“I want to be honest with you; I respect your strictness, but my faith is otherwise. I believe that the Mysteries of the New Calendarists are valid. And you know very well that I did not sign the 1974 Encyclical. I did not sign it and, of course, I am aware of the hypocrisy of those who did. They did not believe in it and would never have dared to [originally] introduce it.”
- Metropolitan Petros of Astoria,
during a visit to the Holy Synod of the Matthewites in 1986. Quoted by
Archimandrite Kyrikos Kontogiannis (later Matthewite Metropolitan of Mesogaia)
in A Brief Sketch of the New Calendarist and Florinite Schisms, 1989,
pages 24-25 (in Greek).
“Nevertheless, when the famous
encyclical was being issued in 1974, I, in my humility, refused to sign the
text of the encyclical, because I considered myself incompetent in regard to so
great a matter as my ecclesiological position concerning the Mysteries of 250,000,000 Orthodox Christians.
“I turned again to the Russian
Church and asked for its final decision. The executive synod replied to me IN
WRITING with a letter dated October 29, 1974, with reference number:
3-50-242...”
- Bishop Petros of Astoria, "Open
Letter" to Metropolitans Akakios of Diavleia, Chrysostomos of
Thessaloniki (the future Archbishop of Athens), and Gabriel of the Cyclades,
dated July 16, 1985, page 4 (in Greek).
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