True Orthodoxy

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True Orthodoxy, or Genuine Orthodoxy (Greek: Γνησίων Ὀρθοδόξων Χριστιανῶν, "True Orthodox Christians", Russian: Истинно-Православная Церковь, "True Orthodox Church"), often pejoratively referred to as "Zealotry",^[1] is a movement within Orthodox Christianity that separated from the mainstream Eastern Orthodox Church over issues of ecumenism and Calendar reform since the 1920s.^[1]

Population

Those who consider themselves a part of this movement are a minority of those who consider themselves to be Orthodox Christians,^[2] but True Orthodox writers have argued that in missionary areas such as the United States, Orthodox membership numbers may be overstated, with the comparative number of True Orthodox as up to 15% of the Orthodox population.^[3] In Russia, it has been claimed by some clergymen that up to a million Russians may be True Orthodox of different jurisdictions, though the Greek Old Calendarists and True Orthodox Russians are often cited at 1.7-2 million together.

History

Most True Orthodox Christians hold to a reading of history from the age of the Apostles to the 1920s as virtually identical to that of the mainstream Orthodox Church. True Orthodox Christians added the additional word "True" to distinguish themselves from those who they believe to have abandoned Orthodox doctrine after this period. (The term orthodoxy, from Greek ὀρθοδοξία, orthodoxia, already means "correct belief" or "right opinion".)

Most True Orthodox historians agree that the rise of the Ecumenical movement manifested through the change of the Church Calendar in the 1920s throughout the Orthodox world, as well as the 1927 capitulation of Metropolitan Sergius (Stragadorsky) to the Soviet authorities marked the formative period for True Orthodoxy, where those Orthodox who either would not go along with changes to the calendar or were disobedient to the civil authorities began to organize against the official church in earnest and create parallel hierarchies. While the early period in the history of True Orthodoxy marked a "grey area" in terms of how to regard those who went along with the innovation, today most True Orthodox disregard "World Orthodoxy"—at least the hierarchy—as part of the Church at all.

Because of the late departure of the ROCOR into union with the Moscow Patriarchate, some jurisdictions glorify Saints who are still well-regarded among mainstream Orthodox, such as St John of Shanghai and San Francisco (†1966) and St Philaret of New York (†1985).

Doctrine

Like mainstream Orthodox Christians, True Orthodox remain Chalcedonian in their Christology and accept the doctrinal authority of the Church's Seven Ecumenical Councils. However, they strongly reject the ecumenical movement and consider most ecumenical dialogues, such as those with the non-Chalcedonians and Roman Catholics, to be invalid and unacceptable, citing canonical prohibitions against joint prayer.

Nevertheless, True Orthodox Churches are considered to have certain characteristic views and positions distinct from the Eastern Orthodox Church:

1. They reject the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, the Moscow Patriarchate, and those Churches in communion with them, accusing them of heresy and placing themselves under bishops who do the same.
2. They use the Old Julian liturgical calendar exclusively and denounce the Revised Julian calendar as a wayward, Latinising innovation.

Among those satisfying these two characteristics, there is the historically disputed requirement that they consider the sacraments of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Moscow Patriarchate to be invalid and ineffectual for salvation. For the most part, True Orthodox repudiate such communion under a rejection of ecumenism and Sergianism^[4] (Named for Metropolitan Sergius) as heresies, and many Churches have added those alleged heresies to the anathemas on the Sunday of Orthodoxy.

There is less dispute on the issue of the rejection of official mysteries in the present day after the change of the Cyprianites (who openly rejected this principle), however, historically this issue has been a source of disagreement. The issue of whether the EP and MP are graceless or simply viewed as incorrect persists to the present day in differences in baptism and chrismation policies (official and unofficial) among the so-called True Orthodox Churches.

Organisation

As Eastern Orthodox Christianity is both collegial and local in structure, there is no single organization called the "True Orthodox Church" nor is there official recognition among the "True Orthodox" as to who is properly included among them.^[2] While some unions have taken place even up to the present, the majority of True Orthodox are only secondarily concerned with reunion as opposed to preservation of Eastern Orthodox teaching.

Organisations that are usually included in the True Orthodoxy are:

• Greek Old Calendarists
• Old Calendar Bulgarian Orthodox Church
• Old Calendarist Romanian Orthodox Church
• Russian Orthodox Autonomous Church
• Churches Descending from the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia
• Serbian True Orthodox Church

Inter-church relations and intercommunion

Many True Orthodox synods do not publish information concerning other synods, citing limited interest outside of their locality. Some are open to dialogue, whereas some hierarchies are more insular and prefer to keep to themselves. For example, the Russian Orthodox Autonomous Church (ROAC) through the late Metropolitan Valentine, stated informally that they no longer actively seek to join other True Orthodox churches, but would not refuse incoming dialogue.^[5]

A number of unions, however, between different True Orthodox bodies have taken place for limited periods of time in recent decades, even to the present. The most notable of these was the reunion between the Greek Old Calendarists and the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (1971–85) and the current union of the Church of the Genuine Orthodox Christians, ROCOR under Metropolitan Agafangel (Pashkovsky), and the Old Calendar Bulgarian Orthodox Church.

References