The fact that most Orthodox churches now celebrate Easter according to the Julian rather than the Gregorian calendar has a long and very complicated history behind it.

Recently, quite a lot has been written about why the Catholic and Orthodox Churches celebrate Easter according to different calendars. The Orthodox faithful faithfully observe the Council of Nicaea in 325, and the Catholics abandoned the important provision related to the celebration of Pesach and adopted the Gregorian calendar starting in 1582.

It is less known that the adoption of the Gregorian calendar was a subject of controversy in the Orthodox churches after the triumph of the Bolshevik revolution in Russia. In January 1919, Lenin decided to switch to a new civil calendar and tried to force the Russian Orthodox Church to abandon the Julian calendar. Patriarch Tikhon considered this unacceptable state interference in the affairs of the church and appealed to the Ecumenical Patriarch Herman V for help, declaring that the church headed by him would not change the calendar until the Pan-Orthodox Synod decided. In this letter, Patriarch Tikhon gave the example of Finland, which became independent in 1918, where the Lutherans, who became the overwhelming majority, used the Julian calendar, and the Russians, who became a minority, used the Gregorian calendar. Patriarch Tikhon believed that in the case of the Orthodox in Finland, the transition to the Julian calendar was justified, because in this way he would avoid the risk of proselytizing Lutherans towards the Orthodox. In addition, according to Patriarch Tikhon, in all countries that gained independence or acquired new territories, such as Poland, Estonia or Lithuania, the Orthodox should switch to the Julian calendar. The Ecumenical Patriarch and other Orthodox churches agreed with this point of view, as a result of which the Orthodox in Finland and Estonia switched to the Julian calendar.

In his letter, Patriarch Tikhon did not mention Romania, which is in a situation similar to the mentioned countries (the decisive moment of 1918), because he believed that the Orthodox were in the majority and there was no need to switch to the Julian calendar. However, the BOR decided to switch to the Julian calendar after the Romanian state introduced the Gregorian calendar in civil relations in 1919, on the occasion of the Holy Synod on 31 October 1923, but was forced to revert to the Gregorian calendar four years later. The reason was the appearance of dissidence, which strictly followed the Julian calendar and which still exists today (stylists). When he returned to the Julian calendar, the main fear of the BOR and the Romanian state was that stylistic dissent would turn into open rebellion, which would be used as an excuse to destabilize the internal situation on the part of the USSR. It was about the period of intensification of Bolshevik provocations on the territory of Romania, which resulted in the incident at Tatar Bunar.

The Russian Orthodox Church granted autonomy to the Finnish Orthodox Church in 1921, and in the same year it adopted the Gregorian calendar, so that in Finland Orthodox and Lutherans began to celebrate Easter on the same day. In 1923, the Church of Finland came under the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, which forced several Orthodox clergy to find refuge in the USSR or Yugoslavia.

The Estonian Orthodox Church followed a similar path, gaining autonomy from the Russian Orthodox Church in 1920, in which year it also switched to the Gregorian calendar. As in the case of the Finnish Church, the Estonian Orthodox Church appealed to the Ecumenical Patriarchate in 1923, which in the same year granted it a tomos of autonomy.

The situation in Finland and Estonia was considered an exception in Orthodoxy, believing that a Pan-Orthodox Synod was needed to solve the calendar problem, but it has not yet taken place.

If before the Second Vatican Council the Catholic Church was indifferent to the controversy in Orthodoxy regarding the Julian or Gregorian calendars, then Pope Paul VI had a different approach: any decision agreed upon by mutual consent between Orthodox and Catholics can be taken into account. This is also the conclusion of the 1963 document, Sacrosanctum Concilium.

The debate in Orthodoxy resumed after the Ukrainian Orthodox Church received a tomos on autocephaly from the Ecumenical Patriarchate in January 2019. In 2021, the Ecumenical Patriarchate initiated a dialogue with the Catholic Church on this topic, establishing contacts between the President of the Pontifical Council for the Unity of Churches, Cardinal Kurt Koch, and the representative of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, IPS Jove de Telmessos.

However, discussions on establishing a common date for celebrating Easter in this format stalled, which forced Patriarch Bartholomew to personally intervene on November 18, 2022. He suggested that in 2025, 1,700 years after the Council of Nicaea, Orthodox and Catholics will celebrate Easter together.

A day later, Pope Francis received His Beatitude Mar Awa III, Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East (based in Iraq), at an audience in the Vatican. The main topic of discussion was the determination of a common date for the celebration of Easter.

The Patriarch of the Coptic Orthodox Church Theodore II of Alexandria and the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby joined the discussions, which began in 2021.

Of course, the coincidence of the two meetings in November 2022 is not accidental. Both Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and Pope Francis are interested in reaching an agreement on the subject of joint celebration of Easter by Orthodox and Catholics. This is a unique moment in the history of the two Churches. The idea of ​​co-opting the leaders of the Anglican and Coptic churches into this dialogue is very welcome, to show that the discussions are not really between the two churches, but between those who represent the wider community of Christians from around the world. all over the world.

Recently, an idea appeared in Romania to appeal to the Holy Synod of the BOR with a request to switch to the Gregorian calendar in order to be able to celebrate Easter on a single date.

This approach is very timely in the current context of interfaith discussions.

The key question to which we currently do not have an answer is whether the Orthodox Church can switch to the Gregorian calendar without other Orthodox Churches, or whether a Pan-Orthodox Synod is needed to make a joint decision on this matter. .

Does the Pan-Orthodox Congress of 1923, which left it up to local Orthodox Churches to switch to the Julian calendar or keep the Gregorian calendar, still have value today, given that this congress was strongly opposed at the time even by local Orthodox churches?

Currently, there is no official position of the Ecumenical Patriarchate on this matter. The Ecumenical Patriarchate implicitly assumed the role of the representative of the Orthodox in the dialogue with Catholics regarding the establishment of a common date for Easter. Since Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew stated in 2022 that the deadline of 2025 is realistic and such a Synod cannot be organized before that date, he was probably referring to the decision of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, which will be followed by other Orthodox Churches. Most likely, in the current conditions, the Moscow Patriarchate will not agree to abandon the Julian calendar. Under such a scenario, the split within Orthodoxy will intensify. Will Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew take such a risk? Since he took all the risks regarding the canonical jurisdiction over the Orthodox in Ukraine and openly opposed the Moscow Patriarchate regarding other canonical territories (the case of Estonia), it is very likely that this new element of separation between the two Patriarchates will be considered as such. In order not to be seen as something that it is not – a rapprochement of Orthodox with Catholic practices – Bartholomew insisted that other denominations be involved in this dialogue. Bringing to the fore the Coptic Orthodox Church, autonomous from Moscow or Constantinople, is a very smart move aimed at isolating a possible negative approach from the Russian Orthodox Church regarding the transition to the Gregorian calendar Read the full article and comment Members. ro