Archbishop Iakovos of North and South America (Greek: Ιάκωβος; born Demetrios Koukouzis (Δημήτριος Κουκούζης);[1] July 29, 1911 – April 10, 2005) was the primate of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North and South America (now the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America) from 1959 until his resignation in 1996.
Biography
Born on the village of Agios Theodoros in the island of Imvros, Ottoman Empire on July 29, 1911, to Maria and Athanasios Koukouzis, he had two sisters Virginia and Chrysanthi and a brother Panagiotis. He enrolled at age 15 in the Ecumenical Patriarchal Theological School of Halki. After graduating with high honors, Demetrios Koukouzis was ordained deacon in 1934, taking the ecclesiastical name Iakovos. Five years after his ordination, Deacon Iakovos received an invitation to serve as Archdeacon to the late Archbishop Athenagoras, the Primate of North and South America, who later (1949–72) became Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.
A supporter of civil rights, Archbishop Iakovos was one of the few prominent non-African American clergymen—and the only Church leader—who walked with Martin Luther King Jr. and others during the second 1965 march in Selma, Alabama. A picture with Archbishop Iakovos to the right of Martin Luther King Jr. was featured on the cover of Life magazine on March 26, 1965.[3] According to Grammenos "when Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. marched from the Brown Chapel of the African Methodist Episcopal Church to the Dallas County Courthouse in Selma, Alabama, on March 15, 1965, Archbishop Iakovos, leader of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North and South America, was among the few white men who accompanied him. Iakovos, who had experienced religious oppression himself as a child, accepted Dr. King's invitation demonstrating his commitment to freedom and civil rights as key principles of the American life. Iakovos stated that the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese could no longer remain a 'spectator and listener', and it must labor and struggle to develop its spiritual life. In the end, his firm support of Dr. King's initiative helped bring to fruition the passage of voting rights legislation, advancing equality among his communicants."[4]
Ecclesiastic relationships and death
Iakovos met Pope John XXIII in 1959, the first Greek Orthodox archbishop to meet with a Roman Catholic Pope in 350 years.[5][6]
Iakovos came into conflict with the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I after he supported a move by 29 bishops towards the administrative unification of Eastern Orthodox churches in America at the Ligonier Meeting. It is widely believed that this clash forced him to resign in 1996.[8]
Archbishop Iakovos was the last Primate of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America who held the title of Archbishop of North and South America; after him the Archbishop's title became "Archbishop of America".[9] Officially, his title was His Eminence, Iakovos, Archbishop of North and South America, Exarch of the Lands between the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean (Greek: Η Αυτού Σεβασμιότης ο Αρχιεπίσκοπος Βορείου και Νοτίου Αμερικής, Υπέρτιμος και Έξαρχος Ωκεανών Ατλαντικού τε και Ειρηνικού Ιάκωβος).
Strongylis, Cleopas. Dean James A. Coucouzes As a Model of Priesthood: Archbishop Iakovos' Ministry At the Annunciation Cathedral of New England. Holy Cross Orthodox Press, 2012. (ISBN978-1-935317-39-5)
