Changes

In 1948, Bishop Matthew singlehandedly consecrated another bishop, and together they made more new bishops, furthering the rift and causing many former Matthewite clergy to join ranks with the Florintes. After the death of Bishop Matthew, however, Chrysostom of Florina reaffirmed the decision of 1935 declaring the New Calendar State Church as [[schism]]atic. The declaration had two basic motivations: to stop any growth among the Matthewites and as its motivation to heal the Matthewite schism. Nonetheless, the irenic gesture went unheeded and the Matthewites proceeded to elect Archbishop Agathagelos to the rank of Primate of Athens in 1958. We will deal first with the major divisions of the Florinites, since their divisions have generally been larger and more permanent in nature, and then the Matthewites.

After the death of Metropolitan Chrysostom, the Florinites had no bishops, and Metropolitan Chrysostom advised his flock to go under the protection of the Matthewite bishops. Fearing the repercussions, however, the Florinites opted to seek a new hierarchy and appealed to Bishops of the [[Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia]] to help them. In 1960, Archimandrite Akakios Pappas was made a bishop with the title of Bishop of Talantion for these communities without the official blessing of the ROCOR Synod by [http://www.roca.org/life_of_archbishop_seraphim.htm Archbishop Seraphim of Chicago] and Bp. Theophilos Ionescu, a Romanian New Calendar Bishop under the ROCOR. The following year, the ROCOR elected and ordained Archimandrite Petros Astyfides as Bishop of Astoria in order to serve as archpastor of the Greek Old Calendarist immigrant communities in the United States and Canada. Later Bp. Akakios of Talantion and Archbishop Leonty (Filipovich) of Chile (of ROCOR) ordained five more bishops in Greece. Thus in 1961, Akakios of Talantion became the new First-Hierarch of the restored Florinite Synod. He died, however, in 1963. The Synod thus proceeded to elect Auxentios Pastras, Bishop of Gardikion, to be their new leader as Archbishop of Athens. The ROCOR under Metropolitan Philaret eventually recognized the validity of the secret consecrations in 1969.