On the Use of the term “Genuine” by the Genuine Orthodox Christians of Greece

Source: Σκριπ (Skrip) newspaper, edition of December 20, 1928.

 

 

CONCERNING GENUINE ORTHODOX CHRISTIANS

Dear Mr. Editor,

In view of the controversy that has arisen concerning the title of the Community of Genuine Orthodox Christians, with regard to the designation “Genuine,” I ask that I be permitted to make a brief intervention concerning this designation.

Since I happen to be the drafter of the constitution of the aforementioned religious Community, and the one who also carried out the relevant procedure for its ratification, during my cooperation at that time on this matter with members of the administrative committee of the Society of the Orthodox, it was proposed to me that the Community to be established should bear the title Community of “Orthodox Christians.” I did not consider this title appropriate, on the one hand because it coincided with that of the Society of the Orthodox, and on the other because it is not permissible for us to characterize those who celebrate according to the New Calendar as non-Orthodox. I likewise considered the title Community of “Old Calendarists” too narrow, since the purpose of the Community to be established would not be merely adherence to the Julian Calendar, but the strict observance by its members of all the ecclesiastical traditions. In my view, since the calendar innovation, despite the uncanonical manner in which it was introduced, does not touch upon the very essence of the Orthodox Faith, but nevertheless constitutes a first form of adulteration, owing to the fact that the New Calendar was not unanimously accepted by the entire Orthodox Church, the more appropriate designation would be that of the “Unadulterated [ἀκραιφνής] Orthodox,” which is what I proposed at the time.

The designation was considered unsuitable, from the standpoint of how it sounded, for the title of an association, and another term, approximately synonymous with it, was sought; as such, the term “Genuine” was accepted. Accordingly, the term “Genuine Christian” in the title of the religious Community bearing that name corresponds to the meaning of “unadulterated,” that is, one who does not tolerate any adulteration or alteration of what has been handed down, and not to “genuine” understood in contradistinction to “non-genuine,” in which case the “non-genuine,” in the present context, would be identified with the very notion of the heterodox and the heretic.

By this interpretation, it was judged at the time that the members of the Community were properly characterized as Orthodox indeed, but as unadulterated Orthodox—that is, as rejecting everything which, being foreign to the tradition of Orthodoxy, introduces an adulteration into it. So much, then, for the history of the title of the religious Community in question. As for the raising of the issue concerning this title, it becomes quite evident that those who have brought it forward seek clarification of the designation “Genuine,” because, if they are characterized as “non-genuine” in the above-mentioned sense of heterodox or heretical, they run the risk of being excluded from Orthodox churches, bearing in mind that, on this point, the provisions of the Christian Emperors may be regarded as still being in force. (Basilika 1—1—2; Codex 1.1.V.1).

December 19, 1928

With highest esteem,
NOMIKOS [“Lawyer”]

 

Greek source: https://krufo-sxoleio.blogspot.com/2012/01/blog-post_23.html