Before I can properly start this article, I need to provide some historical background and definitions. First, “True Orthodoxy” needs to be defined and contrasted with the “canonical” or “World” Orthodox Church. True Orthodoxy is a collection of independent communions that separated themselves from the “canonical” Orthodox Church in the 1920s and thirties. Now, I put “canonical” in parentheses because during the early 20th century, a strong argument could be made that the main canonical churches of Orthodoxy had apostatized from the faith. In 1922, we saw Soviet authorities establish the Living or Renovated Church in Russia. The Living Church permitted liberal innovations, especially in regards to the marriage of clergy, and it was also completely aligned with and promoted Bolshevism. While the Living Church received funding and support from the Soviet government, there existed the Catacomb Church, which preserved Orthodoxy while undergoing major persecutions from the state. Yet, it was the Living Church that the Ecumenical Patriarch Meletius Metaxakis recognized as being the canonical church of the Russian lands. Despite what some say about the rivalry between Moscow and Constantinople today, I do not think that Metaxakis recognized the Living Church so as to politically benefit and strengthen his own position in the Orthodox Church. As we will see a little later, Metaxakis held to a theological modernism, and the Living Church was to him what he wanted the whole of Orthodoxy to become. Metaxakis was a “true believer” in modernism, and thus disemprowing or weakening Russian Orthodoxy did not aid him but having Russia share in his form of “reformed” Orthodoxy did. It was under his oversight that the Pan-Orthodox Council of Constantinople was held. This council sought to change the calendar of the Church, modifying the Julian Calendar the Church has used since antiquity to a “revised” calendar which, incidentally, closely resembles the Gregorian Calendar used by Roman Catholics and protestants. This needless change resulted in a significant number of clergy and laymen ceasing commemoration of their local hierarchs and patriarch, essentially forming separate communions. It should also be noted that the Serbian, Georgian, and Jerusalem churches, and Mount Athos, rejected the calendar change. The Living Church accepted the rulings of the council, but the Church itself would soon cease to exist, as it was universally rejected by the Orthodox faithful, seeing the Living Church for what it was. The canonical Russian Church remains on the Old Calendar. Also, their retaining of the old calendar is why True Orthodox are sometimes errantly and derogatorily referred to as Old Calendarists (a mistake I have made in the past). Old Calendarist is a poor label to use, as there are True Orthodox who are situated in regions where the local canonical church never employed the new calendar, and they are True Orthodox because they (claim) to retain the authentic teachings of Orthodoxy, especially in regards to the heresies we are subjected to in the modern age.
So I think that at this point, it is not unfair to call Meletius Metaxakis a heresiarch. He almost solely fomented a divide within Orthodoxy between canonical churches which despite maintaining different calendars are still in communion with each other. That division is notable, even when we exclude the existence of the groups that split from canonical jurisdictions, which eventually became True Orthodoxy. Metaxakis was an evil man who sought firstly to unify Orthodoxy with Anglicanism (as at the time England was a patron to the Greek state), and ultimately with all Christian sects and religions in accordance with his Masonic beliefs. Yes, Meletius Metaxakis was a Freemason and unlike what some might say about the average Mason, Metaxakis was evidently a devoted adherent to Masonic theology and attempted to, through his position as Patriarch, infuse Orthodoxy with Masonic teachings a subordinate the Church to the Satanists. Metaxakis left the Church wounded and divided, and I can say without a doubt that had I found myself at that time I would have joined in the communion of the True Orthodox. As things progressed, notably in Greece, we see the new calendar Church with its influence have the state persecute and kill True Orthodox believers. The True Orthodox have many martyrs and saints to their name, and it took Hitler’s occupation of Greece in 1941 for the persecutions to cease and for attempts at reconciliation to be made. But unfortunately, these attempts were short lived as upon Allied victory, the Greek state began once again to persecute the True Orthodox.
I have unfortunately been unable to fully research the recent history of True Orthodoxy. As I said before, there is not a single True Orthodox Church, but rather a collection of separate communions, some of which are in communion with each other. From what I have been told, the inter-communion and recognition of True Orthodox communions have been improving in the 21st century. Also, until the 2010s, there was not as strict a distinction between True and World Orthodoxy, as the Patriarch of Jerusalem would concelebrate the Eucharist with True Orthodox clergy, and the Serbian patriarch likewise recognized the legitimacy of certain True Orthodox groups. Also, the claim that True Orthodoxy is irrelevant because of its few adherents is fallacious. Firstly, size does not dictate truth, and if anything, as Christians we should be more critical to large bodies/institutions because these are the ones best situated to ensnare souls and lead them astray. Secondly, demographically, the True Orthodox are set to become the majority Orthodox population in at least Roumania and Greece, due to their higher birthrates and nominalism, and the indifference the World Orthodox believers have regarding their faith. So, although in North America the True Orthodox may be a small minority of an already small minority, in the broader Orthodox context they are of major importance.
As I said prior, if I had lived in the early twentieth century, I would have without a doubt become a True Orthodox Christian. So for that reason I have nothing really negative to say about their communions, and with demographics being destiny, we could live to see the capturing of a patriarchate by one of their bodies. Yet I am still part of “World Orthodoxy”, the term which, although sounding derogatory, was actually coined by the canonical Church to contrast itself from True Orthodoxy. Although I loathe the term, World Orthodoxy is the term my Church has adopted so I will begrudgingly employ it to describe myself. Orthodoxy suffered a great wound in the early twentieth century, one which it has not healed from. This is important to note, as World Orthodoxy is still processing the events of the 1920s, and how the Church ultimately handles them will dictate if World Orthodoxy is apostate and heretical. Depending on the standards one has and how they read the Cannons and Fathers of the Church, it can be argued that the World Church is lost, especially considering how things seem to perpetually be declining (we see this with ecumenical concessions, the severing of communion between Moscow and Constantinople, Greece legalizing gay marriage, etc.). I do not see Meletius Metaxakis having been a Mason to be something that damns the Church. Nestorius was once the Patriarch of Constantinople, and there have been heretical Patriarchs since the beginning of the Church. I also do not believe that Soviet domination of the canonical Russian Church renders that church artificial or graceless. There were clergy who collaborated with the Soviets, and there were those who resisted, many to their death. The Russian Church itself is wounded, and it is still purging the poisons of Sergianism, Bolshevism, and Westernism from itself, but I am not ready to denounce the Russian Church as Sergiaist, Communist, or Western. It may be balancing on the knife’s edge in the view of some, but until it has definitively embraced and codified heresy I am content to wait (albeit uneasily).
True Orthodoxy has also had its share of heresy mongers. Although resolved now, heresies such as name-worship and icons of the Father divided these communions, but I believe in the modern era the heretics have been expelled and no True Orthodox church espouses heresy. When everything is said and done, there is a part of me that is drawn to True Orthodoxy, and although there is a time where I can see myself joining them, that time is not yet here. Although I would have been True Orthodox in the twenties, I feel like it would be imprudent of me to join them today. This is not to say that I think it is sin or schism for an Orthodox Christian to join them. I am not willing to say that they separated from the Church or that they are graceless. They did what the cannons permit, to leave the company of heretics and they gave their lives for Orthodoxy, the Orthodoxy that I am trying to hold on to today. But for me, the idea of joining them fills me with unease; again, it comes down to a matter of prudence. I believe that I can receive salvation within World Orthodoxy. When I converted to Orthodoxy, I did so because I realized that salvation was impossible for me in Protestantism. Now, I need to be careful here. I do not wish to imply that salvation is so individualized that one is able to find salvation in all places or religions and simply needs to find where they can receive their salvation. There is no salvation outside of the singular Church Christ established, and all those who are not Orthodox are definitionally outside of Christ’s Church. That being said, God is able to save those outside of the temporal bounds of the Church such as Emperor Trajan, but these exceptions only serve to highlight the grave danger one who is outside the Church finds himself in. We can have no confidence in the salvation of those outside the Church. So regarding my situation, I maintain that salvation is possible for me in World Orthodoxy. I believe salvation is possible in True Orthodoxy as well, but since I already have salvation available to me, if I were to become True Orthodoxy I would in effect be rejecting salvation as it has already been presented to me. There are those who I believe need True Orthodoxy to be able to receive salvation. Or maybe it is actually the reverse that is true, where God, in condescending to us, permits World Orthodoxy to exist for the sake of those unable or not ready to embrace True Orthodoxy. Whatever the case, I do not think it is safe for me at this time to be True Orthodox.
A dear friend of mine recently converted to True Orthodoxy. I harbour him no ill will, but his departure saddened me. My friend was a priest in the Greek Church and was the one example I always thought of when considering how it is possible for good traditional priests to still be a part of a hierarchy that has made some very poor decisions. But as a priest, I know he is called to account for all the souls he has been entrusted. If he found it unconscionable to be part of a church which he felt put those souls in danger, I cannot fault him for leaving World Orthodoxy. His departure is a great loss for the Greek Church and a tremendous gain for True Orthodoxy, and for that they have my congratulations. I may question whether what my friend did was prudent, but as a priest his requirements for salvation are much greater than my own. I cannot fault him for leaving the Greek Church, but I am mourning his loss. Although I have always had True Orthodox friends, I have never known anyone to leave and join their side before. I was always sympathetic to the claims of the True Orthodox, and unlike others I was never willing to condemn them as schismatics, but I never really fixated on the division that existed between us. With all my heart I hope the division between True and World Orthodoxy evaporates, and I am hopeful that the excesses of the ecumenical movement may finally wisen up World Orthodox clergy and motivate them to better embody what an authentic praxis would be, which has been demonstrated to us in True Orthodoxy.
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