Νεκταριος: And then there is Saint Nikolaos Planas who never stopped celebrating on the old calendar
I must read up on him! My own Greek priest, an archimandrite, gets a good chuckle (a rare thing from him for sure) over my keeping the Julian Calendar in our household as per my wife's home ACROD parish. My priest approves of what we do even if he still 'must' adhere to the 'company line'.
Demetri
Nickolai,
I was referring to the Greek old calenderists. The priests are mainly ignorant and try to keep people in the dark about spiritual enlightenment (because they don't want them to know more than they do), by keeping them under the rule of the priest of their church. The priests and most of the laity act in a way, that I have witnessed, as being judgemental fanatics and not realizing that it is that type of behaviour which shows a complete lack of love for one's brother/sister in Christ. It can scare many potential converts. I can give you plenty of examples.
For example, a confession that a young girl in her early 20's states that she likes a boy, would cause the priest to consider her a tramp and would probably not let her take Holy Communion without a severe penitence. Many young girls have been repulsed by this kind of attitude, as they see the males are given all the leniencies.
That is why I started going to the ROCA church. I am an old calendarist, but the Greek Orthodox fanatisms(mainly of the priests) just broke my nerves. With the Russians, I could breath more easily. It was a Greek friend that brought me there.
I adore my confessor-priest in ROCA. He is sweet and kind and will give a word where needed, but he is also married, which gives him more insight...whereas the Greek priests are ONLY monks who live in the city with people who they cannot understand and base their view on them as if they were monastics too.
I hope this clarifies my stance on the old calendar as per the fanatics.
Despite the old and new calendar Greeks. They won the Euro 2004.
I was praying to God when I was watching because I felt it was mainly a win for Orthodoxy. I can still hear the car horns and I hung the Greek flag outside my window, although I am not even Greek.
Guess I do still have some of that Greek fanatic attitude still in my blood.
Zito Hellas!!
Back to our regularly scheduled thread.
IS THERE A “CALENDAR QUESTION”?
The answer to this ‘question’ should be a resounding
Code: Select all
NO!
But is it?
Is it an issue?Suffice it to say, the “calendar issue” has been resolved. The Calendar has been thoroughly dealt with by the Orthodox Church. Its resolution has been made known to the entire world….
Code: Select all
To follow, or to disregard.The following quotes are from The Calendar Question, by Reverend Basile Sakkas, Translated by Holy Transfiguration Monastery.
QUOTE:
“OUR ADVERSARIES pretend that the calendar “is not a dogma”, thus leaving it to be understood that one can do with it what one pleases. Is the question of the calendar truly one of dogma? (The Calendar Question, by Reverend Basile Sakkas, p. 10, Published by Holy Trinity Monastery, Jordanville, new York.)
Does the wearing of a beard, or a rassa (garment) denote a dogmatical action? The Theotokos and Ever Virgin Mary gave birth in time to the Timeless One, our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ. That is an established dogma. It would seem appropriate that the entire Orthodox Church (since it is one Holy, Catholic and Apostolic) would celebrate the Birth of our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ – ON THE SAME DAY.
Sadly, this does not happen. Why does this not happen one may ask? After all, this is a most important Feast of the Orthodox Church.
The “reason” that all who call themselves Orthodox do not celebrate this most joyous Feast, which has a 40-day fast prescribe prior to the Feast itself, is that a “new” calendar has been, for lack of a more polite term, “introduced”.
In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII the reform of the calendar was passed. This act made October 4th now October 14th. Thus Gregorian calendar was initiated. The calendar used up until that time was known as the Julian calendar, named after Julius Caesar.
In 1924, the then Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople instituted the “new” calendar in Greece (quite forcefully one may add) so that the difference now measured 13 days as opposed to just 10 with Pope Gregory’s calendar.
“THE HOLY APOSTLE commands us saying, “Hold fast the traditions which ye have received, whether by word of mouth or through an epistle of ours.” (2 Thes. 11:15). These words were the exact words used by the Blessed Metropolitan Philaret, in the introduction of the book The Calendar Question. He goes on to state, “These condemnations (three condemnations of the Gregorian Calendar enacted by Pan-Orthodox councils in the 16th century and the Pan-Orthodox condemnation of modernism last century presided over by Patriarch Anthemus) were never lifted by any later council –they still stand and are binding for all Orthodox Christians. (Ibid, p, 5)
It would seem proper that if an Apostle actually commands something, then it should be obeyed. This is obviously not the case; at least in this case. Consider the following:
A. The Condemnation of the Papal New Calendar in 1583
In the work Ecclesiastical History, written by Metropolitan Meletius of Athens (published in Austria, 1784. Ch. XI, p. 402) we read:
Council of Jerusalem convoked because of the New Calendar. During the reign of the same Patriarch Jeremy, a Council of Metropolitans was convoked in Constantinople in 1583, with Sylvester, Patriarch of Alexandria, also being in attendance. This Council condemned the calendar, which had been introduced by Gregory of Rome, and did not accept it, as the Latins had requested.
According to the Codex Manuscript (#772) of the Russian Monastery of St. Panteleimon on Mount Athos, we learn of the sigillium (an official synodical decree, bearing the Patriarchal seals) issued by this council:
The sigillium of the Patriarchal Encyclical to the Orthodox Christians in every land commands them under the punishment and anathema not to accept the new Paschalion (the system of reckoning the date of Pascha) or the new calendar but to remain with that which was well defined once and for all by the 318 Holy and God-bearing Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council.
Code: Select all
In the year of the God-Man, 1583.
12th Indiction. November 20
The Patriarch of Constantinople Jeremy II
The Patriarch of Alexandria Sylvester
The Patriarch of Jerusalem Sophronius
And the other hierarchs of the Council who were present.Please note that this first condemnation came the year after the new calendar of Pope Gregory was introduced. The Council was actually convoked to deal with this issue. That is how important, at least back then, the calendar was deemed.
The Second Condemnation of the New Calendar in 1587.
In the Ecclesiastical History (Constantinople 1912. Vol. III., p. 125), written by Philaret Baphides, Metropolitan Of Didymotichon, we read a confirmation of the condemnation of 1583 and moreover: “Likewise in 1587, a council at Constantinople was convoked where, in the presence of Jeremy II, Meletius Pegas and Sophronius of Jerusalem, the correction of the calendar was condemned as being perilous and unnecessary and as being, rather, the cause of many dangers.”
The Third Condemnation of the New Calendar in 1593.
This Council took place in February, 1593, in the Holy Church of the Mother of God of Consolation. In its Eighth Canon, it prescribes the following concerning the change of the calendar:
Concerning the rejection of the new calendar, that is, the innovation of the Latins regarding the celebration of Pascha. We wish that that which has been decreed by the Fathers concerning Holy and Salutary Pascha remain unshaken … Let all those who have dared to transgress the definitions regarding the Holy Feast of the Salutary Pascha be excommunicated and rejected from the Church of Christ.
According to Polycarp, Bishop of Diaulia (Cf. The Change of the Calendar. Athens, 1947 p. 13) “…in 1593, a Council of the Orthodox Churches was convoked where the four patriarchs, the plenipotentiary of the Russian Church and many other Orthodox hierarchs representing the Orthodox churches participated. This Council reiterated the excommunication of the Most Holy Patriarch Jeremy II and issued an encyclical which, among other things, stated the following:
He that does not follow the customs of the Church which were decreed by the Seven Holy Ecumenical Councils which have ordained well that we observe the Holy Pascha and the Menologion,(the calendar of the moveable feasts) and wishes to follow the new Paschalia and Menologion of the Pope’s astronomers, and, opposing himself to all these things, wishes to overturn and destroy them, let him be anathema and outside of the Church of Christ and the assembly of the faithful…”
D. The Requirements of Sacred Tradition.
“Let him that transgresses the ecclesiastical traditions be deposed” (Canon No. 7 of the Seventh Ecumenical Council).
Of the doctrine and preaching which are preserved in the Church, some we possess derived from written doctrine, others we have received delivered to us “in secret” (en mysterio) by the tradition of the Apostles; and both of these have the same validity and force as regards piety. And these no one contradicts – no one, at all events, who is even moderately no written authority, on the ground that the importance that they possess is small, we would unintentionally harm the Gospel in its vitals; or, rather, would make our preaching mere words and nothing more (St. Basil, On the Holy Spirit 27:66; also Canon 91 of St. Basil the Great).
It should be required reading of all Orthodox Christians to learn this entire Canon by heart. The 92nd Canon of the same Saint confirms the above and also recalls the words of the divine Apostle: “Hold fast the traditions which ye have received, whether by word of mouth or through an epistle of ours” (2 Thes. 2:15).
Behold, therefore, why we adhere to the calendar of the Fathers:
Not because it is “Julian”, but because it has become “Ecclesiastical” and has always been the pulse of the Body of our most Holy Church. We keep this calendar because it is the one which we have received from the Fathers. The calendar of the West has been transmitted to us by no one. We keep this calendar because it was with this one that the Martyrs shed their blood, and our Fathers and Mothers in the Faith burned like living candles in their ascetical discipline. We keep this calendar of our Fathers because, according to the principle stated by St. Vincent of Lerins, it is the only one which has been used “always, everywhere, by all.” We keep this calendar because, if our Fathers were not upset by its inaccuracies, why should we become upset? We keep this calendar because, even if it is “erroneous, irregular, obsolete and antiquated,” yet it is also patristic, orthodox, sanctified, ecclesiastical, lived and celebrated at the same time by the whole Church, both in heaven and on earth.”
ENQUOTE
From these few quotes, any Orthodox Christian would have to agree that the calendar is of great importance to the Orthodox Church. In the above paragraph, a specific reason for the Orthodox Calendar is:
“ …Yet it is also patristic, orthodox, ecclesiastical, lived and celebrated at the same time by the whole Church, both in heaven and earth.”
AT THE SAME TIME BY THE WHOLE CHURCH, BOTH IN HEAVEN AND EARTH
Throughout history: in 1582, 1922 in Greece, and, most recently around 1981 or 1982 in America, the calendar used by the Orthodox Church was forcibly changed to the so-called “new” calendar, with some parishes being “allowed” to follow the “old” calendar.
It is becoming ever so increasingly apparent that there is no “calendar question” according to many people. Today, one hears or reads comments like: “We all celebrate the same saint or feast”; “The saints don’t care on what day their feast is celebrated”; “You’re being too “rigid”, too “unloving”, too “non ecumenistic”, and, too Orthodox!”
Code: Select all
That’s right, TOO ORTHODOX!
The “new” calendar has been thrice anathematized!Everyone knows this and is aware of both it and the consequences of their actions. Their choices have been made. If individuals elect to follow this “new” calendar, then so be it. Nothing can be done to change their minds except to relate what has been said above, and most importantly what has been already stated by:
Code: Select all
THE ORTHODOX CHURCH ITSELF