The word "Orthodox" comes from two Greek words: "Orthos" which means straight, and "doxa", which means belief and/or worship. The combination of these two words has come to mean the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church that remained the same throughout the centuries. This Church is the only Christian Faith which bears the belief, teaching and worship that has been handed down from the very Apostles themselves. The Orthodox teach that there can be only one Church, undivided both in doctrine and in practice, and this was witnessed to by the words of our Lord Himself Who said "...upon this rock shall I build my Church, and the gates of hades will not prevail against it." (Matt. 16:18) and the words of the Apostle of the Nations who tells us of "One Faith, One Baptism, One Lord of All…" (Eph. 4:5). That undivided Church can only be found in those churches that hold to the Eastern Orthodox tradition. 

           One can only be called truly Orthodox if he holds to that which was taught of old by the Holy Apostles, and the Holy Fathers of the Church, and struggles in a sincere manner to apply them to his life. When one deviates from these teachings he is considered a heretic - one who transgresses against revealed truth. One who separates himself from the life of the Church, and sets up his own altar for reasons other than heresy in his Church is in sin of schism. There have been numerous instances when three quarters of what called itself the "official" Church had abandoned the Faith, and only a stark minority of hierarchs and faithful could be considered Orthodox.

          In 1923, under the direction of Patriarch Meletios of Constantinople and a special commission, the State Church of Greece uncanonically accepted the Roman Catholic calendar of Pope Gregory XIII, in order to capitulate to the demands of the worldly minded government in Greece. A number of clergy and faithful refused to accept this innovation, and walled themselves off from the "official" Church, denying it grace for creating schism in Orthodoxy, in dividing its liturgical unity. The state Church responded with a wave of persecutions, with the help of the police authorities, where Temples were burned, holy vessels overturned and broken, icons desecrated, the faithful and clergy beaten, arrested, humiliated at the hands of state officials and sometimes martyred for their steadfast refusal to alter their faith. The True Orthodox are sometimes referred to as "Old Calendarists" because they hold to the traditional Church Calendar, but the calendar is only one aspect of their witness to the wonderful saving religion of Jesus Christ, passed to them through the ages.

          The history of the Old Calendar Church of Greece is a radiant example of strength in persecution and uncompromising love for the Holy Orthodox Faith. The church of Greece uncanonically introduced the New, Gregorian calendar in 1924. Initially, only a small group of laymen resisted this innovation. Gradually, a number of priests began to return to the Old Calendar, especially following the miraculous apparition of the Cross above a church outside Athens which followed the traditional Church calendar during the Feast of the Elevation of the Holy Cross according to the Julian (Old) Calendar.

          The majority of clergymen at this time (1924-1935) were monks of the Holy Mountain who traveled throughout Greece, founding parishes and monasteries. Throughout this time, the State Church persecuted the Old Calendarists: services were interrupted, clergy were arrested, processions were broken up, and churches were closed. Despite these measures, by 1934 over 800 communities had been formed throughout Greece following the Old Calendar. A breakthrough occurred in 1935 when three bishops of the State Church returned to the Old Calendar, including Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Florina, who later became known as the leader of the True Orthodox Christians of Greece.

          The fiercest of the persecutions of the Old Calendarists occurred starting in 1949, when Archbishop Spyridon was elected primate of the State Church. Priests and monastics were arrested, beaten, and forcibly shaved; churches were seized, Old Calendarists were barred from theological schools.

          In his Encyclical of 1950, Metropolitan Chrysostomos affirmed that the new Calendarists must be received by Chrismation, and that their Mysteries are invalid. He suffered a two year exile on account of this Encyclical which infuriated the new calendar State Church

          Metropolitan Chrysostomos himself was arrested in 1951. Yet the members of the True Church remained firm in their defense of the Faith, preferring persecution to compromise. Only in 1954 did the persecutions come to an end, but by that time, Metropolitan Chrysostomos was alone and unable to consecrate a successor before his blessed repose.

          In 1960, two bishops of the Russian Church Abroad consecrated to the episcopacy Archimandrite Akakios. Shortly thereafter, a third bishop of the Church Abroad, along with Bishop Akakios, consecrated further bishops. Following the repose of Archbishop Akakios, Archbishop Auxentios was elected Archbishop of the True Orthodox Church of Greece.

          The Julian, or Old Style, calendar was in use when Christ, the Word of the Living God, descended form heaven and assumed a human nature - when the Timeless and Pre-Eternal God was born in time. The Julian calendar was used by all Christians, both Eastern and Western for a millennium and a half, and although the best scholars and Saints of the Orthodox East and West (e.g., St. Bede) were quite aware that the Julian year did not strictly coincide with the solar year, this fact did not particularly bother them, since the Julian year had become a liturgical instrument of a venerable stature. Matters stood thus until Pope Gregory XIII promulgated his reformed calendar in 1582. Noting that the days upon which the solstices and equinoxes fell were ten days removed from the dates on which they fell in Julius Caesar's day (this disturbed his astrologers), Gregory commanded the day after October fourth of that year to be called October 15. This was the beginning of the Gregorian (New Style) calendar now in secular use. The Orthodox church on the other hand, in three Pan orthodox Councils, decreed the preservation of the original Christian calendar as the seal of unity for a body not subject to the Pope's commands. Some local Orthodox churches have now introduced the Papal calendar, but many Orthodox Christians over the world, still keep the Julian. Britain was the last place in the West to adopt the Gregorian Calendar, Holding out until the mid-Eighteenth century.