A dispute over parish finances turned into a post-Mass shoving match Sunday when a parishioner at Oak Lawn’s St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church was pushed by a priest, according to police.

As members of the Oak Lawn church sipped coffee and ate cookies during an early afternoon gathering in the social hall, a dispute erupted between the Rev. John Artemas and parishioner Glynn Searl.

Searl said he and his wife initially were approached by the priest in a conciliatory manner.

But their discussion grew heated when Searl blasted Artemas as "a liar" for claiming an audit committee, of which Searl was a part, had signed off on the parish’s finances after finding no financial improprieties.

"He got angry and upset, and he swung at me," said Searl, who lodged the police report after being struck in the shoulder. "Then he started screaming, ‘Get out of my church.’ "

Artemas couldn’t be reached for comment Wednesday afternoon.

The shoving and swinging is the most recent episode in an increasingly nasty dispute over church finances — in which parish elders have been barred from receiving sacraments and cars have been keyed in the church parking lot.

Searl is among the parishioners who have led an 18-month campaign calling on church officials to "open the books" after a member of the parish’s lay oversight board stumbled upon a series of undisclosed bank accounts opened by the former head priest, the Rev. Timothy Bakakos.

Bakakos since has been reassigned.

Artemas was brought in to heal the rift in the formerly tight-knit parish.

Source: http://www.dailysouthtown.com/news/112373,1NWS1-26.article