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The fact that division exists does not in itself signify anything beyond the weakness of fallen human nature. The existence of many religions in the world does not mean that belief in God is false and that atheism is true. In actuality, one religion is true and the others are false. The existence of many churches calling themselves Christian does not mean that Christianity is false, for one Christian Church is true and the others are false. By the same token, the plurality of Old Calendar Synods does not mean that the Old Calendar as a whole is schismatic; but rather, one Synod is historical and authentic while the others have separated themselves from it.
Furthermore, the New Calendarists and Ecumenists themselves are hardly free from internal divisions. The Ukrainian church has fragmented into three major and many minor groups; the Church of Macedonia has declared itself autocephalous and is shunned by the other Patriarchates; the Churches of Bulgaria and Montenegro have each spawned independent "counter churches," the Patriarchate of Jerusalem has two Patriarchs who do not recognize each other; and a bewildering array of vagante groups exist, claiming apostolic succession from one or another of the official churches. In addition, the official Patriarchates are often very hostile to one another, and the Patriarchate of Constantinople in particular has the tendency to carve out and support uncanonical, autonomous churches within the historical territory of the other Patriarchates, especially that of Moscow.
It is true that the 31st Apostolic Canon may be interpreted in such a way as to permit a schism for virtually any reason. However, at the very least, the canon allows for separation on the basis of heresy (if it did not, the clause "for reasons of piety and justice" would have no meaning at all); and it is for reasons of heresy that the Old Calendarists are separated from the New Calendarists. If a small group has left the historical Old Calendar Church using this canon as a justification, it in no way discredits the Old Calendarists as a whole, but only those individuals who misapply this canon.
The increasing realization in recent years of the basic oneness of the cause of True Orthodoxy throughout the world, whether in the Catacomb Church of Russia, the old calendarists of Greece, or the Russian Church Outside of Russia, has led some to think in terms of a "united front" of confessing Churches to oppose the ecumenical movement which has taken possession of "official" Orthodoxy. However, under present conditions this will hardly come to pass; and in any case, this is a "political" view of the situation which sees the significance of the mission of true Orthodoxy in too external a manner. The full dimensions of the True-Orthodox protest against "ecumenical Orthodoxy", against the neutralized, lukewarm Orthodoxy of the apostasy, have yet to be revealed, above all in Russia. But it cannot be that the witness of so many martyrs and confessors and champions of True Orthodoxy in the 20th century will have been in vain. May God preserve His zealots in the royal path of true Orthodoxy, faithful to Him and to His Holy Church until the end of the age!
From: The Orthodox Word, vol. 12, № 5 (70) Sept.-Oct. 1976, pp. 143-149.
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