1935 Declaration of Faith

[OrthodoxyOrDeath]

George,

No, they actually consider them heretics...holy ones.

[Etienne]

Actually, I read all this differently, dear friends in Christ, as the Fili position being very close to that of those who made the 1935 declaration. They too have repeatedly acknowledged and warned about the increasingly perilous situation since then, making repeated calls to witness for 'Orthodoxy' and to illustrate the very hostile actions of the 'neo-Orthodox' towards those who adhere to the Church calendar.

With the Greek situation there does seem to be a splitting 'tendency' which should one speculate - dangerous - might be interpreted as some want to be bishops and ruling bishops before all else. Having arrived you then need to justify yourself, so finger pointing and labelling appear to be the order of the day.

For myself I am in agreement with the Ukrainian priest cited in another thread, lock all the clergy on the Church calendar up in a single room and not let them out until they settle all their differences. Lovely phantasy but not a real prospect, i.e. I am an Orthodox ecumenist - a situation preferable to what sometimes across as something to akin to a 'sectarian' or 'potentially sectarian' position (which may be something some converts have carried in from their protestant backgrounds?).

Now I say all this in great seriousness. I try to argue with conviction and such learning as I can muster the case against, ecumenism, the Papacy, Sergianism and innovation. The accusation against Metropolitan Cyprian's synod appears to be - to me at least - an artificial construct that on what has been seen so far as having little behind other than a repeated one liner, they believe 'in holy heretics.' It may be that there is lots of well argued and set out information supporting this hypothesis somewhere else, but not seen or read by me.

I write this not in rancour or from a position of endorsing the Fili synod but from a position of having my own reservations; first, based on this is yet another recent grouping born out of yet another split, and, second, an instinctive reaction based on nothing more than feelings that they appear to exhibit some symptoms of paronoia and persecution.

[尼古拉前执事]

The 1935 Confession of Faith

To the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church of Greece

It is well known among the members of the Hierarchy of Greece that we have always been opposed to its views regarding the substitution of ecclesiastical calendar for the civil calendar.

Even while we did conform to the resolution of the majority of the Hierarchy, implementing even in our own dioceses the new calendar, we justified our conformity on two grounds: a) in order to avoid the consequences of a schism in the Church, and b) in the hope that the Hierarchy would grow to be compassionate enough to restore the old Ecclesiastical festal calendar in order to heal the division that has developed among the Christians, sacrificing even personal reputations in love for the faithful for whom Christ died.

But with the passage of twelve years, seeing that, on the one hand, an ecclesiastical schism was not avoided even without us, but was, nevertheless, created by a large portion of the Orthodox Greek people that remained faithful—with much zeal—to the festal calendar bequeathed to it by the Fathers, and, on the other hand, the fact that the Hierarchy has no intentions of restoring itself to the festal path from which it was displaced, we consider the grounds on which, until now, we based our conformity to the new calendar, through ecclesiastical economy, as obsolete.

Thus, acting according to our conscience and guided by our desire for the unity of all Greek Orthodox Christians on the basis of the tradition of the festal calendar and Orthodox tradition, we inform you of the following:

Because the Hierarchy of Greece, through the inspiration of the Presiding [Hierarch] , unilaterally and uncanonically introduced the Gregorian calendar into the Church despite the institutions of the seven Ecumenical Councils and the centuries old practice of the Orthodox Church;

Because the Ruling Hierarchy (Διοικούσα Ιεραρχία) of Greece, through its introduction of the Gregorian calendar into the divine ritual without the consent of all the Orthodox Churches, shattered the unity of the universal Orthodox Church and divided the Christians into two opposing calendar factions;

Because the Ruling Hierarchy of Greece, through its adoption of the new calendar transgressed the sacred and holy Canons, which order the matters of the divine ritual, and particularly the fast of the Holy Apostles, which periodically disappears [as a result of the reform];

Because the Ruling Hierarchy of Greece in unilaterally adopting the Gregorian calendar—as much as it claims to have left the Paschal cycle unchanged, claiming to celebrate Pascha with the old calendar—could not avoid transgressing the Paschal cycle through the change of the festal calendar and the corruption of the yearly cycle of Lectionary readings (Κυριακοδρόμιον) to which the Paschal cycle adopted by the First Ecumenical Council is inseparably connected;

Because the Ruling Hierarchy of Greece, shattering the unity of universal Orthodoxy through the unilateral introduction of the Gregorian calendar into the divine ritual and dividing the Christians into two opposing calendar factions, has contradicted the doctrine embodied in the Symbol of the Faith of the“One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church”;

Because the Ruling Hierarchy of Greece, in unilaterally and uncanonically adopting the Gregorian calendar without serious Ecclesiastical reasons, became a source of scandal among the Christians [and] a cause of religious division and strife between Christians, rejecting, on account of the new calendar, the unity in the faith, Christian love, and moral compassion in their relations between each other;

Because, last of all among the above listed reasons, the Ruling Hierarchy of Greece cut and walled itself off from the catholic body of Orthodoxy, according to the spirit of the Holy Canons, effectively declaring itself schismatic, as argued the special committee of National University legal scholars and theologians appointed to examine the calendar question, a member of which His Beatitude happened to be, serving then as a university professor;

For these reasons, in submitting to the Ruling Synod our annotated protest we make known that from henceforth, we sever all relations and ecclesiastical communion with the [Ruling Hierarchy] for as long as it maintains the calendar innovation, taking up the Ecclesiastical pastorship of the section of the Orthodox Greek people, organized in numerous communities, that renounced the State Church and remained faithful to the Patristic and Orthodox Julian calendar.

Bringing these things to the attention of the Ruling Hierarchy, in good faith we hope that, understanding the great responsibility that it bears before God, the Orthodox Church, and the Nation which it divided into two opposing religious factions without cause, the Ruling Hierarchy will reconsider its resolution regarding the calendar of the Church and will be moved to compassion and restore the Orthodox, Patristic, Ecclesiastical festal calendar, while the new calendar is kept in the affairs of the state, for the restoration of Orthodoxy and the peace of the Church and the Nation.

• Metropolitan Germanos of Demetrias
• Metropolitan Chrysostom of Florina, ret.
• Metropolitan Chrysostom of Zachynthos