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In 1957, the Synod of Metropolitan
Demetrius of Thessalonica, President of the Holy Synod of the True
Orthodox Church of Greece, assembled in Athens and made the following
declaration. [From Synoptic Observation of the Festal
Calendar Issue Under the Light of Orthodoxy, "Herald of the True
Orthodox," Athens 1989, p. 26 (in Greek)]:
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Declaration Against the New Calendarists, Modernists
and Ecumenists
The official state schismatic [church] by its
transgressions and apostasies, remaining in schism, is becoming
heretical. In the commentary of the First Canon of St. Basil the Great
(footnote 1) is declared: “A schism persisting wrongly becomes a
schismato-heresy, and a schismato-heresy becomes a complete heresy”
(Divine Chrysostom).We confess with all the strength of our hearts and
with a tyrannical trumpet we declare our Faith and confession as
follows:
- We remain firmly unshaken in the Faith of our
Fathers, in the injunctions of the New Testament, the Symbol of the
Faith, the sacred Canons decreed by the holy seven Ecumenical and
Local Councils, in the Teachings of the God-bearing Fathers, in the
Decisions of the Pan-Orthodox Councils and Patriarchs, and in the
Sacred Traditions.
- We exclude and reject every deviation, every
addition or subtraction of even one iota.
- We are obedient only to decisions of Orthodox
Councils.
- We denounce the “official” [church] as
innovationist, as schismatic, as cacodox, paving directly towards
heresy.
- We have no communion with the cacodox
“official” [church], not recognizing the validity of its
mysteries, not considering its acts and condemnations against us to
have any authority.
- We are indifferent to, and by no means fall by, the
persecutions, the placing of the spears, the imprisonments, the
defrockments, the slanders and insults, the banishments, with which
the “official” [church] unmercifully treats us, thereby becoming
“God-fighting” according to St. Athanasius the Great; [the
“official” church] bears not a single power, nor has the
capability to shake our faith and confession in regards to the
Patristic [traditions] and separate us from the Holy Church, the
Bride of Christ.
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Metropolitan Demetrius of Thessalonica (President of the Holy Synod)
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Metropolitan Spyridon II of Trimythus
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Metropolitan Andrew of Patras
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Metropolitan Callistus of Corinth
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Metropolitan Bessarion of Tricca and Stagae
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Metropolitan John of Thebes and Lebadia
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Metropolitan Meletius of Attica and Megaris
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Metropolitan Matthew II of Bresthena
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Metropolitan Epiphanius of Citium
X
Metropolitan Anthimus of Piraeus
X
Metropolitan Theocletus of Salamis
X
Metropolitan Agathangelus of Tinos
X
Archpriest Eugene Tombros (Secretary of the Holy Synod) |
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