Full Text of SR0162 94th General Assembly
SR0162 94TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
|
|
|
SR0162 |
|
LRB094 12074 HSS 45266 r |
|
| 1 |
| SENATE RESOLUTION
| 2 |
| WHEREAS, The members of the Senate of the State of Illinois | 3 |
| learned with sadness of the death of Archbishop Iakovos, who | 4 |
| transformed the Greek Orthodox Church in the Americas while | 5 |
| championing religious unity and human rights, on Sunday, April | 6 |
| 10, 2005; and
| 7 |
| WHEREAS, He was born Demetrios Coucouzis in Turkey and took | 8 |
| the name Iakovos, which means James, when he was ordained a | 9 |
| deacon in 1934; he spoke several languages and could hold | 10 |
| children as well as adults spellbound by his sermons; and
| 11 |
| WHEREAS, Archbishop Iakovos headed the Greek Orthodox | 12 |
| Archdiocese of North and South America, with an estimated 2 | 13 |
| million followers, from 1959 until 1996; he met with Pope John | 14 |
| XXIII after his 1959 enthronement, becoming the first Greek | 15 |
| Orthodox archbishop in 350 years to meet with a Roman Catholic | 16 |
| pope, and spent nine years as a president of the World Council | 17 |
| of Churches; and
| 18 |
| WHEREAS, He marched with Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. in | 19 |
| Selma, Alabama, in 1965 and received the Medal of Freedom from | 20 |
| President Jimmy Carter in 1980; he was as strong proponent of | 21 |
| ecumenism; and
| 22 |
| WHEREAS, He was instrumental in setting up dialogues | 23 |
| between Orthodox churches and Anglicans, Lutherans, Southern | 24 |
| Baptists, and other denominations; he met every president from | 25 |
| Dwight Eisenhower through Bill Clinton, and was one of the U.S. | 26 |
| Christian leaders who met with Pope John Paul II in a historic | 27 |
| gathering in South Carolina in 1987; and
| 28 |
| WHEREAS, During his long tenure as archbishop, he led the | 29 |
| Greek Orthodox church out of immigrant isolation and into the | 30 |
| mainstream of American religious life, playing a leading role |
|
|
|
SR0162 |
- 2 - |
LRB094 12074 HSS 45266 r |
|
| 1 |
| in bringing English into the liturgy; and
| 2 |
| WHEREAS, Archbishop Iakovos started a youth movement in the | 3 |
| United States and created the Ionian Village in Greece, a | 4 |
| summer camp that has been visited by more than 16,000 | 5 |
| Greek-American children; and
| 6 |
| WHEREAS, He sought to maintain Orthodox traditions such as | 7 |
| opposing the ordination of women, while at the same time | 8 |
| championing human rights and improved race relations; and
| 9 |
| WHEREAS, Archbishop Iakovos is remembered as a superb | 10 |
| archbishop who offered to the church an intense, continuous, | 11 |
| multifaceted, and creative pastoral activity; therefore, be it
| 12 |
| RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-FOURTH GENERAL | 13 |
| ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we mourn the passing of | 14 |
| Archbishop Iakovos, and we extend our deepest sympathy to his | 15 |
| family, friends, and all who knew and loved him; and be it | 16 |
| further
| 17 |
| RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be | 18 |
| presented to the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America as an | 19 |
| expression of our sincerest condolences in the passing of a | 20 |
| great leader.
|
|