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TARPON SPRINGS, FLORIDA, USA – This extraordinary event in the US Orthodox Church annals took place on the high feast of Holy Epiphany in the Cathedral of St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church in Tarpon Springs on Saturday January 6, 2018.
Father Emmanuel Hatzidakis (Fr. E.), a priest of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese, who had relocated with his family from Chicago to Florida in 2011 was ordered by Metropolitan Alexios of Atlanta to leave the altar area, for “publicly criticizing Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew for being an ecumenist and for calling a synod of bishops that convened on June 2016 in Crete, Greece a pseudo-synod”, said Fr. Emmanuel.
The Dean of the Cathedral, Father Athanasios Haros, after failing to dissuade Fr. E. to leave, under instructions from the Bishop, called the police who ordered Fr. E. to leave the premises. [* Note: Many police officers were already on the church premises, as they are on every Epiphany day morning, including a bomb squad and bomb sniffing dogs, dogs which are taken inside the altar area – even around the altar itself!]
Fr. E. told the police that he was a priest in good standing, with no impediment, who had every right to participate in the services, and they (the police) had no justification for being there.
His son, Anthony Hatzidakis, who was recording the scene from a side room, was also ordered to leave, and upon his refusal the police arrested him and took him to the Pinellas County jail.
Fr. E. took off his vestments and left the church peacefully under police escort. Nikitas Manias, parish council president, under instructions from Bishop Alexios told the police to warn Fr. E. to stay off the church property or he would be arrested as trespasser.
Bishop Alexios had not officially accepted Fr. E. in his diocese, although he has used him as a substitute priest and as a cantor at the Cathedral of St. Nicholas and in other area churches.
Exactly a year ago on the same feast day, Bishop Alexios had told Fr. E. that he had embarrassed him with his public criticisms and therefore he could not allow him to serve.
[Published January 13, 2026]
