On September 1st, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine moved to the Revised Julian (“New”) Calendar. Fixed festivals will now align with Gregorian Calendar dates. In a statement, the OCU Synod stated that the Julian (“Old”) Calendar had become associated predominately with the Russian tradition. In addition, they point out that the Julian system has no…
Continue readingDebating Christmas Day: Copts, Calendars, and the Immigrants’ Church
by Michael Akladios and Candace Lukasik This essay is co-published with the Coptic Canadian History Project. A longer version is available on the CCHP website. On December 11, 2019, Metropolitan Serapion and the clergy of the Diocese of Los Angeles, Southern California, and Hawaii wrote a statement pronouncing that Christmas celebrations will be held in…
Continue readingSome Common Misperceptions about the Date of Pascha/Easter
by John Fotopoulos | български | ქართული | Ελληνικά | Română | ру́сский | Српски This essay was originally published in 2017. It has been updated for 2021. A common misperception among Orthodox Christians is that Orthodox Easter (i.e. Pascha) often occurs so much later than Western Christian Easter because the Orthodox Church abides by…
Continue readingSome Common Misperceptions about the Date of Pascha/Easter
by John Fotopoulos There is a common misperception among Orthodox Christians that the reason why Orthodox Easter (i.e. Pascha) often occurs so much later than Western Christian Easter is because the Orthodox Church abides by the rules for calculating the date of Pascha issued by the 1st Ecumenical Council at Nicaea in 325 AD and […]
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