Archbishop Stavroforos Mamaies of Miami’s Saint Sophia’s Greek Orthodox Cathedral caught church members by surprise Sunday when he unexpectedly announced he was leaving his post.
“If I have offended anyone, I ask for your forgiveness,” said Mamaies, who has headed the Miami church since 1997. Two weeks ago, during holy week, a letter went out to parishioners alerting them that the “cathedral is on the verge of dire financial straits.” “We owe a combined total of $265,000 to the Internal Revenue Service for unpaid payroll taxes, Miami-Dade County and city of Miami for unpaid property taxes for 2009 and 2010,” the letter states. “We are currently not in a position to sustain St. Sophia financially through the end of 2012.”
The extreme financial problems that the Community is undergoing don’t allow the Liturgy to take place anymore. The Greek community is in the church jurisdiction of Atlanta Metropolis, where Alexios Panagiotopoulos stands as Metropolitan.
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