WHAT DATE IS IT TODAY?
If you are brand new to EO, or are still in the exploratory stages, you might not have come across the calendar issue just yet, but you are bound to eventually. Yes, there is a calendar issue. Not being a Biblical issue, the calendar question might sound irrelevant to most of us, but it is probably the single most divisive factor in EO today, and it caused formations of about a dozen splinter EO groups, know as the Old Calendarists.
I’ll let that sink in. Yes, the EO church is splitting over which calendar to use. How did this come about? The early church adopted the only available calendar of the time, the Julian calendar (made for Julius Cesar by pagan astronomers), and centered its ever increasing number of holidays and saint days around it. However, over the centuries it became increasingly obvious that this calendar is inaccurate, and in 1528 pope Gregory XIII came up with a reform in order to align the calendar with the planetary movements. The Gregorian calendar is the one we use today.
Being that this calendar came from the “godless schismatics” (the Roman Catholics), the EOC of the time refused to accept it, even though some EO were pushing for it. In 1538, three EO patriarchs and numerous bishops held a council in Constantinople, and declared that all who switch to the new calendar should be excommunicated. They made it a point that the Julian calendar has been handed down to the EO as a part of the tradition, and should not be changed. Another eight EO councils reaffirmed this decision.
Disrespecting the EO tradition, in 1923 the patriarch of Constantinople decided to convene a new council to try to adopt a new calendar. Milutin Milankovic, a secular astronomer, revised the Gregorian calendar, and made it even more precise. The Milankovic calendar actually overlapped with the Gregorian for the most part, but made subtle changes in relation to leap years. The 1923 council of Constantinople passed a decision recommending that all EOCs adopt the Milankovic calendar. This caused an uproar in the EO world, as most clergy saw no difference between the Gregorian and the Milankovic calendars. Plus, the councils of the past specifically instructed that the Julian calendar cannot be changed. Certain EO churches, however, adopted the Milankovic calendar (Constantinople, Alexandria, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania and others), while others rejected it (Mt. Athos monks, Serbia, Russia, ROCOR, Jerusalem etc.).
This is why the Serbian EO and the Greek EO believers, for example, celebrate Christmas and most other holidays on different days. It was recorded that for this reason St. Nikolai Velimirovic, a Serbian bishop, refused to serve a joint liturgy with the Greeks.
I’ll let that sink in. Yes, the EO church is splitting over which calendar to use. How did this come about? The early church adopted the only available calendar of the time, the Julian calendar (made for Julius Cesar by pagan astronomers), and centered its ever increasing number of holidays and saint days around it. However, over the centuries it became increasingly obvious that this calendar is inaccurate, and in 1528 pope Gregory XIII came up with a reform in order to align the calendar with the planetary movements. The Gregorian calendar is the one we use today.
Being that this calendar came from the “godless schismatics” (the Roman Catholics), the EOC of the time refused to accept it, even though some EO were pushing for it. In 1538, three EO patriarchs and numerous bishops held a council in Constantinople, and declared that all who switch to the new calendar should be excommunicated. They made it a point that the Julian calendar has been handed down to the EO as a part of the tradition, and should not be changed. Another eight EO councils reaffirmed this decision.
Disrespecting the EO tradition, in 1923 the patriarch of Constantinople decided to convene a new council to try to adopt a new calendar. Milutin Milankovic, a secular astronomer, revised the Gregorian calendar, and made it even more precise. The Milankovic calendar actually overlapped with the Gregorian for the most part, but made subtle changes in relation to leap years. The 1923 council of Constantinople passed a decision recommending that all EOCs adopt the Milankovic calendar. This caused an uproar in the EO world, as most clergy saw no difference between the Gregorian and the Milankovic calendars. Plus, the councils of the past specifically instructed that the Julian calendar cannot be changed. Certain EO churches, however, adopted the Milankovic calendar (Constantinople, Alexandria, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania and others), while others rejected it (Mt. Athos monks, Serbia, Russia, ROCOR, Jerusalem etc.).
This is why the Serbian EO and the Greek EO believers, for example, celebrate Christmas and most other holidays on different days. It was recorded that for this reason St. Nikolai Velimirovic, a Serbian bishop, refused to serve a joint liturgy with the Greeks.
The calendar therefore caused a degree of disunity among the canonical EO churches, but it also created splinter groups within those churches that accepted the new calendar. Many groups, especially in Greece, (but elsewhere as well) declared themselves to be the “True Orthodox Church” (or some variation of that name),
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and have declared an anathema on all the EO churches that accepted the new calendar (see video for the issue at Esphigmenou monastery, that got a bloody epilogue in 2013).
These groups are led by bishops who rejected the 1923 Constantinople decision. Some of these groups are in communion with each other, and some are not, as they disagree on some other issues (see http://orthodoxwiki.org/Old_Calendarists).
The tensions caused by this issue run high, and both sides throw very serious accusations of apostasy.
Again, all this division, anger and mutual cursing among those who claim to belong to the “one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church”, over a subject so important that Jesus and the apostles had absolutely nothing to say about it.
These groups are led by bishops who rejected the 1923 Constantinople decision. Some of these groups are in communion with each other, and some are not, as they disagree on some other issues (see http://orthodoxwiki.org/Old_Calendarists).
The tensions caused by this issue run high, and both sides throw very serious accusations of apostasy.
Again, all this division, anger and mutual cursing among those who claim to belong to the “one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church”, over a subject so important that Jesus and the apostles had absolutely nothing to say about it.
I would now like to examine another side of EO - ethnocentrism, i.e. the inherent connection of EO with secular ethno-nationalistic and traditionalistic ideals.
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