The True Orthodox Church of Greece

Fr. Savvas Anastasiou

Friday, 27 October 2006 10:49

In 1924, the Church of Greece ushered in the pan-heresy of Ecumenism in a form tangible to every believer—by changing the Church's traditional Julian calendar. It adopted the papal Gregorian calendar, thereby evincing a desire to concelebrate, not with the Church Triumphant in heaven, but rather with the heretics of the fallen West. This calendar had been anathematized by three Pan-Orthodox councils in the 16th century, as well as by numerous local councils in the succeeding centuries, and whoever followed it was declared to be outside of the Church and the assembly of the faithful.[1] About one quarter of the Greek population refused to accept the innovation and cut itself off from the hereticizing hierarchy, but it was not until 1935 that any bishops espoused the cause. In that year, three bishops of the New Calendar Church declared for the Old Calendar, and immediately assumed leadership of the movement. The New Calendarists responded by definitively committing themselves to the calendar innovation: they deposed the three bishops, declared the Old Calendar Church to be graceless, and launched a violent and often bloody persecution. With the aid of the police, they brutalized and banished the leaders of the Old Calendar, and even went so far as to throw chalices to the ground and trample upon the Holy Eucharist. In view of all this, the Old Calendar bishops issued (in 1935) an encyclical to the effect that the New Calendar Church had separated itself from the Body of Christ and no longer possessed valid Mysteries. Two years later, however, Metropolitan Chrysostomos (I) of Florina, later head of the Old Calendar Church, wrote a private letter to another bishop stating that, in his opinion, the New Calendarists were only in a state of potential schism and that their Mysteries were still valid. Two other bishops (of a number that had been ordained), upon learning this opinion, separated themselves from the Old Calendar Synod, believing this view to be a fall from true Orthodoxy. In 1948, one of them, Matthew of Bresthena, believing he was the last Orthodox bishop left on earth, ordained (by himself) a whole new synod of bishops, thus forming a synod parallel to the main Synod. This group is called the Matthewites and was the first schism from our Church.

Eventually, as other bishops died or returned to the New Calendar, Metropolitan Chrysostomos (I) of Florina, now head of the Church, felt it necessary (in 1950) to restore unity among the Old Calendarists by synodically revoking his letter of 1937 and officially declaring (again) that the New Calendar was graceless. This, however, failed to heal the Matthewite schism, and in 1955 Chysostomos (I) died, leaving the main body of Old Calendarists without any bishops. This situation was partially remedied in 1960 and 1962, when several hierarchs were consecrated by bishops of the Russian Church Abroad. It was altogether resolved in 1969, when these private consecrations were officially recognized by the Russian Synod and full communion was established between the Greek Old Calendar Church and the Russian Church Abroad under Metropolitan Philaret.

In 1963 Auxentios, a good but incompetent man, was elected Archbishop. As a result of his mismanagement, numerous scandals broke out as immoral clergy were ordained or accepted from the New Calendar. Relations with the Church Abroad deteriorated, and many people quietly left the Old Calendar. Several events of this period were: 1.) In 1969, Archimandrite Cyprian and his monastery at Fili, formerly New Calendarists, joined the Old Calendar under Auxentios. 2.) In 1974, the Synod of Auxentios renewed its condemnation of the New Calendarists as graceless. 3.) In 1977, Callistos, a bishop of the Matthewite Synod, joined the Synod of Auxentios, because he wished to be in communion with the Russian Church Abroad.

Discouraged because of the scandals taking place in the Church, a number of bishops stopped attending synod meetings and, in February 1979, two of the remaining five bishops of the Synod (the above-mentioned Callistos and his cohort Anthony) proceeded to consecrate eight new bishops, one of whom was Cyprian of Fili. These ordinations were made without the permission or even the vote of the Synod, were performed by a minority of the Synod's members, and took place at nighttime in the monastery of Fili. The breakaway bishops claimed they had the oral permission of Archbishop Auxentios, but Auxentios denied ever having made such a statement and with his hierarchs immediately condemned and deposed the new bishops. The new bishops declared themselves to be the only legitimate synod of Old Calendarists and immediately invited the hierarchs who had been avoiding synod meetings to join them, but the other bishops (such as Petros of Astoria and Chrysostomos (II), the future Archbishop) refused to join the schismatic group. In 1983, the president of the new synod Callistos retired. Shortly thereafter, all the surviving bishops consecrated by Callistos and Anthony in 1979, except for Cyprian (one had died), repented of their uncanonical consecrations and were accepted back into Auxentios' Synod. At this time (1984), Metropolitan Cyprian began issuing a series of documents in which he presented his own ecclesialogical theories in a coherent form, stating definitively that the New Calendarist Church was the "Mother Church" and that its mysteries were valid until condemned by a pan-orthodox council. On the basis of this position, he refused to rejoin the bishops under Auxentios, even though he was invited back. He remained by himself and, with the help of John of Sardinia (the only other bishop remaining of the Callistos group—not one of the original schismatics, but consecrated later—organized his few followers into what he called the Synod in Resistance).

We should note that Cyprian joined the Old Calendar knowing that the official position of the Church was that the New Calendar was graceless. He accepted consecration to the episcopacy, not in objection to this position (since Callistos, who ordained him, was the most avid and public proponent of the idea), but rather hoping new and more responsible bishops would restore order to the Church. It was not until several years later that Cyprian, already a bishop, began using the issue of grace as an excuse to remain separate from the other hierarchs of the Old Calendar. He claimed that it was impossible for him or any of his followers to have communion with a church holding the official position that the New Calendar was without grace. In Cyprian's eyes, thus, his is the only correctly believing Old Calendarist Church, while the true Synod is "shipwrecked in the faith"[2] and an invalid ecclesiastical body[3] for holding to the same thing it has declared since 1935 when the Old Calendar first received its episcopacy. At no time before did anyone feel it necessary to justify a schism by defending the mysteries of the New Calendarists. Cyprian himself never declared invalid the Old Calendar movement as it was in 1935 or 1950 or 1974 (the years when proclamations were made about the gracelessness of the New Calendar). Had he done so, the entire movement from its very inception and throughout its whole history would have been (following his line of reasoning) "fanatical," "extremist," and "impossible to join with," as he now calls the Synod under Chrysostomos.

Meanwhile, in the canonical Synod, the ineptitude of Auxentios soon became an issue again, and he was deposed for having made a notoriously immoral man bishop without synodal approval. In his place, the revered Chrysostomos (II) was chosen to the Archbishopric (in 1986), which post he occupies to this day.

The difference between the Matthewites, the Cyprianites, and the canonical True Orthodox Church of Greece can be summed up as follows: the Matthewites say that the New Calendar is graceless and heretical, and that anyone who ventures a private opinion to the contrary (as did Chrysostomos in 1937) is graceless and a heretic as well. The Matthewites are also uncanonical, being schismatic and having their ordinations from only one bishop, which the canons strictly forbid. The Cyprianites state that: 1.) the condemnations of the 16th century Pan-Orthodox councils against anyone who would adopt the New Calendar do not apply to the modern New Calendarists;[4] 2.) the ecumenist New Calendar Church is the "Mother Church" of the Old Calendar Church; 3.) its mysteries are fully valid until condemned by a Pan-Orthodox council—even if the resolution of the situation be prolonged until the Second Coming;[5] 4.) to be considered Pan-Orthodox, this council must be attended by the ecumenists and New Calendarists themselves;[6] 5.) a local council has no right to issue an anathema against a heresy[7] (such as the Russian Church Abroad issued against ecumenism in 1983);[8] 6.) a bishop who publically proclaims heresy is not a heretic, but is rather an ailing member of the Church until he anathematizes his own heresy at a Pan-orthodox council;[9] 7.) a local Church may splinter into any number of synods which are out of communion with one another because of matters of faith, yet they are all equally part of the Church until the Pan-Orthodox council is held—or forever, if the various synods (including the ecumenists themselves) never agree to convene the Pan-Orthodox council to condemn ecumenism;[10] and 8.) anyone who disagrees with these positions is a gravely mistaken fanatic with whom it is impossible to have communion.[11] The Cyprianites are also schismatic, having failed to return to the canonical Church from the Callistos schism with the other bishops ordained in 1979 by Callistos.[12] Finally, the canonical Church of Greece, which comprises about 70% of the Old Calendarist movement, maintains the traditional position that the New Calendar is graceless; but actual opinion in the Church is not necessarily unilateral on this question. Its bishops reject the New Calendar church not so much because they view it as graceless, but because it has abandoned the truth. Since it does not adhere to an Orthodox confession of faith, it is impossible for the True Orthodox to recognize it, a schismatic and hereticizing body, as the Mother Church, or officially to declare that beyond a shadow of doubt it possesses sacramental grace—as Cyprian teaches.

We admire the zeal and piety of the Matthewites and Cyprianites, and we look forward to the day both groups will end their schisms and return to the canonical Church. In this way, our united forces will present a coherent opposition to Ecumenism, which, with God's help, will prove impossible for the heretics to ignore or withstand.

1. Sigillion of the Council of 1583.
2. Second Epistle of the Holy Synod in Resistance.
3. See "The Orthodox Resistance against the Ecclesiatical Heresy of Syncretistic Ecumenism," E:3-5.
4. See "An Informatory Epistle" by Met. Cyprian, 4:12.
5. An Ecclesiological Position Paper, by Met. Cyprian.
6. Ibid.
7. See "An Informatory Epistle," 4, passim.
8. Ibid. 5:3
9. See "An Ecclesiological Position Paper."
10. Ibid.
11. See "Second Encyclical of the Holy Synod in Resistance."
12. From 1994 to 2006 the Russian Church Abroad and the Cyprianites were in communion. Archbishop Mark of Berlin and several other bishops instrumental in the ROCOR union with Moscow also played a leading role in the ROCOR union with the Cyprianites. The ROCOR bishops stated that their ecclesiology—previously somewhat unclear, at least on an official level—was now the same as Cyprian's. Subsequently, certain of Cyprian's notions proved very useful to the ROCOR bishops in justifying their union with Moscow.

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