History of the True Orthodox churches?

[khomes]

Ok so I lnow that this question is kinda complicated, but here we go. As a True Orthodox chatecumen, this stuff is kinda confusing

Is there any place i can go and read a concise history of the old calendarist churches? Or can any one of you provide that info? Also why is there so many churches that go by the same name? GOC-K, GOC-J, GOC-I, ROCOR- A, ROCIE, ROAC, RTOC, SiR, two different matthewite groups, etc. why would there be several Russian churches and several greek churches. Why several american churches? Shouldnt we be striving towards unity. I could be very wrong, however it seems that there could easily be union bwtween most of the True Orthodox Jurisdictions. Minus of course name- worshipers and the like.

Any help on the concise history and specifically how and where all true Orthodox Bishops draw their apostolic succession. Thank you.

[jgress]

Ok so I lnow that this question is kinda complicated, but here we go. As a True Orthodox chatecumen, this stuff is kinda confusing

Is there any place i can go and read a concise history of the old calendarist churches? Or can any one of you provide that info? Also why is there so many churches that go by the same name? GOC-K, GOC-J, GOC-I, ROCOR- A, ROCIE, ROAC, RTOC, SiR, two different matthewite groups, etc. why would there be several Russian churches and several greek churches. Why several american churches? Shouldnt we be striving towards unity. I could be very wrong, however it seems that there could easily be union bwtween most of the True Orthodox Jurisdictions. Minus of course name- worshipers and the like.

Any help on the concise history and specifically how and where all true Orthodox Bishops draw their apostolic succession. Thank you.

For English-speakers, Vladimir Moss' histories are a standard reference. He has his biases, but he has assembled a great wealth of information that is invaluable.

We are striving towards unity, and in many cases unification has happened. The SiR, for example, no longer exists, as it has completely merged with the GOC-K. ROCOR-A is now in formal communion with the merged GOC-K.

[Jean-Serge]

Something spreading from the beginning of the past century to today cannot easily be concise... Vladimir is indeed a good source, useful to identify the facts that happened and when.

[jgress]

V Moss is at his most masterful in the way he connects the struggle against the new calendar and ecumenism with the struggle against sergianism. They were originally quite independent, but the way the struggles merged into one struggle for True Orthodoxy is very significant. Unfortunately this connection was often missed by strugglers in either situation, e.g. until recently Greek Old Calendarists didn't know much about sergianism and often looked sympathetically at the Moscow Patriarchate simply because they followed the old calendar. But this ignorance is being rectified.

[searn77]

Also why is there so many churches that go by the same name? GOC-K, GOC-J, GOC-I, ROCOR- A, ROCIE, ROAC, RTOC, SiR, two different matthewite groups, etc. why would there be several Russian churches and several greek churches. Why several american churches? Shouldnt we be striving towards unity. I could be very wrong, however it seems that there could easily be union bwtween most of the True Orthodox Jurisdictions. Minus of course name- worshipers and the like.

The main reason of there being different names and acronyms for various synods (GOC-K, GOC-PC, etc.) is to clarify which synod people are referring to. While I am not as learned in this subject as others, in the past couple of decades, there has been more of a striving towards unity than previously. As you probably know, the Synod in Resistance just reunited with the GOC-K. Also, the Russian synod that we're in communion with was originally a few different Russian synods that united together under Metropolitan Raphael. But you are right; we should be striving towards unity, and there could more or less easily be union between most of the TO jurisdictions. The way the Church is now is not the way it is supposed to be. We should keep the unity of the Church in our prayers. But also, while there are no concelebrations between different TO hierarchs that aren't in communion with each other (that I'm aware of), it's not unheard of for laypeople when traveling of being allowed to receive Holy Communion from a TO church not in their communion. When I personally went to a monastery that belonged to a different TO synod, I wasn't treated as if I was a heretic or as if I didn't belong to the Church; they allowed me to wear my cassock (since I'm a reader) and treated me with love. I considered it a great experience and I miss some of the monks whom I met.

Even though there are these administrative divisions in the Church, it doesn't mean that the Church is not one. We need to pray for the union of the Church but this union needs to be done in an honest and clear way, with no trampling on the truth.