Mathewite Synod
Template:Infobox organization The Genuine Orthodox Church of Greece - Matthewite Synod (Greek: Ἐκκλησία Γνησίων Ὀρθοδόξων Χριστιανῶν), also known as the True Orthodox Church of Greece, 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 1943 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 see themselves as traditional Orthodox Christians upholding their faith against renovationist and ecumenist innovations.
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 Synod in Resistance, on the other side, are regarded as more open to New Calendarists, while still opposing ecumenism and renovationism. The main body of the Old Calendarists, the Florinites, fall somewhere between the two.
For a time during the 1970s, the Matthewites established communion with the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, which was first based at Sremski Karlovci, Serbia. Throughout much of their history, contrary to the Florinites, the Matthewites were free from the problem of major factionalism. This would change in 1995 under Archbishop Andreas Anestis. Firstly the Gregorian Synod broke away over the issue of the "God the Father" icon, which others regarded as heterodox, while the Kyrikite Synod who disagreed with the retirement of Archbishop Andreas Anestis and the ascent of Archbishop Nicholas Messiakaris broke too. Template:Clear
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). |
| 80px | Nicholas Messiakaris Archbishop of Athens and All Greece |
2003 | 2013 | Previously the Metropolitan of Piraeus. The Kyrikite Synod split after rejecting Andreas retirement. |
| 80px | Stephanos Archbishop of Athens and All Greece |
2013 | present | Previously the Bishop of Vresthena. |
External links
- Church of the Genuine Orthodox Christians in the United States at Orthodox-Christianity.net
- The Holy Synod at gnisios.narod.ru
- Comunione Vetero-Calendarista Matteita (Sinodo di Nicola II) at Atlas of Church
- Matthewites by Archbishop Gregory George (critical view from rival Genuine Orthodox Church of America)
- A Short History of the True Orthodox Church of Greece, 1969-2005 by Vladimir Moss
