www.byzcath.org Forums News & Events Church News UGCC to adopt Gregorian Calendar

Today the primate of the UGCC His Beatitude Patriarch Svyatoslav announced the decision of the Synod of the UGCC to adopt the Reformed Julian Calendar beginning on September 1, 2023.

He said that 90% of those polled in Ukraine want the change. He also said that those parishes, with the blessing of their respective Eparchs, may continue with the Julian calendar if they so desire but only until 2025.

There was a time that I used to come out in defense of the Julian calendar, but over the years I grew wiser and I even came to admire AJK here!

I applaud the change and may it bring calendar calm and unity to the UGCC and the Orthodox Church in Ukraine (together with all the Ukrainian Protestants who have already adopted the Gregorian calendar) now and always.

Many Years to the Synod of the UGCC for this move!

"Amen" to that. Thank you, OC. It's also worthy to note that in Ukraine the UGCC will keep the Julian Pascalion.

Dear Utroque,

You aren't a "Utraquist" by any chance . . .? Would you care to explain your moniker that I've always found fascinating!

Yes, the Reformed Julian calendar, which many Orthodox Churches follow, is what is being adopted by the UGCC.

So far, and this obtains in the Byzantine Catholic Church in America, to be on the Gregorian Calendar means that one does not follow the Orthodox Easter date.

And those UGCC parishes who are on the Gregorian calendar follow the Western paschalion.

I understand that talks are under way to establish a COMMON date for Pascha East and West in 2025, the 1700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council. May God grant it to be so!

I read one member of the UOC-MP responding to the news of the UGCC moving to the Reformed Julian Calendar saying that "These (EC) heretics can follow whichever calendar they wish - the voodoo calendar included!'

Not very ecumenical . . . But I doubt if he is a member of the FSB - sounds like he actually has some theological background. .

I was too quick to name this thread - it really should be "Revised Julian Calendar"

Any word if the Eparchy of Mukachevo will also go to the Revised Julian Calendar/Gregorian Calendar as well?

Was the Orthodox Church of Ukraine already using the Revised Julian Calendar?

I certainly like seeing more unity in this area, but it always struck me as inconsistent to still use the Julian dating for Pascha. I sincerely hope that we can all celebrate Pascha on the same day in the future.

Christ is in our midst!!

I believe that the Orthodox Church in Ukraine gave parishes the option to use the Revised Julian calendar.

I'm not an Hussite, but must admit that their point of view has some merit and has helped bring me East, as reception under both species completes the sacramental signification in the Eucharist. My moniker comes from the fact that for a good part of me long life of tried to "breathe with BOTH lungs" as it were; not to mention that, although born in Boston, my maternal and paternal roots are solidly Canadian Maritime.

Be that as it may, my understanding is that His Beatitudes has decided that as of September 1, 2023 that parishes of the UGCC in Ukraine have the option of following the Gregorian calendar for fixed feast like Christmas (December 25) and will only follow the Reformed Julian Calendar for the Paschalion (those moveable feasts of Pascha & Pentecost). Do I have that correct?

Yes, the eparchy is switching as well: Article. [suspilne.media]

What is the rationale for this and why now?

The Ruthenians (Мукачівська греко-католицька єпархія) are going to the Gregorian Calendar and the Ukrainians in Ukraine to the New Style (Українська Греко-Католицька Церква в Україні переходить на новий стиль) but "a new style for immovable holidays with the preservation of the current Easter" ( на новий стиль ...чинної Пасхалії.).

So a mixed Gregorian or "Revised Julian" with the old Julian Paschalion. For both Churches? This mixed combination is guaranteed to produce conflicts in the harmony of fixed and movable feasts and traditional fasts. Surely the bishops are aware of this, so why choose it?

Is this motivated by church or secular politics, or theology?

"Is this motivated by church or secular politics, or theology?"

Perhaps none of these. As the OP hoped in paragraph 4 at the beginning of the thread, maybe its motivated by " calendar calm" and " unity"............

If so, not bad reasons but not the best either. I'd hope theology would be the driving factor for a church.

I've heard the term "politics" used in other contexts, but I think we need to be careful how it is used as it can have different tinges of meaning.

Yes, the move to the new calendar has a lot to do with what is better to call "cultural" concerns, that being to move as far away as possible from the Russian World ideology and Russian culture.

But this has been in the works for a long while. Belarus, for instance, declared both December 25th and January 7th as "Christmas days." Today, though, 90 percent of Belarusians celebrate Christmas on December 25th, keeping the rest of the Julian calendar in place . . .

In Ukraine, it was found that 90 percent of the Greco-Catholics want the Gregorian Calendar. Those parishes, if there will be any, who find they cannot move to the new calendar, have until 2025 to join in, during which time they are to reflect on the reasons surrounding the usefulness of the new calendar. As for the Paschalion, I understand that there are plans in the works to mark the 1700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council in 2025 with the announcement of a COMMON DATE OF EASTER for both Catholic and Orthodox Churches. That is what I've been hearing. Please God may it happen!

From a pastoral and spiritual point of view (I don't really see what the calendar question has to do with theology), those Ukrainians I know, including Orthodox (the OCU will have its Synod or Sobor in May to decide this question - it will be a good decision too! ), will be able to move away from a "deification of the calendar" to having the time to not only hold their folkloric Christmas Eve supper celebrations but also attend Church! The way so many are doing it today is to stuff themselves turkey on December 25th, go skiing or on vacation until New Year's and then have an abbreviated Christmas Eve supper that has more in common with ancestral culture than with Christianity, excusing themselves from Church at midnight or the next day because of work and school commitments . . . Thus a generation of unchurched youth have been raised! And I know because I've been asked far too many times by my friends to act as an unofficial officiant for their children's weddings which they refuse to hold in church!

Ultimately, politics has always been involved in both Catholicism and Orthodoxy. Many decry how the Russian Orthodox Church blesses Russian soldiers to go to Ukraine and murder civilians, including children (there are videos of ROC priests doing just that such as on risu.ua). But there have been Byzantine emperors who received blessings from patriarchs to do the same thing in history - as one Orthodox theologian and historian has recently pointed out to me.

Can't wait to see how my own parish, staunchly old calendarist, will be taking this news and how our priests will explain things to them . . .

Alex

The point I made as a question I now say (again) directly: The calendar has -- should have -- everything to do with theology, specifically liturgical theology. Instead it is seen as a device to be manipulated and used for various agendas that have too often poisoned the people -- an elixir of polemics.

What is the Typicon, which directs our liturgical and devotional life, but the calendar. The calendar is the foundation of liturgical theology as experienced by the churches today. If the theological essence of the calendar is abandoned, even minimized, then it is just a tool, a prod, a shield an idol, as it has indeed become for some.

If the calendar is not theology then it is arbitrary, and we are fools to knock ourselves out about, for instance, the observance of Pascha, and other quaint customs that we say we cherish. In 2025, after the coincidental common observance of Easter, and in honor of Nicaea+1700, church leaders and "influencers" (e.g. monks of Athos) should assemble and, in the spirit of ecumenism, each are issued a dart, the one closest to the bullseye chooses the preferred date: the Russians the Julian; the EP, working to abandon the Julian Paschalion for the past 100+ years, can choose the Aleppo proposal; the Anglicans the date that best accommodates commerce, banking, school calendars etc.; the Catholics the ...? One might expect the Gregorian but more likely, the others would be asked to throw again, relieving Catholics of any appearance of leadership or responsibility, preferring to just follow suit. (After all, VCII had even hinted at abandoning the 7 day week).

and yet we all pray for our own in the liturgy without reservation.

ajk, you are obviously well informed and versed in dogmatic theology. I am sure way more than me, but I respectfully submit the following comments.

"The point I made as a question I now say (again) directly: The calendar has -- should have -- everything to do with theology, specifically liturgical theology. Instead it is seen as a device to be manipulated and used for various agendas that have too often poisoned the people -- an elixir of polemics."

May I suggest that the longing for ecumenism, for Church unity, is also theological, perhaps more so than the calendar. The whole Calander " deification" -as ironically referred to earlier-reminds me of Mark 2:27. If I dare paraphrase that Gospel passage....The Church was not made for the Calender, the Calender was made for the Church."

Now as far as employing polemics:

"Russians the Julian; the EP, working to abandon the Julian Paschalion for the past 100+ years, can choose the Aleppo proposal; the Anglicans the date that best accommodates commerce, banking, school calendars etc.; the Catholics the ...? One might expect the Gregorian but more likely, the others would be asked to throw again, relieving Catholics of any appearance of leadership or responsibility, preferring to just follow suit. (After all, VCII had even hinted at abandoning the 7 day week)."

That quote is a great example of polemics, because it is not meant to just illustrate a point, but to judge and insinuate.