December 25th or January 7th?
Regarding the Church Calendar (also known as the Old Calendar, and the Julian Calendar), I am grateful that our monastery is part of a jurisdiction that has remained true to the Traditional Calendar. The move to the Papal Calendar was, to my mind, divisive, and it is my prayer that the whole of the Orthodox Church will one day return to the unity that was ours when we all shared the same calendar. That said, I do not consider myself an “Old Calendarist”, nor do I see this as a matter of doctrinal purity. God does not need a calendar to perform miracles, and I know many a saintly priest and bishop who serves on the New Calendar. I am saddened that there are those who would choose to go into schism over the calendar issue, for the Church Fathers clearly taught that schism is a greater sin than heresy.
It is important to remember that January 7th is December 25th, according to the Julian Calendar. Those of us who celebrate the Birth of Our Saviour on January 7th, are in fact celebrating on the 25th of December. Since the Great Feasts of the Church are occasions when we enter mystically into the event celebrated, the thirteen day difference between Nativity according to the Julian Calendar, or the Gregorian Calendar, makes no difference. Within the Kingdom of God there is no time or space. We are all united liturgically, together, in the holy city of Bethlehem. Regardless of the calendar, we are One Body in Christ.
A blessed Nativity to all.
Christ is Born! Glorify Him!
With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon
It is Good to seeand read your post!
Thank you.
Blessed words you have left us, Father.
(If memory serves me well)
St Irenaeus of Lyons said,
“In necessary things unity, in doubtful things liberty, in all things charity.”
CHRIST IS BORN! GLORIFY HIM!
Pray with all your might Satan is amoung us!