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A Quest For Human Rights And Civil Rights: Archbishop Iakovos And The Greek Orthodox Church, Michael Varlamos

Wayne State University Dissertations

This dissertation consists of a biography of Archbishop Iakovos, Primate of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North and South America from 1959 to 1996, and the role he played in the civil rights movement of the 1960s, his continuing advocacy for human rights, and his vision for a humanistically Greek, theologically Orthodox Christian, and socially just society. The fundamental research question that I sought to answer was why Archbishop Iakovos went to Selma in March of 1965 and participated in a memorial service/civil rights demonstration. What were the influences and circumstances that prompted him, a religious leader of an almost …