1938 Unification Proposal Between the GOC and the Official Church

 The 1938 GOC Compromise Proposals


Proposal to the Official Church for a compromise and resolution on the calendar dispute, dated January 15, 1938 (N.S.), signed by Metropolitan Germanos of Demetrias (presiding bishop of the GOC) and Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Florina, in summation:

1) Remove all penalties against Old Calendar clergy.

2) Recognize the ordinations of Old Calendar bishops, and summon the dissident bishops Matthew of Bresthena and Germanos of the Cyclades to justify their actions.

3) The adoption of the new calendar should not be considered final, but provisional.

4) Those who want to utilize the old calendar should be free to do so without being prosecuted.

5) Convene a council on the subject of the calendar by Great Lent, 1939.

6) Appoint Old Calendar bishops as members of the council.

7) Make the final decision of the proposed council binding on everyone.

8) Abolish the dissident Community of the G.O.C. (which had aligned itself with Bishop Matthew) and give its churches to the canonical Old Calendarists.

9) Punish the clergy who considered the Holy Struggle an opportunity for enrichment and exploitation of the faithful.

10) If the council on the calendar issue is not held, then the Church of Greece should return to the old calendar.

In closing, the two signatory bishops declare that until Pascha 1939, they will refrain from new ordinations to show their good intentions and to facilitate the acceptance of their proposals by the Official Church.

The terms of the proposal were the result of the signatory’s frustration with the old calendarist movement, which began to fracture almost immediately following the consecration of bishops in 1935, and particularly after the Matthewite Schism of 1937, with the consequential spread of fanatical opinions and ecclesiology.

The Official Church declined the offer, obviously sensing the weakened position of the old calendar movement and hoping for its eventual demise.


Scan of Greek letter: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FrwOa_DN2kkLe0Nip0FlZ587hCLi766V/view?usp=sharing


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Monument to Orthodoxy: The Trial of a Zealot

On Anti-Ecumenism: Words versus Actions

Letters to a Troubled Monastic by Archpriest Gregory Williams (+2016)