three priests.
Now it remains to be seen whether Metropolitan Isaiah — who oversees Salt Lake City’s Holy Trinity Cathedral and Holladay’s Prophet Elias Church from the faith’s regional headquarters in Denver — will accept the community’s concurrent request: to remove one priest as soon as possible.
Isaiah did not respond Monday to a request for comment. And the president of the Salt Lake Valley’s Greek Orthodox Parish Council, Dimitrios Tsagaris, isn’t speculating.
“I can’t speak for the Metropolitan,” he said. “The Metropolitan is the only one who has the authority to grant the request or to decide which priest might be moved.”
Restoring priestly pay while cutting the clergy count was central to a motion approved 220-215 by a special parish assembly called to defuse a dispute that had resulted in the Greek Orthodox churches’ Sunday services being canceled for three weeks after the council cut the priests’ pay by 40 percent in late July.
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