WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th May, 2023) The decision of the non-canonical Orthodox Church in Ukraine (OCU) to adopt the revised Julian Calendar will most likely not deepen the schism in Ukraine, but will instead unify the flock of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), ROCOR Synod of Bishops Chancellor Serafim Gan told Sputnik on Wednesday.
Earlier in the day, the leadership of the schismatic OCU announced that they will adopt the revised Julian calendar, which is informally referred to as the "new calendar," beginning on September 1. The OCU will therefore celebrate Christmas on December 25 instead of January 7 and will commemorate all other holidays 13 days earlier.
"It is unlikely that this decision will deepen the schism. On the contrary, it will strengthen and unify Orthodox Christians in their standing for the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra," Gan said, referring to the major Ukrainian monastery that belongs to the UOC's jurisdiction.
The Ukrainian government, however, has begun persecuting the UOC clergy and had ordered the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra brotherhood to join the schismatic OCU or vacate the monastery.
Gan said he is confident the OCU's decision to adopt the revised Julian calendar will not influence believers.
"The Orthodox Christians who faithfully follow His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufry and the persecuted Ukrainian Orthodox Church will simply ignore this decision," he said.
Gan also said the OCU's decision to use the revised Julian calendar will move many other Orthodox Christians to pray for the persecuted believers in Ukraine.
Moreover, Gan characterized the OCU as being a political organization created by politicians with support from foreign church leaders seeking to weaken Orthodoxy and the unity of its churches.
"However, as history shows, such attempts are doomed to fail," he said.
Gan noted that St. Tikhon (Bellavin), Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, was similarly rejected by the so-called renovated church - also called the "living church" - in the former Soviet Union in the early 1920s.
"What happened to those people then? The memory of the living church and its supporters has disappeared, while St. Tikhon is revered by all Orthodox believers and prays with the saints for us. In this case, unfortunately, history is repeating itself," Gan said.
In late 2018, then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Constantinople Patriarch Bartholomew initiated the creation of the OCU. The new church was granted autocephaly, which means it gained the status of an autonomous Christian church. The Russian Orthodox Church considers OCU to be non-canonical and severed relations with the Constantinople Patriarchate as well as with other church leaders who accepted the split.
In recent months, the Kiev regime of Volodymyr Zelenskyy has increased pressure on the UOC. On December 2, Zelenskyy signed an order imposing restrictive measures against representatives of religious organizations allegedly connected with Russia.
On January 1, the UOC clergy was denied access to the Assumption Cathedral of its headquarters, the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, while the OCU received permission from the authorities to hold a Christmas service in the cathedral on January 7.
