Synodal Epistle of the GOC to the ROCOR Synod, 1976

To the Hierarchy

of the RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH OUTSIDE OF RUSSIA,
75, East 93rd Street,
New York 28
N.Y. U.S.A.

Most Right Reverend President MM Philaretos
Right Reverend Prelates, may Christ be with us.

1. In the year 1971 our Synodical Exarchate consisting of their Right Reverences the Bishops of Corinthia Messrs Kallistos, Kitiou Messrs Epifanios and the Reverend Chancellor Eugenios Tombros, proceeded to the USA in order to get in contact with your Synod and arrange the spiritual communication with you, with a view to strenghening the sacred Fight of Orthodoxy.

Before coming to any spiritual contact with you, our Synodical Exarchate submitted to you a “Statement of Credo” of the Church of the Genuine Orthodox Christians of Greece, the content of which was:

“Having accepted the innovation of the New Calendar the Church has become Schismatic and its Holy Mysteries have no validity, being deprived of the Grace of God, in accordance with the First Canon of Basilius the Great”.

This statement was read by the chief Priest Georgios Grambe [Grabbe] in your presence on the 15.9.1971 resulting in:

A. Approval and acceptance by voice of this Statement, absolutely and unanimously, by the whole of Hierarchy.

B. The express affirmation, on your part, to our Synodical Exarchate as to the sending of an official document of your confession of Credo.
Under these presumptions and exclusively, we have been led to the Ecclesiastical, spiritual and Mystical Communication with you, with the upright hope of identity of conception and practical application of all those which the Catholic Orthodox Church of Christ proclaims, thinks and believes too, as much regarding the heresies, as about the Schisms and especially the Calendar question.

Afterwards you have undertaken the obligation in the year 1971, upon application of our Exarchate, No. 736, dated 12.9.1971, to consider the case of derivation of our Hierarchy from one and sole Bishop, the Archbishop Matthew the 1st, of blessed memory, your judgment "to be relied upon the divine and holy Canons” and you have pronounced your decision under No. 16 of 15.9.1971.

Joint masses and joint prayers and visits of clergymen of our Churches ensued, confirming the Unity in Faith and the Communion in Holy Spirit, leading to the conviction that:

First, your attitude towards the followers of the Innovation of the New Calendar, as it is defined by the Orthodox teaching and as reported to you on 15.9.1971 by our Synodical Exarchate.  Second, the absolute interruption of communions with the New Calendar followers.  Third, the consideration on the basis of the Canons of the Church and particularly of the Canon I of Basilius the Great, of the Mysteries officiated by the Innovators would be included in a written Confession of yours, as it was dearly promised in September 1971, and would be realized in an integral manner.

We believed, most Reverend Fathers, that your intentions would be sincere and that you would follow the Orthodox line based on the Divine and Holy Canons.

In the summer of 1972 however, and while we were expecting your written Confession, you sent a circular letter to all the Churches in which, inter alia, and by the way, you said that the introduction of the New Calendar brought about a Schism, quoting in fact the statement of a Greek Professor of Theology, without even dealing with the consequences of the Schism or the way of its confrontation by the Church in accordance with the Holy Canons.
Since then oral statements by clergymen of yours, letters by people grieving for the Orthodox Faith and undeniable information about various violations on the part of higher and lower clergymen of your Church and about complete spiritual communication with Schismatic New Calendar Followers, caused us sorrow and disappointment, protests of our clergymen and laymen and shook our confidence in your views on the Calendar Matter.

Since then we have been making persistent efforts to have your written Confession of Credo on the above matter, and for this reason His Beatitude the Archbishop of our MM. Andreas has written to you twice.
Quite unexpectedly, however, we received a letter No. 3/50/759 dated 13.12.1973 from his most Right Reverence MM Philaretos referring to irrelevant matters and subjects and not to our Archbishop Andreas’ questions.

In the meantime discontent of the Clergy and laymen and ourselves, because of your failure to send us the promised Confession of Faith, kept swelling, and for this reason we sent you our Synodical Document No. 1007/1.5.74, in which once again, due to the importance of the matters involved, we made reference – with analytical Memorandum – to the whole subject of the causes and the consequences of the holiday-calendar Schism, expressing the unanimity of Clergy and laymen in its contents and requested you to send a written reply to the questions included in our said letter.

Having not received a due reply from you we sent our Exarchy consisting of Synodical Prelates MM Kallistos of Corinthia and Nicolaos of Piraeus and of the Archimandrite M. Kallinikos, which having held joint liturgies and prayers with you, was received in audience during the meetings of your Hierarchy on September 12th, 1974 and submitted to you for discussion the burning subjects and the demand for your Confession of Faith.

We consider it certain, Your Graces, that you remember very well what was exchanged then between us, so that we do not need to revert to them.
Our Exarchy asked for the written formulation of your Credo on the Calendar question and the validity or not of the Mysteries of the New Calendar Followers, as the above Memorandum refers to, and received in reply a draft of Confession of Faith, to which it disagreed, the disagreement having been expressed in writing, and in the expectation of the final document our Exarchy extended its stay for a few more days and returned to Greece, hoping that you would send the written Confession of Faith.

All these show the importance we attributed to the written formulation of your Credo and the great efforts we have made to this end.  In spite of the discontent of the Clergy and the laymen of our Church we were waiting tolerantly in full Episcopal conscience, hoping for an Orthodox attitude and line.

Having been in full and ardent expectation, for the last four years, of the proclamation promised by, with great difficulty and with long delay we received on 30.1.1975 your document No. 3.5.760 dated 22.9.74, which includes your views on the Calendar.  You consider “the introduction of the New Calendar as a mistake carrying anomaly and finally bringing about Schism”.  With regards to your viewing of the Mysteries of the New Calendar Followers you adopt the following:

“Concerning the matter relative to the presence or the non-existence of God’s Grace among the Followers of the New Calendar, the Russian Church outside of Russia do not consider themselves or any other local Church having the authority to take final decision, as a final settlement of this matter can only be affected through a properly convened competent Oecumenical Council, with the indispensable participation of a free Church of Russia.”

On the above and on all the contents of your document we have to make the follwoing remarks:

a. The calendar question is not only a “contemporary Temptation”, as you claim, but it made its appearance in 1582, when the Church resisted, condemned and cursed this innovation through the well known Panorthodox Synods of the years 1583-1593 under Jeremias II, Tranos, of 1756 under Cyrill and of 1848 under Anthimos, Patriarch of Constantinople.
If we study well the decisions of these Panorthodox Synods we shall find out that it is not simply a contemporary temptation or an error but also a contraversion to the Holy Spirit “as not having adequeately spoken in the Oecumenical and local Synods”.

“The Panorthodox Synod which was held in 1853 when Jeremias II, called Tranos, was Patriarch of Constantinople, made the following condeming decision:  “Let he who does not follow the customs of the Orthdox Church, as the 7 Holy Oecumenical Synods decreed, by which legislated for us to follow the Holy Easter and the Calendar, and follows instead the newly invented Calendar of the atheist astronomers of the Pope and opposes all these and tries to overthrow and spoil the traditional doctrines of the Church, have the anathema and be outside the assembly of the devouts.  And you the pious and orthodox Christians stick to what you have learned since you were born and have been brought up to and when the time and need come shed your blood in order to safeguard your traditional faith and confession”.

The condemning decision in 1848 when Anthimos was Patriarch speaks about blasphemy against the Holy Spirit on the part of those who accept any innovation and reads as follows:

“We stick to the confession which we have taken over pure from such great men, detesting any innovation, which is considered as dictated by the devil”, “he who accepts an innovation considers the declared orthodox faith inadequate but this faith being already perfect is sealed and is not subject either to reduction, increase or alteration, and for this reason he who dares either to do, advise someone or think about it, has already denied the faith of Christ, he has already willingly submitted himself to the eternal anathema for having blasphemised the Holy Spirit, as not having adequeately spoken in the Scriptures and the Oecumentical Synods”.

Consequently all the innovators either in heresy or in schism have dressed themselves willingly the curse as garment, whether they were Popes, Patriarchs, clergymen, laymen or even an angel from heaven”.

b. The calendar question is considered under trial still undecided while as it appears from the above it is irrevocably judged by the Panorthodox Synods.

c. The presence or the non-existence of the Holy Grace among the New Calendar followers does not depend on any decision of your Church or of any other local Church, because since a church accepting the New Calendar becomes Schismatic, the Holy Canons concerning the Schism apply according to which every schismatic Church is deprived of the Divine Grace (1st Canon of Basilius the Great).

In this respect this is what the Holy Rudder contains:  ‘Schismatics are called those who differentiate themselves from the Catholic Church not on account of doctrines of faith but for certain ecclesiastical and easily solved matters.”

“...All the Schismatics coming to the One, Holy, Catholic Church have to be baptized, because the first prelates of the Schismatics had from the Church the grace to ordain and to baptize, yet once they have been severed from the whole body of the Church they have lost it and can no longer baptize others or ordain and even simply communicate spiritual grace of which they have been deprived through the Schism.  Because as when a part is cut from the body, it is mortified at once because no vital strength is anymore conveyed to it, so the Schismatics too, once they have been torn from the body of the Church, they have immediately been mortified and have lost the spiritual grace and actions of the Holy Spirit” (Holy Nicodemos).  “Consequently those baptized by them are considered to have been baptized by laymen”.

d.  The introduction of the New Calendar brought about upset and disorder in the calendar of holy days of the Church and split up its unity and created a schism, according to the decision of the All Oecumenical Synod which clearly dictates the uniform, simultaneous and like celebration of the Christian holy days.

e.  The schism of the Calendar of holy days is of theological and ecclesiastical significance for, since we believe in a militant and triumphant Church, in a society of Saints, in joint mass of Angels and celebration together of those above with those below, that is of the militant and the triumphant Church, we have no right to recognize a gracious and a sanctifying action in the Mysteries of those who accept the innovation of the New Calendar, severing thus themselves from the One, Catholic and Apostolical Church.

f.  The innovators having become schismatics and “being outside the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolical Church they are deprived of the one baptism according to the Canon of the Synod of Chalcedon, they have not the ability to convey the divine grace, of which they have been deprived.

g.  With regards to the question of the Calendar we believe, declare and apply what the teachings of the Church dogmatizes and the Holy Canons prescribe about schisms, that is:  A Church accepting the New Calendar becomes schismatic, a thing which the Committee convened in 1923 expressed.

“...The Church of Greece as well as the other autocephalous Orthodox Churches, although internally indepent, are closely linked with one another and united by the principle of the spiritual unity of the Church and they are composed of the only one Church, the Orthodox Church.

Consequently, none of them can sever itself from the rest of them and accept a New Calendar, without becoming schismatic with regard to the others”, and consequently the Orthodox Church clearly expresses itself about the Schism, the effects and consequences of them and not only about their provocation.

II.  In view of the above and in order to avoid any seducement, we clarify the following, which constitute also the practical implementation of the dogmatic teachings of the Church in the daily action of its life and express briefly our Ecclesiastical attitude:

a.  The introduction of the New Calendar for use by the Church has brought about a Schism of theological and doctrinal character.

b.  Any Church accepting the New Calendar becomes entirely schismatic.

c.  The Mysteries of every Schismatic Church are void in accordance with Canon I of Basilius the Great and the Canon of the Synod of Chalcedon.

d.  No spiritual-ecclesiastical communication is allowed or justified with the New Calendar Followers, who are Schismatics in accordance with Canon 33rd of the Synod of Laodicea. 

e.  The Church of the Genuine Orthodox Christians of Greece has no spiritual communication or canonical relations with Churches using the Old Calendar (Jerusalem, Serbia, Russia, etc.) but communicates with Churches which follow the New Calendar Innovation, and this because according to St. Chrysostomos “he who communicates with one [who] has not taken holy communion is excommunicated”.

f.  We accept the Laymen reverting from the delusion of the New calendar with a Confession of the Orthodox faith, by which the delusion of the New Calendar is disavowed, and we anoint them with the Holy Myron of Orthodox origin in the case they have been baptized under the New Calendar (1st Canon of Basilius the Great and the Synod of Chalcedon).

g. We accept for communion New Calendarist clergymen coming back to us after a libelous article against the New Calendar and a disown against their ecclesiastical Authority, and we put our hands on their heads reading on them confirmatory prayers according to Canon 7th of the Second Oecumenical Synod.

h.  We do not perform any mystery or any sacred ceremony to the followers of the New Calendar.

i.  No New Calendar Follower is allowed to participate in our Mysteries, as in the case of Baptism, in which no New Calendar godfather for a child of an Orthodox, or vice versa, is acceptable (according to Apostolical Canon 46th).

j.  We prohibit the attendance of our Followers of Church Celebrations held by New Calendar Followers, as per the Canon 33rd of the Synod of Laodicia.

III.  Because of all the above, Right Reverend Fathers, obeying to the voice of the Church and to our Episcopal Conscience based on the canonical, doctrinal and traditional foundations and acting with a view to preserving immaculate the treasure of the Sacred Heritage, handed down to us by the Holy Fathers, we are led to the interruption of our inter-ecclesiastical relations with your Church, in accordance with our afore taken decision No. 1097 of May 2nd, 1975, wishing that the Lord may help you think in accordance with the Holy Traditions in Jesus Christ, finding no other excuses, because “this is tradition”.

Any further relation with you will depend upon the future attitude and probable revision of your Credo with regards to the Calendar question, for which we will incessantly pray to the Lord.

The Holy Synod

Archbishop of Athens, ANDREAS (President)

The Members
The Bishop of Salonica DEMETRIOS
The Bishop of Corinthia KALLISTOS
The Bishop of Trikkis and Stagon VESSARION
The Bishop of Kitiou EPIFANIOS
The Bishop of Messinia GREGORIOS
The Bishop of Attica and Megara MATTHEW
The Bishop of Pirauos NICOAOS
The Bishop of Vresthena LAZAROS
The Bishop of Argolle  PACKHOMIOS
The Bishop of Ethiotidos AKAKIOS
The Bishop of Servion and Kozani TITEO

The Secretary
Steph. Tsakiroglou, deacon

c.c.
• The Metropolitan MM Philaretos and his Synod
• The Synod of the Hierarchy of the Church of Russians of the Dispersion in the U.S.A. (and otherwhere member of the Church of Russians of the Dispersion)
• The Chief Priest Georgios Grambe, Secretary of the Synod of Russians of the Dispersion in the U.S.A.