Patriarch Diodoros of Jerusalem: To Convoke a Council on Ecumenism and the Old Calendar (1988)

His Beatitude, Patriarch Diodoros of Jerusalem, in an historically significant move for the whole Orthodox Church, has called for the convocation of a Council of all Orthodox Bishops to review the role of the Orthodox Church in the World Council of Churches and to call for full recognition of the Greek Old Calendarists. He has also withdrawn his Church's delegates from current ecumenical dialogues. His Beatitude, who visited Metropolitan Cyprian on two recent trips to Greece, has been a strong and firm supporter and admirer of our Synod and has increasingly played a pivotal role in the resistance of the more sober Orthodox Bishops to the excesses of the ecumenical movement. We print below a translation of the Greek text of a letter from His Grace, Bishop Chrysostomos, praising His Beatitude for his support of Orthodox traditionalism.

  

July 6, 1988 (Old Style)

 

Your Beatitude:

Give the blessing! I kiss your right hand with reverence and with filial affection in the Lord. I have just learned from my spiritual Father, Metropolitan Cyprian of Oropos and Fili —whom I know that you respect and who has equal respect for the person of Your Beatitude—, of your intention to convoke a local Synod of Orthodox Bishops to consider the problem of ecumenism and the difficulties facing us Old Calendarists.

I, the least of Bishops, congratulate you for this decision; indeed, I kiss your feet in honoring your courage to address, out of love for the Church, these important issues. Should you succeed in this sacred intention, you will be forever remembered by all Orthodox Christians as a second St. Mark of Ephesus, as a chosen hero of the Church.

You know well, Your Beatitude, how we moderate Old Calendarists have endured slander both from the right and from the left. With the wise guidance of our Metropolitan, we have preserved the traditions of the Orthodox Church, though with sacrifices and tears. Now our hope in your aid to us prompts boundless appreciation.

All of the clergy of my Exarchate will send letters to you with the hope that your efforts will have the blessing of God, as we, in turn, ask of you your own blessings.

Kissing your right hand, I am

The Least Among Monks,

+ Chrysostomos

Bishop of Etna

Synodal Exarch in America

 

Source: Orthodox Tradition, Vol. 6 (1989), No. 4, p. 2.