JERUSALEM - Nearly 40 elders on Thursday declared the head of the Greek Orthodox Church in Jerusalem, Patriarch Irineos I, persona non grata following a damaging land-sale scandal involving Jewish investors.
In a statement, 13 Greek Orthodox bishops and 25 archimandrites said they had decided to "strip Irineos I of his duties as patriarch in the Holy Land, no longer work with him and considered him persona non grata in the Church".
The bishops who signed the document belong to the 17-member regional Greek Orthodox Holy Synod, said Dimitri Diliani, leader of a secular group of nationalist Palestinian Christians.
A formal decision to sack the patriarch can only be taken in a plenary session of the Holy Synod, which Irineos I, fearing the consequences, has refused to convene, said Diliani.
Thirty-six of the signatories were Greeks and two Palestinians.
"This decision by the Orthodox clergy reflects popular feeling that Irineos I does not deserve to remain Greek Orthodox patriarch," said Diliani, calling the statement of no-confidence a "historic rebellion in the Orthodox Church".
"In practice, this decision will isolate Irineos within the Church and demonstrates the extent of the opposition he faces amongst the clergy," he said.
It remained unclear how Irineos would react to the statement.
Elected patriarch in 2001, his tenure has suffered a series of scandals, the most explosive of which involved the secret sale of a large tract of politically senisitive land in Jerusalem to a group of Jewish investors.
The storm broke in mid-March when Israeli newspaper Maariv published details of the multi-million dollar transaction in which ideologically motivated Jewish businessmen acquired land in a predominantly Palestinian area of the Old City.
The ex-financial manager of Jerusalem's embattled Greek Orthodox patriarch has alleged that Irineos I sold the land to prove he was not pro-Palestinian.
Nikos Papadimas, who fled Israel to an unknown destination after the scandal erupted, told the Haaretz newspaper this week that Irineos wanted to counter Israeli accusations that he was biased towards the Palestinians.
The Israeli government refused to approve Irineos's election as patriarch for two years and alleged that he was close to the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
Purchasing property in the Old City, which is in occupied and annexed east Jerusalem, is fraught with political tensions as Jewish groups often try to obtain properties in Palestinian areas in a major settlement drive.
Irineos has repeatedly denied involvement in the reported sale, which has yet to be verified, but the scandal has provoked fury among the church's mostly Arab flock who have called on him to stand down.
The Greek government has also implicitly called for his departure.
Following Thursday's news, a senior foreign ministry official in Athens expressed his concern for the "serious matters" affecting the patriarchate.
"Developments today increase even more our deep concern over the serious matters related to recent events in the patriarchate of Jerusalem," said Panagiotis Skandalakis, secretary of state at the ministry.
05/05/2005 18:11 GMT