Try to Hide Your Beliefs, Metropolitan Chrysostom!

Metropolitan Chrysostom on the website of his diocese posted an article that he wrote entitled March 10/23 1924…. 96 years (10/23 Μαρτίου 1924… 96 χρόνια). Reading this article one can clearly see what he is teaching his flock.

The red text below is what he wrote followed by an English translation of what he wrote. The black text is my evaluation of the message he is passing along.

   Σαν σήμερα 10/23 Μαρτίου, πριν από 96 χρόνια, η Ορθόδοξη Ελλάδα μας διχάστηκε σε Παλαιοημερολογίτες και νεοημερολογίτες.

“Like today 10/23 of March, 96 years ago, our Orthodox Greece was divided into Old Calendarists and new calendarists”. (Capitals belong to the author).

Metropolitan Chrysostom, you say Orthodox Greece was divided into Old Calendarists and New Calendarists. You obviously don’t believe that the Orthodox Faith was continued only by the True Orthodox. You don’t believe that one side fell away from the Faith. You use the terms “Old” and “New” as if you are speaking about two groups that are both members of the Orthodox Church. The heretical Ecumenists and the Orthodox seem to comprise Orthodox Greece for you. A very Cyprianistic idea! Congratulations!

You also use the term “Old Calendarists” like the state church of Greece people started to mockingly call the True Orthodox, whereas the True Orthodox called themselves “Orthodox”.

   Πέρασαν εννιάμισι δεκαετίες με διωγμούς, εντάσεις, απαξιώσεις, ευτελισμούς, ειρωνείες, αμφισβητήσεις κατά των πιστών που θέλησαν να μη δεχθούν την αλλαγή που επέβαλαν οι κρατούντες.

Nine and a half decades have gone by with persecutions, tensions, depreciation, mockings, irony, controversies against the faithful who didn’t want to accept the change that was forced upon them by those in power.

I think we should be used to this holy struggle of enduring mockery. It really hurts some people who would like all the glory and money of the state church of Greece.

   Σίγουρα έχουν κληροδοτηθεί πληγές…

Certainly, wounds have been bequeathed…

The Church, the True Church, is victorious even if persecuted. We have inherited True Orthodoxy. Our wounds have occurred when members of our own ranks set aside the true struggle for the faith and tried to entrap the simpler sheep to follow them. All other so-called “wounds” from outside our ranks are not wounds at all, but crowns of victory!

   Ο αγώνας των Παλαιοημερολογιτών δε δημιουργήθηκε από πείσμα ή από εμπάθεια. Αντιθέτως, εντάθηκε από την ευσέβεια για τα πάτρια της Εκκλησίας.

The struggle of the Old Calendarists was not created out of stubbornness or hatred. Rather it was formed from the piety for things of the forefathers of the Church.

No struggle was created. Those who didn’t accept to leave Holy Orthodoxy remained firm in their beliefs and rejected the heretical changes that were being initiated by the acting out of the Encyclical of 1920. A false church rather was formed by those who introduced the changes.

   Αμφισβητήθηκε και απαξιώθηκε με σκληρούς διωγμούς από τους  επισήμους που είχαν και έχουν τη βούλα του κράτους.

It (the struggle) was doubted and was scorned with hard persecutions from the official ones who had and have the stamp of the nation.

Is that why you sought from the nation to have the stamp that you are the only synod that can be called “Genuine Orthodox” («Γνήσιοι Ὀρθόδοξοι) a title that all true Orthodox of Greece have used for almost 100 years?

   Τα σημάδια είναι ακόμη νωπά.

The marks are still fresh.

   Διωγμοί κατά των Ορθοδόξων, όχι από δεδηλωμένους άθεους, αλλά από αδελφούς, Ορθοδόξους Χριστιανούς, οι οποίοι συνδιαλέγονται με κάθε αιρετικό, ενώ οι παλαιοημερολογίτες θεωρούνται «φανατικοί, οπισθοδρομικοί».

Persecutions against the Orthodox, not by proclaimed atheists, but by brethren, Orthodox Christians that hold discussions with every heretic, while the old calendarists are considered “fanatics, backwards”.

Again, Metropolitan Chrysostom, you make it clear that you consider the state church of Greece to be your brethren and Orthodox Christians and your difference from them is being “old calendarists” as you so clearly state here.

   Εννιάμισι δεκαετίες διχασμός!

Nine and a half decades of division!

Does it surprise you, Metropolitan Chrysostom? Isn’t that what usually happens when a group becomes heretics? Did you expect them to change their ways?

   Εύχομαι να υπάρξει το ενδιαφέρον με Ορθόδοξη σύνεση και συμπάθεια για να επανέλθει η κανονική τάξη όπως οι Άγιοι Πατέρες ορίζουν, ακυρώνοντας κάθε ιδιοτέλεια και σκοπιμότητα που τραυμάτισε την ενότητα.

I hope that there will exist an interest with Orthodox prudence and rapport so that the canonical order as the Holy Fathers designate may return, canceling every self-interest and expediency that injured the unity.

Instead of saying that “the canonical order may return”, why don’t you ask that the ecumenists return from their heresy? Only self-interest and expediency injured the unity, Metropolitan Chrysostom?

   Την ενότητα, για την οποία ένδακρυς στον κήπο της Γεθσημανή προσευχήθηκε ο Γλυκύς Ιησούς.

The unity for which our Sweet Christ tearfully prayed for in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Yes, our Most Sweet Christ prayed for unity in the Garden of Gethsemane. As the Gospel according to St. John the Evangelist says,

John 17:21-22

“That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, as we are one”

Christ prays and twice says that they (His followers) be one as He and His Father are one. Christ and the Father are one in all Truth. Any other union would not be like Christ is with His Father.