Question 7

Why are the Greek Old Calendarists frequently referred to by some modern-day “theologians,” clergymen, and podcasters as “schismatics” or as “calendar worshippers”?

The main accusation that has been hurled at the Greek Old Calendarists from March of 1924 up to the present day is that they are schismatics because (a) they cut themselves off completely from the Hierarchy of the Church of Greece and because (b) they are not in communion with any of the Patriarchates or Autocephalous Churches of World Orthodoxy. Let us first address the separation from the Church of Greece in 1924. The Old Calendarists of that time saw precisely what the calendar change was: a disingenuous and devious plan to bring about the union of the Eastern Orthodox Church with Western Christian denominations. They realized that it was more than a mere thirteen days; it was the beginning of the dismantling of traditions and sacred laws that were instituted by the Holy Apostles and the Holy Fathers. What initially began as a calendar change would, over the course of decades, become the very common ground needed by the Phanar and other Hierarchs within World Orthodoxy to embrace, to pray with, and to concelebrate with those whom the Holy Fathers excised from the Church’s midst….