dispute over property and parish control<\/a> which led to dueling lawsuits, accusations of fraud and the excommunication of long-standing parish leaders.<\/p>\nLast March, Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Lisa Walsh sided with the Orthodox Church in America (OCA) in an ownership dispute over the 70-year-old congregation and historic church housed in a mansion belonging to Miami\u2019s first mayor.<\/p>\n
Walsh\u2019s ruling gave the OCA, which is the largest of three Russian Orthodox ecclesiastical bodies in the United States, authority to govern the parish and the judge ordered the parish\u2019s former leaders to vacate the property by June 2025.<\/p>\n
The group of former leaders and congregants fighting the OCA \u2014 Priscilla Rivera, Randy and Susan Homyk, and the deacon, Georgios Zervos \u2014 are now appealing the court\u2019s decision, and have retained new counsel, former Florida Circuit Court Judge Leslie B. Rothenberg, to litigate their case.<\/p>\n
Rothenberg said her clients are \u201cvery pleased\u201d that the Third District granted them oral arguments, which are scheduled for April 21.<\/p>\n
But the OCA stands behind the original ruling, saying in a statement that the court \u201cunequivocally confirmed that Sts. Peter and Paul is a parish of the Orthodox Church in America. This means that the parish does not belong to the Homyk Group, but rather to those loyal to the Orthodox Church in America.\u201d<\/p>\n
Church matter or secular dispute?<\/p>\n
At the heart of the dispute is whether the Orthodox Church in America, which was previously known as \u201cThe Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church of North America,\u201d has ecclesiastical authority over the Miami parish\u2019s governance, clergy, membership and property decisions.<\/p>\n
The former Saints Peter and Paul leaders argue that the church is an independent institution, formed in the 1950s under its own articles of incorporation and by laws, long before OCA even existed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re confident that once a jury hears and considers the evidence, they will find that Saints Peter and Paul Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church in Miami, Florida, is not a member of OCA and never relinquished its control to the OCA,\u201d Rothenberg said.<\/p>\n
The OCA argues that because of its hierarchical structure, its bishops have broad authority over all local Orthodox parishes \u2014 regardless of the level of financial or religious involvement.<\/p>\n
The courts have ruled that this is purely a religious matter, meaning they aren\u2019t getting involved in the property dispute, and have deferred to the OCA\u2019s claimed hierarchy under the First Amendment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe protection of religious liberty means honoring the form of government chosen by the church, which here is governed by higher authorities who supervise local churches,\u201d said the OCA\u2019s southern diocese in a statement.<\/p>\n
The OCA said that the dispute is \u201cnot a corporate or property dispute,\u201d but one \u201cover religious authority and independence.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Rothenberg said she is convinced that Florida law would allow the courts to intervene in this dispute in this situation.<\/p>\n
Former parish leaders say they have always managed the church\u2019s finances independently of any ecclesiastical body and have no financial or legal ties to the OCA.<\/p>\n
Legal experts told the Miami Herald that such battles between Orthodox denominations highlight a gray area in American law between the constitutional separation of church and state. Judges tend to defer to church authorities in many disputes.<\/p>\n
The case has also raised questions about the fate of the nearly century-old estate the parish occupies at 1411 SW 11th Street in Miami near Little Havana. The stately mansion was built by Miami\u2019s now nearly forgotten first mayor, John Riley, a businessman who served four years following the city\u2019s incorporation in 1896.<\/p>\n
Riley\u2019s family occupied the house, designed by noted architect Martin Luther Hampton in a neo-Classical style, until they sold it in 1954 to the emerging Saints Peter and Paul congregation, founded to provide a religious home for the city\u2019s growing Christian Orthodox adherents after World War II.<\/p>\n
The property, which includes a separate garage with an apartment over it, is now conservatively assessed by Miami-Dade\u2019s property appraiser at a market value exceeding $2.6 million. The congregation\u2019s non-profit corporation paid off the mortgage in 1960 and has owned the property free and clear since then, deeds and other records show.<\/p>\n
The Homyks and Zervos said they fear the OCA will sell the property for redevelopment given its large lot, a claim that the OCA has repeatedly denied.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to ask yourself, why do they want this church? What\u2019s it to them? This church has been operating all by itself, without their help, without their influence,\u201d Rothenberg said. \u201cWhy this sudden interest? Well, just look at the value of this property. It becomes very clear what the interest is.\u201d<\/p>\n
This story was produced with financial support<\/a> from Trish and Dan Bell and donors in South Florida\u2019s Jewish and Muslim communities, including Khalid and Diana Mirza and the Mohsin and Fauzia Jaffer Foundation, in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners. The Miami Herald maintains full editorial control of this work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"View of the Saints Peter and Paul Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church in Little Havana, one of Miami\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":225314,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-225313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"View](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/MIA_003ORTHOHURCH00NEWPPP.jpeg\" "\\"View")
<\/p>\n![\"View](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1775765888_91_MIA_003ORTHOHURCH00NEWPPP.jpeg\" "\\"MIA_003ORTHOHURCH00NEWPPP\\"")
View of the Saints Peter and Paul Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church in Miami, one of Miami\u2019s oldest Eastern Orthodox parishes, which also happens to be the restored home of Miami\u2019s first mayor. Pedro Portal pportal@miamiherald.com <\/p>\n