www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology Which Churches follow what calendar?

After so many questions on this and other fora, I've compiled the following list, and I'd like to know what I should add to it, or if there are mistakes.

By "Revised Julian" is meant the calendar that corresponds to the Gregorian calendar for fixed feasts while still using the Julian Paschalion. By "Gregorian calendar" is meant a calendar that follows the Gregorian Paschalion.


I. CHURCHES COMPLETELY UNDER THE OLD JULIAN CALENDAR:

A. CATHOLIC CHURCHES

1) Ruthenian Catholic Church - Eparchy of Mukacevo

B. ORTHODOX CHURCHES:

1) Russian Orthodox Church and its autonomous Churches (ROCOR, UOC-MP, Estonia-MP, Moldova-MP, Belarus, Japan, China, Latvia)
2) Serbian Orthodox Church
3) Georgian Orthodox Church
4) Ukrainian and Belarusan Orthodox Churches in the diaspora under the EP
5) Jerusalem Patriarchate and Church of Sinai
6) Mount Athos (not a "church" by itself, as everyone knows, but still sufficiently significant to be separately listed here)

The Greek Old Calendarists, UOC-KP, UAOC, Macedonian Orthodox Church and Montenegrin Orthodox Churches also follow the Old Julian Calendar.

C. ORIENTAL ORTHODOX

1) Ancient (Assyrian) Church of the East
2) Coptic Orthodox Church (follows its own calendar that is very similar to the Old Julian Calendar)
3) Ethiopian Orthodox Church](follows its own calendar that is very similar to the Old Julian Calendar)
4) Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem


II. CHURCHES OF MIXED CALENDARS (e.g. significant numbers of parishes, cathedrals, monasteries using different calendars):


A. CATHOLIC CHURCHES:
1) Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church -- predominantly Old Julian Calendar, with ALL its parishes in Ukraine and Russia following it. However, hundreds of parishes in the diaspora use the Gregorian Calendar.

2) Russian Catholic Church of the Byzantine Rite -- follows the Old Julian Calendar in Russia, but either the Gregorian or the Revised Julian in diaspora parishes.

3) Melkite Greek Catholic Church -- follows the Revised Julian Calendar in Syria, and the Gregorian calendar in the diaspora and in many parts of the Middle East.

B. ORTHODOX CHURCHES

1) Orthodox Church of America -- predominantly Revised Julian Calendar, but with the Alaskan diocese and with a large number of parishes in the US West Coast and in Canada still under the Old Julian Calendar. The main OCA cathedral in Washington DC uses the Revised Julian Calendar for English Divine Liturgies and the Old Julian Calendar for Slavonic Divine Liturgies (it has one DL in each of these two languages every Sunday as well as for some feasts).

2) Orthodox Church of Poland -- predominantly Old Julian Calendar, but with many parishes and cathedrals in the western portions of Poland using the the Revised Julian Calendar. The Metropolitan himself serves liturgy on Revised Julian Christmas, and the main cathedral in Warsaw has Divine Liturgies in either calendar.

3) ACROD (under EP) -- still predominantly Old Julian Calendar (Met. Nicholas always serves according to the Old Calendar) but with new parishes and some old parishes using the Revised Julian Calendar

4) Orthodox Church of Czech and Slovak Lands -- predominantly Old Calendar, but with at least one eparchy using the Revised Julian Calendar.

5) "Rue Daru" or the Russian Orthodox Exarchate in Western Europe under the EP -- predominantly Revised Julian Calendar, but with many of the older and bigger parishes (especially in France) under the Old Julian Calendar. The Rue Daru cathedral itself uses the Old Julian Calendar and Church Slavonic in the upper church, and the Revised Julian Calendar and French in the lower church.

III. CHURCHES ENTIRELY UNDER THE REVISED JULIAN CALENDAR:

A. CATHOLIC CHURCHES

1) Romanian Catholic Church
2) Bulgarian Catholic Church
3) The Greek Byzantine Catholic Church

B. ORTHODOX CHURCHES

1) Patriarchate of Constantinople (except, as noted above, for Mount Athos and many of the Slavic churches under its jurisdiction; its Greek "Old Calendar" monastery and parishes in the USA, received into communion in 1998, shifted to the Revised Julian Calendar in 2004)

2) Patriarchate of Alexandria
3) Patriarchate of Antioch (at least one parish in Australia -- formerly ROCOR -- is on the Old Calendar)
4) State Church of Greece
5) Orthodox Church of Cyprus
6) Bulgarian Patriarchate (although a very few diaspora parishes remain on the Old Calendar)
7) Romanian Patriarchate
8) Orthodox Church of Albania

C. ORIENTAL ORTHODOX -- None.


IV. CHURCHES UNDER THE GREGORIAN CALENDAR (even for Paschalion):

A. CATHOLIC CHURCHES:

1) Roman Catholic Church (except in Greece and Syria, where by decision of the bishops (in Greece) and by special order of Pope John Paul II (in Syria) even the Latins observe Julian Pascha)
2) Armenian Catholic Church
3) Coptic Catholic Church
4) Chaldean Catholic Church
5) Syro-Malankara Catholic Church
6) Syro-Malabar Catholic Church
7) Syrian Catholic Church (I'm not so sure about them; I think they were ordered by Pope John Paul II to observe Pascha in common with the Orthodox)
8) Maronite Catholic Church
9) Byzantine Catholic Church of America
10) Italo-Albanian Catholic Church
11) Hungarian Catholic Church12) Slovak Catholic Church
13) Ruthenians in Czech Republic

B. ORTHODOX CHURCHES:

1) Finnish Orthodox Church

C. ORIENTAL ORTHODOX CHURCHES:

ALL Oriental Orthodox Churches except for the Ethiopians, the Coptic Orthodox and the Armenians in Jerusalem now follow the Gregorian Calendar. The British Orthodox Church under the Coptic Patriarchate also uses the Gregorian Calendar.

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I don't know:

1) Ethiopian and Eritrean Catholic Churches (Old or Gregorian?)
2) Greek Catholics in Yugoslavia (Gregorian or Old Julian?)
3) Albanian Byzantine Catholic Church (Revised Julian or Gregorian?)



I have read that the Estonians under Constantinople and the MP diocese in Holland use the Gregorian Paschalion. True or not?

Correction - UGCC in Europe [ meaning to my certain knowledge - France ,Germany , Spain ,Italy Eire and UK ] are all Julian Calendar .

Lourdes in France is the exception - it follows both

Very good list. I found no inaccuracies, though I would but the Montenegrin and Macedonian Orthodox Churches as subcategories under the heading of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

Fr David Straut

Assyrians (but not ACOE) serve according to the Gregorian Calendar

And the Old Ritualists serve according to the Julian

This is brilliant ! Thank you, Asian Pilgrim, for posting this !

May I cite this and share this data?

Don't the Armenians outside Jerusalem celebrate Christmas on the 6th of January?

The Syrian Orthodox in Damascus and diaspora celebrate Christmas on the 7th of January. The Malankara Archdiocese of the Syrian Orthodox Church is an exception, they celebrate along with all the Indian Churches on Dec. 25th.

The Ancient Church of the East (Assyrian Church - Mar Addai) celebrates Christmas on Jan 7th, if I recall correctly...

The Moscow Patriarchate has some parishes in the diaspora which use the "revised Julian" calendar.

During the Communist period, everyone in the USSR came under strong pressure to accept the "revised Julian" calendar - but nobody did.

Aso during the (postwar) Communist period, the Romanian government tried to exterminate the Romanian Old Calendar Orthodox Church, and to compel the Old-Ritualists to adopt the New Calendar. Neither effort succeeded; the Romanian Old Calendar Orthodox Church is doing quite nicely, thank you, and there was never any serious possibility of the Old-Ritualists adopting the New Calendar!

Your list should properly include those Local Churches which have "parallel" Old Calendar Churches - Greece, Romania, and Bulgaria come to mind immediately.

Fr. Serge

You may, thanks. Please take note of the corrections and additions posted on this thread, though.

You've listed the Melkite Church under "Mixed Calendars".

This state of affairs is not really described accurately, and it affects other Churches.

All Catholic Churches in the Middle East will celebrate Easter with their Orthodox brethren, where the Catholics are in the minority and the Orthodox are in the majority. Thus, for example, in Egypt, the Latin, Maronite, and Melkite Churches all celebrate Easter according to the Revised Julian.

Precisely why I posted my list: so it could benefit from corrections and revisions. So, don't criticize me for posting an "inaccurate list" -- I KNOW it's not accurate, which is why I'm asking for feedback.

By "mixed calendars" I am referring to the situation where significant portions (not just a few parishes here or there) of a particular Church use different calendars, celebrating either fixed feasts or Pascha on different dates.

I put the Melkites under that category because, while the Melkites in the Middle East celebrate Pascha according to the Julian Paschalion, at least some Melkites in the Americas follow the Gregorian Paschalion.

Thank you for the info on the Catholic Churches in the Middle East. However, the Latin Patriarchate in Jerusalem does follow the Gregorian calendar even Pascha.

What calendar do the Armenians and Syrians outside Jerusalem use?

Perhaps my English wasn't good or clear; I didn't mean to criticise.
Jerusalem is a special case for many of the Churches, due to the pilgrims from outside, and the importance of many places and events they celebrate.

Is there a place online to purchase Byz. calendars?

Cathleen,
If you will send me a PM, with your name and address, I will send you a calendar from our parish. We are a parish of the Eparchy of Passaic, Byzantine Catholic Metropolia of Pittsburgh.
Joseph, humble Reader