Christ the Savior Greek Orthodox Church

A. INTRODUCTION TO OUR FALL/WINTER 2004-2005 SESSION
The Gospel of John alternating with rotating topics Introducing Orthodoxy; Orthodox Saints; Church History; Our and Other Churches; Parables of Christ, etc.

B. WHAT WE WILL DO TODAY
One of the practices which causes some confusion in the Orthodox Church today is the fact that some Orthodox Churches use the “Old Calendar” and some use the “New Calendar.” Today’s P.E.P.-1 session seeks to shed some light and understanding on the issue of the Calendars.

C. THE READING
The Calendar of the Orthodox Church
(From Lewis Patsavos, A Companion to the Greek Orthodox Church [Ed., Photios K. Litsas], New York: Department of Communication: Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of N. & S. America, 1984, Sec. III, 3, pp. 78-83.)


1. Religious Calendar: History and Development: Old and New Calendars

Within the Orthodox Church feast days and fast days are reckoned according to two distinct calen-dars, the Julian Calendar and the Gregorian Calendar. The first is attributed to the Roman Emperor Julius Caesar, whose name it bears. It was later corrected in the sixteenth century by Pope Gregory XIII due to the ever-increasing discrepancy between calendar time and calculated astronomical time. Thus the Gregorian Calendar came into being.
Inasmuch as the Julian Calendar had been in continuous use in the Christian East and West through-out the centuries, the subsequent introduction of the Gregorian Calendar in the West created yet another anomaly in the deteriorating relations between the two Churches. The need for correction of the Julian Calendar was well understood in the East and had even led some to devise a new calendar themselves. Nevertheless, the Julian Calendar remained in use throughout the Byzantine period and beyond.
Despite the efforts of the emissaries of Pope Gregory to convince the Orthodox to accept the New (Gregorian) Calendar, the Orthodox Church rejected it. The main reason for its rejection was that the celebration of Easter would be altered: contrary to the injunctions of canon 7 of the Holy Apostles, the decree of the First Ecumenical Synod, and canon 1 of Ancyra, Easter would sometimes coincide with the Jewish Passover in the Gregorian calendar.
This is where the matter stood until the end of World War I. Until then, all Orthodox Churches had strictly abided by the Old (Julian) Calendar, which at present is 13 days behind the New Calendar long since adopted by the rest of Christendom. In May of 1923, however, an “Inter-Orthodox Congress” was convened at Constantinople by the then Ecumenical Patriarch, Meletios IV. Not all Orthodox Churches were in attendance. The Churches of Serbia, Romania, Greece, and Cyprus were; the Churches of Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem, although invited, were not; the Church of Bulgaria was not invited. Several issues were under discussion at the congress, one of which was the adoption of the New Calendar. No unanimous agreement was reached on any of the issues discussed.
Several of the Orthodox Churches, however, did eventually agree, though not all at the same time, to adopt the New Calendar. These were the Churches of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Greece, Cyprus, Romania, Poland, and most recently, Bulgaria (1968); on the other hand, the Churches of Jerusalem, Russia and Serbia, along with the monasteries on Mt. Athos, all continue to adhere to the Old Calendar.

2. Calendar Problems and Implications Among the Orthodox Churches in the Twentieth Century
The result of this situation is unfortunate indeed. The Orthodox Churches which have adopted the New Calendar observe Christmas with the other Churches of Christendom on December 25; the Orthodox Churches which have not adopted it celebrate Christmas 13 days later, on January 7. The former celebrates Epiphany on January 6 and by the latter on January 19. And so it is with all the great feasts of the Christian Calendar but one.
Easter, the feast of feasts, continues to be calculated by all Orthodox Churches to the dates of the Old Calendar. Consequently, all Orthodox Churches observe the event of Christ’s Resurrection on the same day, regardless of when the rest of Christendom does. An exception to this general rule is the Orthodox Church of Finland. Owing to the fact that it makes up less than 2 per cent of the population of a predominantly Lutheran country, it observes Easter according to the New Calendar for practical reasons.
It may well be that the date of Orthodox Easter occasionally coincides with that of the other Christian Churches; however, it may also occur as much as 5 weeks later. Thus arose the formula applied by the Orthodox Churches adopting the New Calendar --that immovable feast days are to be observed 13 days earlier than in the Old Calendar, while Easter and all movable feast days dependent on it are still calculated according to the Old Calendar--which was seen as a compromise with those who opposed the change.
On the one hand, the necessary revisions were made to correct the Old Calendar; on the other hand, the calculation of Easter was retained as before so as not to violate the holy canons. Nevertheless, this compromise was to prove incapable of preventing the schism of “Old Calendarists” which ensued.
As is always the case with reform movements, there was strong opposition to the adoption of the New Calendar, especially in Greece. What differed in this situation, however, was that reform was initiated by the established Church together with the total backing of the state.
Groups of “Old Calendarists” or “Palaioemerologitai,” refused to abide by the Church’s decision and continued to follow the Old Calendar for both movable and immovable feast days. The basis of their refusal to abandon the Old Calendar rested on the argument that canons ratified by an Ecumenical Synod knew only of the Julian Calendar. Therefore, nothing less than an Ecumenical Synod had the authority to institute a reform of such proportion.
In view of their refusal to submit to the authority of the Church of Greece, the official Church excommunicated them. This was not the case with the monasteries of Mt. Athos. Although all but one (i.e., 19 monasteries) continued to follow the Old Calendar, they are under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Constantinople with which they continue to be in communion. Despite attempts by the civil authorities in Greece to suppress them, the “Old Calendarists” continue to exist there and abroad and to maintain a hierarchy of their own together with parishes and monasteries.

3. Holy Days in the Orthodox Church
The ecclesiastical year, which according to Byzantine practice begins on the first of September, is divided between movable and immovable or fixed holy days. The movable holy days are determined by the date of Easter - the most important of all feast days -, which is in a class by itself. The deter-mination of the date of Easter was definitively regulated by the decision of the First Ecumenical Synod, held in Nicaea (325). Next in importance to Easter are the “twelve great feasts,” of which three are movable. Eight of these feasts are devoted to Christ and four to the Virgin Mary. There are also a number of feast days of varying importance, most of which commemorate the more popular saints.

4. Holy Days Dedicated to Christ and the Virgin Mary
The “twelve great feasts,” as they occur in chronological order after September 1, are as follows:

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