Question 1

How did the separation over the calendar change in the Eastern Orthodox Church begin? What exactly happened in Constantinople in 1923? Who were the protagonists and what was their objective?

A highly controversial event took place in 1923 that would come to split the Church of Greece into two factions, that of the Old Calendarists and that of the New Calendarists—a separation that, unfortunately, remains to the present day, with no visible solution in sight. This lamentable event was the self-styled Pan-Orthodox Congress held in Constantinople under the leadership of Pope and Patriarch Meletios II (Metaxakēs) of Alexandria and All Africa (1871–1935), who at the time was Œcumenical Patriarch Meletios IV of Constantinople. Before we can assess what the purpose of this congress was and what it successfully managed to do, one has to know who the relatively few participating members were….