Former leaders appeal court ruling after losing control of Miami Orthodox church
The battle over one of Miami’s oldest Orthodox Christian churches is headed to appeals court this month as former leaders seek to overturn a ruling that gave control of the parish to a Texas-based diocese.
Saints Peter & Paul Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church, located near Little Havana, has been at the center of a years-long dispute over property and parish control which led to dueling lawsuits, accusations of fraud and the excommunication of long-standing parish leaders.
Last 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’s first mayor.
Walsh’s 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’s former leaders to vacate the property by June 2025.
The group of former leaders and congregants fighting the OCA — Priscilla Rivera, Randy and Susan Homyk, and the deacon, Georgios Zervos — are now appealing the court’s decision, and have retained new counsel, former appellate court judge and former Miami-Dade County Circuit Court Judge Leslie B. Rothenberg, to litigate their case.
Rothenberg said her clients are “very pleased” that the Third District granted them oral arguments, which are scheduled for April 21.
But the OCA stands behind the original ruling, saying in a statement that the court “unequivocally 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.”
Church matter or secular dispute?
At the heart of the dispute is whether the Orthodox Church in America, which was previously affiliated with the Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church of North America, has ecclesiastical authority over the Miami parish’s governance, clergy, membership and property decisions.
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.
“We’re 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,” said Rothenberg.
The OCA argues that because of its hierarchical structure, its bishops have broad authority over all local Orthodox parishes — regardless of the level of financial or religious involvement.
The courts have ruled that this is purely a religious matter, meaning they aren’t getting involved in the property dispute, and have deferred to the OCA’s claimed hierarchy under the First Amendment.
“The 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,” said the OCA’s southern diocese in a statement.
The OCA said that the dispute is “not a corporate or property dispute,” but one “over religious authority and independence.”
But Rothenberg said she is convinced that Florida law would allow the courts to intervene in this dispute in this situation.
Former parish leaders say they have always managed the church’s finances independently of any ecclesiastical body and have no financial or legal ties to the OCA.
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.
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’s now nearly forgotten first mayor, John Riley, a businessman who served four years following the city’s incorporation in 1896.
Riley’s 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’s growing Christian Orthodox adherents after World War II.
The property, which includes a separate garage with an apartment over it, is now conservatively assessed by Miami-Dade’s property appraiser at a market value exceeding $2.6 million. The congregation’s non-profit corporation paid off the mortgage in 1960 and has owned the property free and clear since then, deeds and other records show.
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.
“You have to ask yourself, why do they want this church? What’s it to them? This church has been operating all by itself, without their help, without their influence,” Rothenberg said. “Why this sudden interest? Well, just look at the value of this property. It becomes very clear what the interest is.”
This story was produced with financial support from Trish and Dan Bell and donors in South Florida’s 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.
This story was originally published April 9, 2026 at 3:35 PM.
