The Russian Orthodox Church does not in the least intend to change its calendar

Thursday, March 23, 2023

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The Russian Orthodox Church does not in the least intend to change its calendar, says Archpriest Nikolai Balashov, Secretary for Orthodox Christian Contacts of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations. "The Julian calendar is dear to our flock, and is a cultural peculiarity of Russian culture," he explained. The Julian calendar presently persists only in the Russian, Georgian, Jerusalem and Serb Orthodox Churches and the Athonian monasteries. They accordingly celebrate Christmas, January 7-which is to them December 25. The other eleven Orthodox Churches there are in the world celebrate Christmas Eve in the night of December 24, and Christmas December 25, together with Catholics and the Protestant denominations. "The Orthodox Christian Churches, however, do not use the Gregorian calendar of the Catholics but the New Julian, which coincides with the Gregorian for now-a one-day difference will be stored up by the year 2800," said the archpriest. The reform that introduced the New Style came in the 16th century. The updated calendar owes its name to Pope Gregory XIII, who initiated the reform. It means to do away with a mounting gap between the astronomical and the calendar year. The Constantinopolitan Patriarch convened a council of the Orthodox Churches in 1923 with the same purpose. It determined to update the Julian calendar. The Russian Orthodox Church did not take part in the council, what with dire developments in its country. As soon as the news of the Constantinopolitan Council reached him, Patriarch Tychon ordered a shift to the New Julian calendar-only "to arouse protest and sedition in the clergy and the flock," so the order was abolished less than a month later, said Father Nikolai Balashov. It takes the Julian calendar 128 years to get a day behind the astronomical, the Gregorian 3,333 years, and the New Julian 40,000 years, he added.