Mathewite Synod

The Genuine Orthodox Church of Greece (Greek: Ἐκκλησία Γνησίων Ὀρθοδόξων Χριστιανῶν), also known as the True Orthodox Church of Greece, and Matthewites is a Greek Orthodox Old Calendarists jurisdiction, which broke with the main body of the Genuine Orthodox Church of Greece, known as the Florinites, in 1937 under their leader Bishop Matthew (Karpathakis), due to a dispute over the nature of grace in the sacraments of the official New Calendarist Church of Greece. They are traditional Orthodox Christians upholding their faith against renovationist and ecumenist innovations. The present Archbishop of Athens, Stephanos (Tsakiroglu) currently leads the Church.

The Matthewites are widely regarded as the most intransigent of the claimants of the Old Calendarist legacy; they are hostile to World Orthodoxy, regard it's sacraments as completely graceless and are unwilling to give communion to New Calendarists. The Cyprianites of the defunct Synod in Resistance, on the other side, accept greace among the New Calendarists, while still opposing ecumenism and renovationism. The main body of the Old Calendarists, the Florinites, considered by Matthewites as Crypto-Cyprianites, fall somewhere between the two.

1971 Blessing Controversy

From 1971 to 1974, the Matthewites established communion with the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia under then Metropolitan Philaret (Voznesensky). The ROCOR had already established communion with the Florinites, and in hopes of unifying the Greeks, the Matthewites gave ROCOR their Exposition of Faith, which ROCOR accepted. The Florinites were outraged that ROCOR was going to accept the Matthewites without re-ordination. So ROCOR offered to give the Matthewite bishops a "blessing". The Matthewites are adamant that this was neither a Chirotonia nor a Chirothesia, but a mere blessing as it took place before the liturgy, with the Bishops already vested. This issue was to cause problems in the future both for the communion and later cause a schism in the Matthewite synod itself. Because ROCOR never submitted their own Statement of Faith to the Matthewite synod, they broke off communion in 1974 with ROCOR.

1995 Schism of "The Five"

Throughout much of their history, unlike the Florinites, the Matthewites were free from the problem of major factionalism. This would change in 1995 under Archbishop Andreas (Anestis). Firstly the so-called Gregorian Synod split away with five bishops led by Bishop Gregory (Rousis) over the issue of the "God the Father" icon, claiming these Icons of the Trinity were Orthodox, and regarding those who rejected them as neo-iconoclasts. The Gregorian Synod also taught that the 1971 ROCOR blessing was in fact a Chirothesia. After the death of Bishop Gregory in 2009, the Synod has been lead by Chrysostoms (Tzanis).

2003-2005 Schism of Bishop Kyrikos

In 2003, Archbishop Andreas of Athens, for reasons of age and ill health, submitted his resignation to the Holy Synod. Though some members of the Synod refused to attend and participate, the remaining Synodial members elected Archbishop Nicholas (Messiakaris). By 2005 after the death of Archbishop Andreas (Anestis) the split was complete, and a schismatic Synod was formed under bishop Kirykos (Kontogannis).

Primates

Portrait	Name	From	Until	Notes
80px	Matthew Karpathakis Archbishop of Athens and All Greece	1949	1950	Leader of the Matthewite faction against the Florinites, breaking with the GOC under Chrysostomos I Kavouridis since 1943, made Archbishop in 1949. Originally the Bishop of Bresthena.
80px	Demetrios Archbishop of Athens and All Greece	1950	1958	Previously the Metropolitan of Thessalonica.
80px	Agathangelos Archbishop of Athens and All Greece	1958	1967	Previously the Bishop of Tinos.
80px	Andreas Anestis Archbishop of Athens and All Greece	1972	2003	Due to ill health, he stepped down two years before his death. In 1995, the Gregorian Synod split, taking five bishops (over icon).

External links

• Gregorian Synod Official Page
• GOC Synod defunct Official Page
• Kirykos Synod Official Page