Greek Orthodox Cathedral on East 74th Street

The most interesting bit of information I came across on the internet was about some conflict at this beautiful Greek Orthodox Church..

Unfortunately, the New York Magazine entry had no date on it or anything to decisively tell when it was printed, so I will just throw you this one little morsel from their very long story about a struggle inside the Greek Orthodox Church in New York generally--

"The meeting was noisy and argumentative, as church-basement events tend to be. Still, says Robert Stephanopoulos, "it went better than I expected." Father Stephanopoulos, who is the dean of Holy Trinity Cathedral on East 74th Street, the highest-profile Greek Orthodox church in America -- and yes, he's George's dad -- had been called on this recent Sunday afternoon to address a few hundred very agitated parishioners. A week before, on January 20, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America had told Father Robert, as he is widely called, that he was being relieved of most of his duties. "

This irritates me a lot, I would really like to know what came of all this...well, what do you know, the story is here in the regular  Wikipedia entry:


The Archdiocesan Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, at 319–337 East 74th Street on the Upper East Side in New York City, New York, is a Byzantine Moderne-style Greek Orthodox church.^[3][4] It serves as the national cathedral of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America and Archbishop Demetrios of America.^[3][4]

Established in 1891, and at its present location since 1932, it was the second Greek Orthodox church in the Americas, and the first in New York City. It is the largest Orthodox Christian church in the Western Hemisphere.^[3][4][5][6]

Activities

The Cathedral is the home parish for 800 families, and hosts dignitaries and visitors.^[3] It offers regular worship (which is broadcast on television), Sunday school, afternoon school, the Cathedral School (grades K-8), bible study, and various ministries and fellowship organizations.^[3][7]

History

In the fall of 1891 the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox parish rented part of an Evangelical church on West 53rd Street near Ninth Avenue at $50 ($1,300 in current dollar terms)-per-month as the church's first home.^[1][4] It was the second Greek Orthodox church in the Americas, and the first in New York City.^[1][4]

In 1904 it purchased and moved to a permanent church building, an Episcopal church of Gothic architecture at 153 East 72nd Street.^[1] In 1927, the East 72nd Street church burned down.^[1][4]
In 1929 land was purchased at the present location and a new church was built, in Byzantine syle.^[1][4] Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of then-Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt, laid the cornerstone of the cathedral on September 14, 1931.^[1] Holy Trinity moved to its present location on March 4, 1932.^[1][4] Its total cost was $577,000 ($97,100,000 in current dollar terms).^[1] Patriarch Athenagoras I of Constantinople, later Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, consecrated the cathedral on October 22, 1933.^[1] He called it: “The Cathedral of all of Hellenism in America.”^[1]

In 1949, it established The Cathedral School.^[1] It was designated the Archdiocesan Cathedral in 1962.^[1][4]

On September 18, 1999, Archbishop Demetrios was enthroned at the cathedral as Primate of the Greek Orthodox Church in America.^[1][8] The cathedral's Dean, Rev. Robert Stephanopoulos, the father of former White House aide George Stephanopoulos, had been demoted and relieved of administrative and liturgical responsibilities at the Cathedral in January 1999 by Archbishop Spyridon of America, but by late 1999 had regained his position.^[8][9] Stephanopoulos retired in 2007, after being Dean for 25 years, and Dr. Frank Marangos was named the new Dean.^[10][11] Since June 2012, the Dean has been Fr. Anastasios Gounaris.^[2]

Opera singer Maria Callas was christened at the church in 1926,^[12] in 2001 television journalist and former political advisor George Stephanopoulos and comedienne Alexandra Wentworth were married there,^[13] and in 2011 Christopher Nixon Cox, grandson of President Richard Nixon, and heiress Andrea Catsimatidis, daughter of Gristedes billionaire John Catsimatidis, were married there.^[14]

Architecture

The exterior is Romanesque Revival red brick and limestone.^[15][16] The cathedral's architects were Kerr Rainsford, John A. Thompson, and Gerald A. Holmes; they later designed Hunter College Uptown, which is now known as Lehman College.^[16] The interior has Byzantine mosaics, imported Italian stained glass in Byzantine colors and forms, and botticino marble for walls, columns, and the altar area.^[1] The iconography on the dome and other areas was created by Georgios Gliatas, a student of iconographer Fotis Kontoglou.^[1] The church sits down the block from the Bohemian Gothic Revival Jan Hus Presbyterian Church.^[17]