On the 1934 Decision of the Genuine Orthodox to Reject the Official Church

 

From 1924–1935, those who did not accept the New Calendar but did not remain in communion with the Church, calling themselves, as we have heard, G.O.C., were led only by monks, hieromonks, and a certain number of priests, since at that time no bishop agreed to the division of the Church and the creation of a schism.

Somewhat later, on September 30, 1931, the leaders of the G.O.C. from all over Greece (which then consisted of 245 smaller groups [“branches”]) submitted their memorandum to the Synod of the Hierarchy of the Church of Greece, to which the Synod responded by forming a commission on the calendar issue. At the request of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, it was then decided that this issue would be placed on the agenda of the Pan-Orthodox Pro-Synod. [12]

The Administrative Council of the G.O.C. on October 14/27, 1931, sent a confidential written pledge to Archbishop Chrysostomos of Athens that during the Liturgies, "our Sacred Community will commemorate the His Beatitude Archbishop of Athens and the other bishops," and that they would recognize the decisions of the Synod, except for the calendar, that is, they wished to continue using the Old Calendar (which the Church of Greece itself would later propose to them multiple times). When this was made known, the new zealot members of the Administrative Council (among whom were Hieromonk Matthew Karpathakis and Hieromonk Akakios Pappas) revoked this act on August 1, 1934, [13] to which the certain persecution undertaken by the police against the G.O.C. during 1932 undoubtedly contributed.

On August 6, 1934, the zealot leadership completely rejected the official Church, as well as the state Assembly, demanded the separation of the Church from the state, and began to highlight, along with the New Calendar, Ecumenism as a reason for their separation…

 

[12] Namely, at the Preparatory Commission of the Orthodox Churches held at the Vatopedi Monastery on Mount Athos from June 8–23, 1930, it was decided that one of the topics to be proposed for the future Pan-Orthodox Pre-Council would be "the study of the issue of the Calendar in relation to the decision on the Paschalion of the First Ecumenical Council and the finding of a way to restore agreement among the Churches on this issue" (Proceedings of the P. Committee... in I.M. Vatopedi, Constantinople 1930, p. 145). The representatives of the Serbian Church were Bishop Nikolaj of Žiča and Bishop Emilijan of Timočka, who at that time cooperated and concelebrated with all the New Calendar Churches. Saint Bishop Nikolaj then, along with other hierarchs, spoke about "relations and union" with the Eastern Churches (Armenian, Coptic, Ethiopian, and Jacobite), stating that "they are closer to us than other Churches with which we seek union" (pp. 73–74). This was not "concession to Judeo-Masonic Ecumenism," as the "zealot" Old Calendarists think, but rather an advocacy for true Orthodox Ecumenism, that is, the work for the unity of all Christians in Christ, within the true Catholic-Orthodox Church. Nikolaj also spoke against Freemasonry at that time (p. 73), and there was also discussion against Uniatism and the attacks of various sects from the West. The Athonites warmly welcomed the Commission at that time, and there was no mention of the Old Calendarists in Greece.

[13] S. Karamitsos-Gamvroulias, Agony..., p. 156; A. Panotis, ONE, vol. 1, pp. 818–819.

 

Source: ЗАБЛУДЕ РАСКОЛНИКА ТЗВ. “СТАРОКАЛЕНДАРАЦА” [Errors of the Schismatic So-Called "Old Calendarists], by Bishop Atanasije [Jevtić] of Zahumlje and Herzegovina (retired), Belgrade, 2004, p. 36.