Discussion and criticism of GOC-K & SiR Union

[Father Roman]

His Grace Volodymir I think in this moment is confused, becouse there is not a specific document regarding the change of the ecclesiological point of view of the Cyprrianites. I think he likes the Holy Synod of His Beatitude Makarios, but Im not really sure. The confusion under the greeke Synods is known. Bishop Volodymir said that HB Makarios is a very serious Primate.

[Maria]

His Grace Volodymir I think in this moment is confused, becouse there is not a specific document regarding the change of the ecclesiological point of view of the Cyprrianites. I think he likes the Holy Synod of His Beatitude Makarios, but Im not really sure. The confusion under the greeke Synods is known. Bishop Volodymir said that HB Makarios is a very serious Primate.

Is His Grace Volodymir aware of the Name-Worshiping heresy that apparently HB Makarios has embraced when he joined in communion with HOCNA?

[Father Roman]

No Maria, Bishop Volodymir is against this eresy, but he have to know better the Sytuation

[Maria]

No Maria, Bishop Volodymir is against this heresy, but he has to know the situation better.

Here is the latest news about the Makarian Synod at the GOC-K website

Bishop Ambrose, previously with AB Makarios, has recently joined the GOC-K:

• http://imab.gr/index.php/latest-news/27 ... 1-08-57-13 - Greek
  http://nftu.net/bishop-ambrose-philippi-received-goc-k/ - English
  http://www.hotca.org/news/520-concelebr ... in-corinth

Then there is this Bishop who separated from AB Makarios over the Name-Worshiping heresy:

• Genuine Orthodox Church (GOC) - Metropolitan Christopher of Mesogaias and the Islands
  (Separated from the GOC-AB Makarios in 2013)
  http://www.omologitis.org/ - Greek and English

[Father Roman]

Thank You Maria, I will print this knews for show them to Bishop Volodymir

[Maria]

Thank You Maria, I will print this news for Bishop Volodymir

You are very welcome, Father Roman.

[Maria]

Here is an excellent post by our webmaster, Anastasios, with some numbers and some of the history behind the GOC-K and other Old Calendarists, including the SiR: I have included two paragraphs, that might be of interest to readers of this thread.

http://www.orthodoxchristianity.net/for ... #msg417654

Re: Percentage of the population which belongs to the Old Calendar:

• From the statistics I have read in our own publications, at the time of the Calendar change, about 25% of the population of Greece rejected it, and formed about 800 communities around Greece. Over time, the number of Old Calendarists has shrunk (as well as the number of anyone going to Church in Greece) such that now there are probably about 200,000 people that might attend Old Calendarist Churches in Greece with some regularity. We have about 200 institutions (parishes/monasteries/missions) that I am aware of. That is a rough number. Some of the communities do not have their own priest.

Re: Number of Synods of Old Calendar Bishops:

• Yeah, you'll hear 4, 5, 6, 18, 25, 30, etc. It's a little absurd. There are 4 or 5 Synods that one might call "Tier 1" Old Calendarists: real bishops, real priests, real churches, real congregations. There are many "Tier 2" groups or independent bishops running around who have been deposed or what not. To include all those together as the same class and number even one deposed bishop doing his own thing as a Synod is a common tactic meant to denegrade us, but anyone that actually does some research sees how silly the claim is. Out of all the Old Calendarists in Greece, my Synod, that of Archbishop Chrysostomos II (Kiousis), is the largest, and has probably 70% if not 80% of all the Old Calendarists in Greece. When one sees that, and sees the history of the Synod, it becomes pretty clear we are dealing with a lot less division and confusion than is commonly portrayed. As for the other "Tier 1" groups, I would include in them the Synod in Resistance under Metropolitan Cyprian, the Matthewite Synod under Archbishop Nicholas (which is very small), and the group under Archbishop Makarios (which broke from us in 1995, and later fractured, two of the most notorious bishops joining the EP in 1998--coincidently, after those two characters were gone, we've been in a state of relative peace since 1995).