Extremism out of necessity...

 Extremism Out of Necessity…


The Old Calendar movement in Greece was from its inception, it is true, a reaction of the simple Faithful to the calendar innovation and ecumenism. But its clerical and lay leaders included some of the best theologians and scholars of the Greek Church. Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Florina, who subsequently became the “Father” of the movement, was, for example, a refined man of tremendous erudition. Many of the Athonite Fathers who served the movement early on, though not educated in secular institutions, were virtual “professors” of the spiritual life, trained in that authentic theology which only the monastic state properly provides… It is an unfortunate fact that, largely out of necessity, the Old Calendarist movement eventually veered away from the influence of more moderate and circumspect leaders – as evidenced by the “Matthewite” schism – and fell into the hands of perhaps sincere, but less gifted leaders. The result of this lapse is, today, the atmosphere of confusion and inconsistency that one sees in the Old Calendar movement and its retreat into the tactics of the street in resolving ecclesiastical disputes: pettiness, character assassination, lies, distortions of historical fact, and a vengeful misuse of the Church’s legal system, resulting in false depositions and the like.


- Letter of Bishop Chrysostomos of Etna to Bishop Hilarion of Manhattan, Deputy Secretary of the Synod of Bishops of ROCOR, dated August 20, 1994 (O.S.). Emphasis added.

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