Inquiring into Orthodoxy: Calendar and False Ecumenism

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Green
Newbie
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu 23 June 2016 12:11 am
Faith: Christian Seeker

Inquiring into Orthodoxy: Calendar and False Ecumenism

Post by Green »

I am a seeker trying to find The Church of Christ.

I have some problems. I have a hard time believing that the calendar is a heresy (or a dogma) isnt what is catholic that which is 'believed everywhere always by everyone' as St. Vincent of Lerins expounds? St. Polycarp followed the Quartodeciman reckoning of Easter who was a disciple of St. John. It wasn't until Nicea that the liturgical calendar became uniform, that is atleast my understanding.

Has false ecumenism officially (synodally?) been recieved by 'World Orthodoxy'?

Justice
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Re: Inquiring into Orthodoxy: Calendar and False Ecumenism

Post by Justice »

Welcome to ecafe Green!

I'm not as knowledgeable as some on this forum, though I can try to give a decent response. The Old Calendar was chosen at the first ecumenical council as the official christian calendar. The main reason being that the Julian calendar (old calendar) was the most accurate calendar at the time and was easy to follow. In 1582, Pope Gregory adopted the Gregorian calendar for the Roman Catholic Church not for religious reasons, but for astronomical correctness. The Pan-Orthodox council in 1583 condemns this heretical innovation in canon seven:

"That whoever does not follow the customs of the Church as the Seven Holy Ecumenical Councils decreed, and Holy Pascha, and the Menologion with which they did well in making it a law that we should follow it, and wishes to follow the newly-invented Paschalion and the New Menologion of the atheist astronomers of the Pope, and opposes all those things and wishes to overthrow and destroy the dogmas and customs of the Church which have been handed down by our fathers, let him suffer anathema and be put out of the Church of Christ and out of the Congregation of the Faithful."

In modern times, the New Calendar (the Gregorian calendar with the exception of Pascha) was put upon the church of Greece not for astronomical correctness, but to develop better relations with the Catholics and Protestants which had adopted the Gregorian Calendar. Not only was it put into place in an un-Orthodox manner, but it was also under anathema. The calendar itself may not be an official dogma of the church, but it is holy tradition and we are told to keep traditions whether they're passed down oraly or by the pen. Since the calendar innovation, the "World Orthodox" hierarchs have fully embraced the heresy of ecumenism and modernism and can no longer be called Orthodox.

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