How did the GOC receive other True Orthodox before 1971?

[Orthodox in Michigan]

Does anyone know how the goc received other toc members into the church before the 1971 cheiorsthesa?

[d9popov]

Dear "Orthodox in Michigan":

I will try to answer your question, if I can understand what you mean, and if we can discuss the issue with more precision.

Whenever someone says or writes "the G.O.C.," I always ask myself: "Which G.O.C. does the person mean?" Virtually all old calendar groups in Greece (possibly around 13) call themselves "Gnesioi Orthodoxoi Christianoi" (abbreviated "G.O.Ch."), which is translated into English as "Genuine Orthodox Christians" (abbreviated "G.O.C.") or "True Orthodox Christians" (abbreviated "T.O.C."). "Gnesios" (singular) means "genuine" or "true," so using "G.O.C." and "T.O.C." (or even "True Orthodox" with a capital "T") as referring to different things is confusing. They are usually interchangeable. (The word "gnesio-" actually exists in the English language, in at least one word [see below]). True Orthodox Slavs never make a distinction between "G.O.C." and "T.O.C." The Greek word "gnesios" (genuine/true) is always translated as "istina" (true) in Slavic languages. To repeat the point: referring to "the G.O.C." is unclear, because there are so many synods that use that designation in their official church name (again, probably around 13 in Greece alone).

The key question is: Which synod is most correct? That is the essential question that we discuss and debate and disagree on, on this "Intra-TOC" forum. For many decades now, people in Greece who identified as G.O.Ch. would also use "Florinite" or "Matthewite" for clarity. Later such terms as "Auxentiite" or "Kiousite" or or "Cyprianite" or "Lamian" have been used in English for clarity. They cannot be dismissed as always "pejorative," because they may be necessary for clear English (see below).

If we use English properly (including proper capitalization), "True Orthodox" and '"true Orthodox" might actually refer to different things: "True Orthodox" could refer to any group that uses that in their official name (even if the writer does not believe that all such groups are truly Orthodox), whereas "true Orthodox" could mean "those whom the writer believes to be factually/actually/truly/genuinely Orthodox." By analogy, if I refer to the group that is called "Gnesio-Lutheran," I am simply using the standard name for the movement, but if I referred to the "true Lutheran" position on something, I would be making an assertion about historical fact.

There are ways to write about these issues in a more precise/scholarly language. But it is also easy to dismiss as "polemical" or "pejorative" what one disagrees with and to think that one's own points are not "polemical" or "pejorative." These are value judgments and human bias often enters in.

To answer the specific question: There has never been only one single method by which a clergyman is received into one group from another group. I have read much in the Euphrosynos Cafe archives, and there appears to be wide agreement that there have been more clergy and monastics who went Matthewites-to-Florinite than Florinite-to-Matthewite. Off the top of my head, major historical examples would include: Metropolitan Gemanos Varykopoulos of the Cyclades, Archimandrite Akakios Pappas, Archimandrite Auxentios Patras, the famous scholar-monk Viktor Matthaiou, Metropolitan Kallistos Makres of Corinth, Archimandrite Kallinikos Sarantopoulos, Archimandrite Kalliopios Giannakouloupoulos, and (I believe) the scholar/editor (later Metropolitan) Matthew Langes, et al. Because of the cheirothesia of 1971 by two ROCOR bishops (with Saint Philaret's approval) on Metropolitan Kallistos of Corinth, he was received without cheirothesia by Archbishop Auxentios after Archbishop Andreas broke communion with Saint Philaret and Kallistos broke with Archbishop Andreas over that issue. In some of these other cases, I do not know (or recall) the details of how they were received. I am sure that there were some who went Florinite-to-Matthewite, but I cannot think of any right now. Maybe some others on this forum can provide more facts beyond what I have listed already.