Satisfaction in the Church for the definition of organic positions of priests

The Holy Synod of the Church of Greece issued a statement today, Tuesday, July 5, 2022, regarding the new framework that streamlines the regime under which priests are hired and perform their duties. The bill promoted by the Ministry of Education and submitted to the Parliament has with the goal of updating laws that were a significant burden on Church-State relations and all this without burdening the state budget with a single euro, while at the same time putting an end to the idiosyncratic legal “hostage” of thousands of clergy.

In her announcement, Holy Synod of the Church of Greece expresses its satisfaction for the happy outcome of this pending matter with the submission of the relevant provisions in the bill to be voted on and publicly thanks both the Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, and the competent Minister of Education and Religion, Niki Kerameos, “who shared the anguish of the clergy of the whole country”, as he notes.

The announcement of the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece in detail:

“From the Press Office of the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece it is announced that with particular satisfaction and joy the Holy Synod received a Letter from the General Secretariat of Religious Affairs of the Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs, by which it became known that in bill of the Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs under the title: “New Horizons in Higher Education Institutions: Strengthening the quality, functionality and connection of HEIs with society and other provisions” provisions were included regarding the resolution of the issue of the organic positions of the clergy, i.e. the restoration of the existing legislative inconsistency .

In relation to the above-mentioned provisions, the following information is provided to clarify the history of the issue of the arrangements to prevent misunderstandings:

A. The plan drawn up by the competent Ministry (article 347 of the bill) proposes a single solution for the problem of polynomiality, outdated legislation and the need to organize the positions of the public personnel (deacons, vicars-elders, preachers, Metropolis employees) ) of the Church of Greece.

Firstly, updates the legislated with the law 536/1945 limit of organic clerical positions, which was then at 6,000, so as to be equal to the number of currently appointed and paid priests.

The State had provided by law 2200/1940 a population criterion for the establishment of a Parish (how many families are required to establish a Parish in an area). A parish cannot function without the vicar priest of its Church. Based on this law and the increase in population and the creation of new urban centers and settlements, 8,168 Parishes have been established by presidential decrees in the Metropolises of the Church of Greece. One or more vicars have been appointed in each Parish according to the population and the needs of each region. Today the priests serving in the 8,168 Parishes (NPDD) are 8,311the same number of appointment decisions have been issued for their appointment in specific Parishes, they have been published in the Official Gazette and they are paid by the State through EAP (Uniform Payment Authority). Therefore, the outdated figure of 6,000 had to be updated in law 536/1945, which was not even valid during his time (the vicars serving in 1945 were 7,151 and the established organic positions 6,000). The already legislated (6,000) as well as those added by article 347 clerical vicar positions (2,311) organically exist in the Church of Greece and not in the State, since vicars are not civil servants.

Secondly, a.n. 536/1945 stipulated that the 6,000 organic positions would be distributed to the then Metropolises of the Country by decree, which, however, has not been issued to date. Now the bill foresees that a presidential decree will be issued, which will distribute the organic positions of vicars in all the Metropolises, but, for reasons of uniform regulation and supervision of the positions, also the legislated positions of deacons, preachers and church employees, as they are currently distributed in each Metropolis and owned by their staff. This solution is proposed because the organic positions of deacons, preachers and church employees are legislated and distributed by dozens of laws, presidential decrees and ministerial decisions, which must be codified in a single text. The Metropolises are allowed to hire additional clergy (from the above legislated number), whom they will pay and insure from their own resources.

In conclusion, with the provisions of article 347, the number of organizational positions foreseen in 1945 is harmonized with the actual number of appointed and salaried vicars today and a decree is foreseen, in order to have a single organization of the Metropolises specifically for the staff positions, which are salaried by the State.

B. The relationship between the regularization of the Metropolitans’ organizational charts and the state payroll.

Law 536/1945 did not establish the salary of the clergy exclusively by the State. It provided that the salary of the vicars comes from several sources: a) contribution from the gross income of the Churches at a rate of 25% (increased from 1968 to a percentage of 35%), b) contribution of the families of each Parish (abolished in 1962), c) grant of the State to maintain the payroll at a certain level, which was later legislated to be equal to the salary of the civil servant (law 469/1968). From 1945 onwards the State did not undertake to pay 100% of the payroll. The State fully took over the payroll of the Clergy in 2004, when Law 3220 abolished the 35% levy on the gross income of the Holy Temples.

The existence of an organic position in the Metropolises does not mean the possibility of direct salary payment by the State. Every year the State plans the appointments to the vacant organizational positions according to its budgetary possibilities. In this context, the Ministry of the Interior annually approves the Ministry. of Education and Religious Affairs a certain number of appropriations for the payroll of staff, including new pastors. The Ministry of Health then distributes these credits to the Metropolises. The existence of an organic position entails the possibility of the Metropolis to ordain and appoint a cleric, but not, respectively, the direct and self-righteous obligation of the State to pay the ordained cleric.

With the new provisions it is provided that the number of 6,000 organic positions in the 82 Metropolises of the Church of Greece increases (by 2,311), so that it is equal to the number of currently appointed and paid clergy. The above number is the maximum number of clerics that the State can hire in the future in the event of a vacancy. The eventual establishment of new Holy Metropolises in the future will not change the number of statutory organic vicar positions, which the State can hire.

Consequently, the new provisions do not burden the state budget with additional appropriations, nor do they seek to overturn the annual payroll planning of the State.

Finally, the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece expresses its satisfaction for the happy outcome of this pending matter with the submission of the relevant provisions in the bill to be voted on and publicly thanks both the Prime Minister Mr. Kyriakos Mitsotakis and the competent Minister of Education and Religious Mr. Nikis Kerameos, who shared the anxiety of the clergy of the whole country.

It is recalled that the issue enjoys broad political consent, as well as the previous government publicly acknowledged (with the draft State-Church agreement from 12 February 2019) that it must restore this legislative inconsistency, while also the representatives of the Parties in their meetings with the Sacred Associations of Clergy of Greece and Crete acknowledged the need for legislative securing the positions of the clergy, in which case the relevant provisions are expected to be passed in the Parliament with a broad majority”.

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