Decision of the ROCOR concerning the cessation of ecclesiastical communion with the Matthewite Synod (1976)

 

On April 29/May 12, 1976, they [i.e., the Synod of Bishops] heard: The resolution of February 20, 1976, printed in the February issue of Herald of the True Orthodox, the organ of the [Matthewite] Greek Old Calendarists, of the Synod headed by Archbishop Andreas, concerning the cessation of ecclesiastical communion with the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, on account of the alleged lack of clarity of its position with regard to the modernists and the New Calendarists.

They resolved: The hierarchy of the True Orthodox Church of Greece headed by Archbishop Andreas appealed in 1971 to the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia for assistance in rectifying its canonical status, which was disputed by many on the grounds that it had originated from a consecration performed out of necessity by a single bishop. After a careful study of this question, the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia received into prayerful communion, as representatives of this hierarchy, Their Eminences Metropolitans Kallistos of Corinth and Epiphanius of Kition, and rectified their canonical status by the laying on of hands upon them in the manner indicated in Canon 8 of the First Ecumenical Council, so that they in turn might perform the same act in the same manner over their fellow bishops in Greece. Now, having yielded to suspiciousness, giving credence to malicious rumors, and evidently striving more to find disagreement than to rejoice in like-mindedness in what is principal, namely, the condemnation of modernism and, as a consequence of its introduction, the new calendar, they make no mention of the act of our love which confirmed their canonical existence, but rather direct their gaze toward finding a reason for divergence from us. The position of the Synod of Bishops has never changed. It was the same both before their reception into communion and afterward. Therefore, if they consider the Synod of Bishops un-Orthodox, then logically the very act of their cheirothesia loses its force. Leaving them in this to the judgment of God, and not wishing to deepen the division by verbal disputation, the Synod of Bishops takes the communication of Archbishop Andreas under advisement and forwards it for report to the Council of Bishops.

- Pravoslavnaya zhizn', Nos. 1–6, 1976.