Summary and Analysis of the Collective Resignation of the GOC Hierarchy, November 3, 1952

Outline, summary, and ecclesiological analysis of the original Greek Πρακτικὸν Συνεδριάσεως τῶν Παλαιοημερολογιτῶν Ἀρχιερέων (Minutes of the Meeting of the Old Calendarist Hierarchs)

 

 

I. General assessment

The collective resignation of Metropolitans Chrysostomos of Florina and Bishops Christophoros of Christianoupolis and Polykarpos of Diavleia must be understood against a longer history of unsuccessful attempts to preserve Orthodox tradition, correct rigorist tendencies within the Old Calendarist movement, and restore ecclesiastical unity.

The document was adopted unanimously on November 3, 1952, at Chrysostomos's residence in Athens.

Its importance is considerably greater than a simple announcement of episcopal retirement.

The three hierarchs expressly explain that they had undertaken leadership of the Old Calendarists in 1935 for two interconnected reasons: to defend the traditional ecclesiastical calendar and to correct the ecclesiastical excesses developing within the movement.

They further declare that their objective was never to perpetuate a separate ecclesiastical organization indefinitely, but to overcome the division through canonical order and the eventual correction of the calendar innovation.

By November 1952, however, those objectives appeared increasingly unattainable. The movement had suffered internal fragmentation, the Keratea controversies had severely damaged its public standing, and the official Church and State had pursued coercive measures against Old Calendarist clergy and faithful.

The collective resignation therefore marks the culmination of a prolonged crisis in the original restorative ecclesiology of the Old Calendarist movement.

It is not merely evidence of discouragement. It is a remarkable declaration by the entire remaining Florinite episcopate that the independent episcopal administration they had established was no longer serving the original objectives of their struggle.

Nevertheless, a crucial distinction must be maintained: the document itself identifies continuing persecution as the immediate reason for resignation. Its criticism of internal radicalism explains the broader ecclesiastical problem, but the two should not be conflated.

II. The seven principal declarations

 

Section	Argument of the bishops	Ecclesiological significance
First	The ecclesiastical division originated in the unilateral calendar innovation, not in the bishops' resistance	Responsibility for the original rupture remains with the innovators
Second	They entered the movement in 1935 both to defend tradition and to restrain its ecclesiastical excesses	Opposition to rigorism was part of their original mission
Third	Their aim was to bridge the division, not deepen it	The Old Calendarist hierarchy was conceived as corrective rather than permanently separatist
Fourth	The official hierarchy responded to conscientious separation with persecution instead of persuasion	Legitimate resistance cannot be suppressed through ecclesiastical coercion
Fifth	The official Church exploited the Keratea scandals to persecute people who had no communion with that establishment	The Florinite movement must not be identified with the Matthewite organization
Sixth	Successive governments improperly enforced the Church's allegedly unconstitutional and uncanonical measures	Civil authority had become an instrument of ecclesiastical coercion
Seventh	Their continued episcopal leadership was being used as a pretext for prolonging persecution	Withdrawal from administration was intended to remove an obstacle to peace

 

These seven explanations culminate in the bishops' decision to relinquish active pastoral administration without renouncing either their episcopal dignity or their adherence to the traditional calendar.

(https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eNcBBZXhKdEq88S0v5-FWf2zUcxsi-sY/view?usp=sharing)

III. The most significant passages

1. Their original objective included the correction of internal extremism

In the second declaration, the bishops explain that they entered the calendar struggle eleven years after the introduction of the reform partly:

ἵνα πρὸς τὸ συμφέρον τῆς Ἐκκλησίας θέσωμεν ἓν τέρμα εἰς τὰς ἐκτροπὰς

That is, “in order, for the benefit of the Church, to put an end to the excesses.”

They attribute those excesses to the absence of leaders possessing adequate theological education and canonical formation.

This is a particularly important statement because it directly confirms what Chrysostomos had repeatedly maintained in his correspondence with Germanos of the Cyclades in 1937.

The bishops did not enter the Old Calendarist movement merely to provide episcopal leadership to an already established and fully satisfactory ecclesiastical organization.

They considered part of its existing religious practice and ecclesiastical understanding to require correction.

This helps explain Chrysostomos's sustained opposition to indiscriminate re-Chrismation, automatic declarations of sacramental gracelessness, and the assumption that Old Calendarist clergy could definitively judge the ecclesiastical status of all other Orthodox hierarchs.

The resignation presents that corrective responsibility as an original and fundamental component of episcopal leadership.

2. Their mission was to bridge the division

The third declaration states:

οὐχὶ ἵνα εὐρύνωμεν τὸ χάσμα τῆς Ἐκκλησιαστικῆς διαιρέσεως ἀλλ᾿ ἵνα γεφυρώσωμεν αὐτό

“Not in order to widen the breach of ecclesiastical division, but to bridge it.”

The bishops explain how this was to be accomplished.

On one hand, they would restrain the Old Calendarists within the bounds of canonical order, ecclesiastical propriety, and legality.

On the other, they would provide the hierarchy of the Church of Greece with an opportunity to reconsider the calendar innovation.

The passage is significant because it identifies two simultaneous objects of correction: the innovating official hierarchy and the excesses of those resisting it.

For Chrysostomos and his colleagues, neither side could be treated as beyond criticism simply because it was associated with the formal ecclesiastical administration or with the defense of tradition.

This also clarifies their understanding of the independent Old Calendarist hierarchy.

They did not originally regard its permanent institutional separation as an objective in itself. It was an ecclesiastical response intended to preserve tradition and eventually facilitate reconciliation.

3. The Keratea controversy was not an internal Florinite scandal

The fifth declaration is especially important in light of the subsequent history.

The bishops accuse the official hierarchy of employing the controversies surrounding the Keratea monastery as a pretext for persecuting the Florinite Old Calendarists.

They emphasize that they and their followers had maintained no ecclesiastical relationship or communion with that establishment since, according to the document, 1936.

The reference to 1936 needs qualification, since the definitive division involving Matthew is ordinarily dated to 1937. It may reflect an earlier deterioration in relations or an imprecise retrospective date. [It reflects the year the lay “Greek Religious Community of Genuine Orthodox Christians” withdrew support for the original synod under Metropolitan Germanos, and was replaced by the “Pan-Hellenic Religious National Orthodox Society.” The Religious Community ended up in the Matthewite camp. – Blog Admin. note]

Nevertheless, the intended distinction is unmistakable.

The bishops repudiated responsibility for the conduct of the separate Matthewite establishment.

This is consistent with Chrysostomos's final Encyclical of July 1954, which again distinguished his movement from the Keratea establishment and refused to recognize the episcopal standing claimed by Matthew's successors without competent Pan-Orthodox adjudication.

(https://orthodoxmiscellany.blogspot.com/2025/01/final-encyclical-of-st-chrysostomos-new.html)

The important historical point is that Chrysostomos remained opposed to the Matthewite establishment even after the severe Encyclical of 1950.

Thus, the 1950 declaration cannot reasonably be treated as proof that the earlier ecclesiological dispute had been settled in Matthew's favor.

4. The resignation was an attempt to end persecution, not an acknowledgment of ecclesiastical defeat

The seventh declaration deserves especially careful attention.

The bishops state that the persecution of Old Calendarists had become a source of scandal, discrediting both the Church and the State.

They did not wish their continued presence as episcopal leaders to give the authorities another pretext for perpetuating these measures.

They therefore resolved:

παραιτούμεθα τοῦ λοιποῦ τῆς ἐνεργοῦ ὑπηρεσίας καὶ τῆς Ποιμαντορικῆς κηδεμονίας ἐπὶ τοῦ ποιμνίου ἡμῶν

“We henceforth resign from active service and from the pastoral care of our flock.”

They immediately qualify this:

οὐχὶ ὅμως καὶ τῆς Ἀρχιερωσύνης καὶ τῆς πίστεως πρὸς τὴν παράδοσιν τοῦ Πατρίου Ἐκκλησιαστικοῦ ἡμερολογίου

“But not from the episcopate or from fidelity to the tradition of the Patristic Ecclesiastical Calendar.”

They also direct their clergy to cease commemorating them during Divine Services, since they have relinquished pastoral authority over those following the traditional calendar.

The distinction is deliberate.

They relinquish episcopal administration, not episcopal dignity. They withdraw from leadership, not from their confession of faith.

Nor do they declare their previous walling-off unlawful or offer to restore communion unconditionally with the official hierarchy.

(https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eNcBBZXhKdEq88S0v5-FWf2zUcxsi-sY/view?usp=sharing)

IV. The resignation viewed against the entire history of Chrysostomos's leadership

The document becomes considerably more revealing when situated within the sequence of events between 1935 and 1955.

1. 1935 — Assumption of episcopal leadership

Chrysostomos and his fellow bishops undertake the defense of the traditional calendar while seeking to restore canonical discipline within the movement.

2. 1937 — Rupture with Matthew and Germanos of the Cyclades

The conflict over potential versus actual schism, the validity of Mysteries, and the repetition of Chrismation develops into an organizational separation.

3. 1938 — Proposed reconciliation with the official Church

The remaining senior hierarchs attempt to secure restoration of the traditional calendar through negotiations and a future council. The proposal fails.

4. 1948–1950 — Consolidation of the rival Matthewite hierarchy and renewed attempts at reunion

Matthew undertakes episcopal consecrations in 1948. After his death in May 1950, Chrysostomos issues the severe Encyclical No. 13 while attempting to reunite the movement.

5. 1951 — Further unsuccessful reconciliation negotiations

Chrysostomos negotiates with Archbishop Spyridon Vlachos amid severe persecution. Agreement is not achieved.

6. November 1952 — Collective resignation

All three Florinite bishops announce their withdrawal from pastoral administration, declaring that their continued leadership has become a pretext for persecution.

7. 1953 — Divergent paths of the bishops

Chrysostomos has withdrawn his resignation and continues leading his flock. Christophoros and Polykarpos seek restoration to the official Church and are received without repetition of their episcopal consecrations.

8. 1954 — Chrysostomos's final Encyclical

Chrysostomos again repudiates the canonical claims of Matthew's successors, refuses to accept their episcopal authority without conciliar judgment, and continues to distinguish his movement from the Keratea establishment.

This chronology establishes a pattern that cannot be reduced to a single disagreement about the validity of New Calendarist Mysteries.

For almost twenty years, Chrysostomos attempted to preserve the resistance movement while preventing its transformation into a self-perpetuating ecclesiastical organization founded upon exclusivist claims.

The 1952 resignation marks a particularly severe crisis in that effort.

V. The influence of rigorist ecclesiology within the Florinite movement

Before 1955: Chrysostomos's struggle against rigorist tendencies

During Chrysostomos's lifetime, the relevant problem was not simply the existence of the separate Matthewite Synod.

He had already encountered rigorist tendencies among monastics and clergy within the broader Old Calendarist movement before the division of 1937.

His correspondence indicates that he regarded these tendencies as canonically unsound and damaging to the credibility of the struggle.

The 1952 resignation confirms that the bishops understood their original mission as including the correction of such excesses.

Their decision also reflects the consequences of prolonged hostility between the Matthewite establishment and the Florinite movement, especially after the Keratea scandals.

Nevertheless, the resignation does not specifically identify former Matthewite clergy within the Florinite ranks as responsible for the immediate crisis of 1952.

The strongest documentary conclusion is that the bishops had become disillusioned with a movement repeatedly unable to escape internal extremism, jurisdictional conflict, and persecution.

After 1960: Transformation of the restored Florinite hierarchy

A related but distinct process occurred after Chrysostomos's death.

The restored Florinite hierarchy included men who had previously belonged to, or been spiritually and institutionally formed within, the Matthewite milieu.

Akakios Pappas, Auxentios Pastras, Chrysostomos Kiousis, and Kallinikos Sarantopoulos all had significant connections with that earlier ecclesiastical environment, although the nature of those connections differed.

This does not establish that every one of them consistently maintained Matthew's exact ecclesiology throughout his episcopal ministry.

Nevertheless, it raises an important question concerning the transformation of the movement's ecclesiastical identity.

By the 1970s, the Florinite Synod was formally reiterating the severe sacramental declarations of 1935 and 1950.

The 1974 Encyclical is particularly significant in this respect.

The movement established under Chrysostomos to resist innovation while restraining rigorist tendencies subsequently came to adopt, at least in some of its authoritative declarations, an ecclesiology closer to positions he had opposed.

This makes it essential to distinguish institutional succession from doctrinal continuity.

The 1952 resignation did not result from changes that occurred after 1960. But it helps explain the ecclesiastical environment inherited by the later leadership and the significance of the subsequent transformation.

VI. The 1954 final Encyclical strengthens the interpretation of the resignation

The final Encyclical is important because it prevents us from interpreting the resignation as Chrysostomos's final abandonment of his earlier principles.

In 1952, the three bishops collectively declared that they had sought to restrain excesses and bridge the ecclesiastical division.

In 1954, after Chrysostomos had resumed leadership, he continued to maintain that the Matthewite hierarchy lacked proper canonical authorization.

He explicitly refused the proposed union involving the recognition of Matthew's successors and the formation of a larger twelve-member Synod.

His refusal rested partly upon the irregularity of Matthew's unilateral episcopal consecrations and partly upon the conduct and qualifications of those claiming episcopal authority.

He maintained that competent Pan-Orthodox judgment was necessary for their recognition.

[See: https://orthodoxmiscellany.blogspot.com/2025/01/final-encyclical-of-st-chrysostomos-new.html]

This is especially relevant to the 1950 Encyclical.

If Chrysostomos had genuinely adopted the full Matthewite conception of ecclesiastical authority in 1950, his continued insistence in 1954 upon the illegitimacy of the Matthewite episcopal succession would require further explanation.

Of course, two questions must remain distinct: whether Matthew's episcopal consecrations were canonical and whether the New Calendarist Mysteries were graceless.

Opposition to Matthew's consecrations does not logically prove that Chrysostomos rejected every element of Matthew's sacramental ecclesiology.

Nevertheless, the 1954 Encyclical establishes that the 1950 declaration had not produced a general ecclesiological convergence between Chrysostomos and the Matthewite leadership.

His opposition to their ecclesiastical claims continued to the end of his public ministry.

VII. The ecclesiological implications of the collective resignation

1. The bishops did not identify their particular jurisdiction with the whole Church

This is a major difference between the ecclesiological assumptions reflected in the resignation and the more exclusivist formulations characteristic of Matthewite polemics.

The bishops speak of the Church of Greece as a continuing ecclesiastical institution whose hierarchy had unlawfully innovated and persecuted the faithful.

They do not describe their separate administration as having definitively supplanted the Autocephalous Church of Greece.

Their objective remains correction and reunion.

This does not establish that they approved the official Church's ecclesiastical conduct or were already in communion with its hierarchy.

Rather, it shows that they distinguished the existence of the Church from the errors of its current administration.

2. Episcopal authority was understood as a responsibility, not an instrument for perpetuating separation

The bishops' willingness to resign is especially noteworthy.

They apparently did not consider their continued exercise of jurisdiction over a separate Old Calendarist body to be an absolute ecclesiological necessity.

They could contemplate relinquishing that responsibility while remaining Orthodox bishops faithful to the traditional calendar.

But this also exposed a serious practical contradiction.

If they relinquished pastoral care and instructed their clergy to cease commemorating them, who would exercise the necessary episcopal oversight of those clergy?

The resignation provides no adequate solution.

This is arguably its greatest canonical weakness.

The bishops' desire to remove a pretext for persecution was understandable, but that did not automatically release them from their pastoral obligations toward the faithful who depended upon them.

3. The faithful exercised decisive influence

Chrysostomos subsequently withdrew his resignation.

Archbishop Christodoulos's historical study records that on November 27, 1952, Chrysostomos reversed his decision after pressure from lay representatives and the refusal of the presbyterate and leadership of Π.Θ.Ε.Ο.Κ. to accept the resignation.

The need for a bishop who could represent the Old Calendarists in negotiations with the incoming Papagos government was also cited.

(https://myriobiblos.gr/books/book1/kef5_per3_fas2_meros4.htm)

The possibility that the faithful might otherwise turn to the Matthewite episcopate provides additional context, although it is not expressly identified as the reason in the resignation itself.

Chrysostomos's reversal illustrates the continued influence of the faithful in the movement's ecclesiastical affairs.

His resignation was not simply an individual decision that could be implemented without regard for those entrusted to his care.

At the same time, the episode reveals how dependent the movement had become upon its single remaining senior hierarch.

4. The official Church's reception of the other two bishops is revealing

Christophoros and Polykarpos maintained their resignations and sought reconciliation with the official Church.

On March 9 and 12, 1953, an ecclesiastical tribunal restored them to episcopal standing without new episcopal consecrations.

Archbishop Christodoulos records that the official Church recognized their 1935 consecrations by economy, notwithstanding its earlier declarations against Old Calendarist ordinations.

(https://myriobiblos.gr/books/book1/kef5_per3_fas2_meros4.htm)

This development is especially interesting because both sides had previously issued very severe judgments concerning the other's Mysteries.

Yet the official Church ultimately received the two bishops without repeating their consecrations.

It illustrates the difficulty of applying categorical assertions of gracelessness consistently to the practical reconciliation of separated clergy.

It also reinforces the importance of distinguishing sacramental questions from canonical recognition, deposition, restoration, and ecclesiastical economy.

VIII. Critical evaluation: what should be concluded?

The resignation supports several propositions, but they require careful formulation.

 

Proposition	Assessment
The bishops considered the calendar innovation unlawful	Explicitly established
They originally entered the movement partly to correct internal excesses	Explicitly established
They sought restoration of ecclesiastical unity rather than permanent division	Explicitly established
They rejected responsibility for the Keratea establishment	Explicitly established
They wished to remove a pretext for continued persecution	Explicitly established
They no longer believed the traditional calendar worth defending	Explicitly contradicted
They had accepted the Matthewite ecclesiology of automatic gracelessness	Not established
Their resignation was caused exclusively by former Matthewite clergy within the Florinite movement	Not established
They considered their separate administrative structure indispensable to the continued existence of the Church	Difficult to reconcile with the document
The resignation definitively resolved the question of sacramental grace in the official Church	Not established

 

The most important distinction is between the bishops' stated original purpose, their immediate reason for resigning, and the subsequent ecclesiological implications.

Their original purpose was to defend tradition and correct excesses.

Their immediate reason for resigning was to remove an alleged pretext for persecution.

The broader implication is that their understanding of ecclesiastical resistance did not depend upon the permanent perpetuation of an exclusive Old Calendarist hierarchy.

IX. Final synthesis

The collective resignation of November 3, 1952, should be understood as one of the clearest collective testimonies to the original ecclesiological outlook of the Florinite Old Calendarist leadership.

The three bishops reaffirmed that they entered the struggle to defend the traditional calendar, correct ecclesiastical excesses, and restore unity.

They continued to blame the official hierarchy for the innovation and the subsequent persecution.

They also explicitly repudiated responsibility for the excesses associated with Keratea.

Their willingness to relinquish active pastoral administration demonstrates how profoundly they had become discouraged by the failure to achieve a satisfactory ecclesiastical resolution.

Yet the resignation also exposes the practical difficulty of their position: they could abandon their jurisdictional responsibilities, but they could not thereby resolve the canonical questions confronting the faithful.

Chrysostomos's subsequent withdrawal of his resignation, together with his final Encyclical of 1954, shows that he continued to regard himself as responsible for the pastoral protection of those who had resisted the calendar innovation.

Most significantly, he did not abandon his opposition to the ecclesiastical claims of Matthew's successors.

This provides an important corrective to any historical account that treats the 1950 Encyclical as the definitive expression of his entire ecclesiology.

His earlier correspondence, the failed reconciliation attempts, the 1952 resignation, and the 1954 Encyclical reveal a much more complicated but also more coherent underlying objective.

Chrysostomos sought to defend the Orthodox Church against innovation without replacing its catholic and conciliar understanding of ecclesiastical authority with the claims of an exclusive Old Calendarist jurisdiction.

The later reception into the Florinite hierarchy of clergy formed in the Matthewite movement, and the subsequent emergence of stricter ecclesiological declarations, must therefore be investigated as a distinct historical development rather than assumed to represent an uncomplicated continuation of Chrysostomos's convictions.

The central historical irony is that the episcopate established in 1935 partly to restrain rigorist tendencies came, after Chrysostomos's death, to be led by hierarchs with significant roots in the very movement whose ecclesiological claims he had opposed.

The 1952 resignation is particularly important because it records the original bishops' objectives in their own collective words, shortly before that entire generation of leadership disappeared.

It should therefore occupy a central place in any serious historical evaluation of the ecclesiology of Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Florina and its relationship to the subsequent ecclesiology of the GOC.

 

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