Elder Ephraim of Arizona and the Old Calendarists

 Fr. Cyprian [Koutsoumbas, +2013], Hegumen of the newly received monastery [of Saints Cyprian and Justina] in Fili, had obviously discerned the importance of the spirituality of the ailing Bishop Chrysostomos [Naslimes, +1973] of Magnesia, whom he visited in person at least twice during that period [circa 1970], in order to benefit from his patient bearing of the cross of sickness, as well as to receive his blessings; this was done in combination with visits he made to Eldress Makrina [Vassopoulou, +1995] of the Holy Monastery of Panagia Odigitria in Portaria, Pelion, who was the spiritual child of Hieromonk Ephraim [Moraitis, +2019] the Athonite, later Abbot of the Monastery of Philotheou on Mount Athos, and finally of [St. Anthony the Great Monastery in] Arizona, America. Fr. Ephraim, at that time, was not commemorating the name of the Patriarch of Constantinople [Athenagoras I, +1972] on Mount Athos and when he went to the metochion in Portaria, he liturgically commemorated the name of Archbishop Auxentios [Pastras, +1994].

- Ἐπίσκοπος Mαγνησίας Xρυσόστομος Nασλίμης (1910–1973)· Ἀκατάβλητος Ἀγωνιστὴς Πίστεως καὶ Ὑπομονῆς [Bishop Chrysostomos Naslimes of Magnesia (1910-1973): An Invincible Struggler in Faith and Fortitude], by Bishop Klemes of Gardikion, Vol. II (Athens: Holy Monastery of Saints Cyprian and Justina, 2019). pp. 539-540. Draft translation from the original Greek.

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It is roughly during that period that while in the United States of America, Hegumen Ephraim [Moraitis] of Philotheou (1927–2019), in response to an exhortation from the Mother of God, as he related, joined the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad [in 1991], from which we Genuine Orthodox have Apostolic Succession and with which we were in communion. Unfortunately, after a short time he returned to the New Calendarist ecumenists, yielding to pressure from them regarding possible punishment and abandonment by his spiritual children.

Nevertheless, prior to becoming Abbot of Philotheou in 1973, Elder Ephraim did not commemorate the Patriarch. In fact, during the years he was going out into the world from the Holy Mountain, he would commemorate at Divine Services the then First Hierarch of the Church of the Genuine Orthodox Christians of Greece, Archbishop Auxentios [Pastras] of Athens (1912–1994). According to one account, Father Ephraim even received a laying-on of hands (χειροθεσία) from Archbishop Auxentios for this purpose. To be sure, he maintained a moderate ecclesiological viewpoint and practice, but this did not prevent him from belonging to the Church of the Genuine Orthodox Christians of Greece. What happened then? Did he “depart from the Church” and betray the principles of his Elder, as the “Neo-Athonites” would have it? Anything but that! It was at that time that he returned to the original path from which he had previously fallen. However, the influence of Elder Epiphanios [Theodoropoulos] of Athens (1930–1989) (the theoretician of the hardline New Calendarists) by way of his disciple Archimandrite Nikodemos, and subsequently the contribution of the governing body of Philotheou under the new ecumenist Patriarch Demetrios I of Constantinople (1914–1991), led him anew into an erroneous acceptance of communion with the ecumenists and New Calendarists.

- “Elder Joseph the Cave-Dweller and the Calendar Issue,” by Bishop Klemes of Gardikion, Orthodox Tradition, Volume XXXVII, Number 1 (Winter 2020), pp. 36-37.

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