Patriarch Bartholomew can make a gesture by stating that he will remain in communion with jurisdictions that, like Finland, adopt the Gregorian paschalion.
In the alternative, the Easterners can adopt the half-way measure of adjusting their lunar tables to agree better with the visible moon. At present the Julian lunar tables are 4 to 5 days off. For example, in 2025 the Gregorian full moon was on April 13 while the Julian full moon was on April 17.
We’re unable to do that. The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, the Russian Orthodox Church (the largest Eastern Orthodox Church), the Serbian Orthodox Church, the Georgian Orthodox Church and the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, as well as the Athonite monks, who use the Julian calendar are so frustrated with the EP as to be nearing the end of what patience will permit, and our Oriental Orthodox communion partners, the Coptic Orthodox and Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox, as well as the Syriac Orthodox Archdioces of Jerusalem and the Armenian Apostolic Patriarchate of Jerusalem (one of four autocephalous Armenian jurisdictions) are absolutely committed to the Julian calendar, as is much of the diaspora, for example, ROCOR, the OCA parishes in Alaska, many parishes including the cathedral of the American Carpatho-Rusyn Orthodox Diocese, and the Serbians.
What you’re proposing would do three things:
1. Create a schism within the Eastern Orthodox Church (where serious risk of one exists already), both between the Ecumenical Patriarchate and certain churches which are still in communion with both the EP and the MP but are increasingly upset with the EP’s actions, for example, Georgia, Serbia and Jerusalem (the EP already managed to alienate Antioch and the MP), and within the Ecumenical Patriarchate itself, because the Athonite Monks will never agree to the change you propose, being fully committed to the Julian Calendar.
Given that the largest Eastern Orthodox church by far is the Moscow Patriarchate, and in the US the largest jurisdictions are the OCA, (multi-ethnic, the largest portion of which is the DIocese of Sitka and Alaska, consisting of the Aleuts and Native Alaskans evangelized by the Russian Orthodox missionaries St. Herman of Alaska, St. Innocent of Alaska and others, who use the Julian Calendar, such as the great martyr St. Peter the Aleut, a 15 year old boy who received a crown of martyrdom after refusing to convert to Roman Catholicism after he and the rest of his fishing party were arrested in California in the 18th century), also many OCA parishes are on the Julian Calendar, entirely or partially; the OCA is not recognized as an autocephalous church by Constantinople because their Tomos of Autocephaly came from the MP in 1970), AOCNA (the Antiochian Orthodox Church of North America, already not in communion with Constantinople), GoArch (the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese, under Constantinople, also the only North American church with a declining membership, with a reputation for liberalism and ethnocentrism, except in the monasteries of Elder Ephraim, who would prefer to be on the Julian calendar if they had a choice in the matter), and ROCOR, an autonomous church under the MP, with many Ukrainian members (Metropolitan Hilarion Kapral, memory eternal, who reposed from cancer three years ago, was the primate of ROCOR and a Canadian of Ukrainian ethnicity), not in communion with the EP, but for the moment, despite their parent churches either not fully recognizing each other or not being in communion, these four churches along with the Serbians, Romanians, Bulgarians and the three parishes of the Georgian Orthodox Church are the members of SCOBA, the Society of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of America, cooperating, which a sudden unilateral change in calendar would rupture.
2. Interfere with ecumenical reconciliation, specifically with the Coptic Orthodox (the second largest autocephalous OO church), the Eritrean Tewahedo Orthodox, and Ethiopian Tewahedo Orthodox (the largest autocephalous OO church) are fully committed to the Julian calendar. Frankly, EO/OO reunification is much more important to us, and more likely to happen, than EO/RCC reunfiication, particularly since we already have limited intercommunion agreements between the Syriac Orthodox and Antiochian Orthodox and between the Greek Orthodox Church of Alexandria and the Coptic Orthodox Church, which contain in them the only provisions where a non-EO is allowed, by us, to receive communion in an Orthodox parish (while Catholics will give the Eucharist to the Orthodox, the reverse is not the case; I wish it were, but many Orthodox are strongly opposed to reunion with the Roman Catholics.
3. Greatly boost the membership of the schismatic Old Calendarists, which plague the Greek and Romanian churches (the Romanian church being the second largest autocephalous Eastern Orthodox church).
What Roman Catholics don’t understand is how important the Julian Calendar is to the Orthodox, and why its important, specifically, continuity in the worship in Jerusalem, where all EO and OO Christians use the Julian Calendar (after its publication in 1920, the Patriarchate of Jerusalem tried the Revised Julian Calendar, but the Holy Fire miracle did not happen, which was enough to cause the entire Patriarchate to change its mind. Many important events in the Holy Land are tied to the Julian Calendar.
Also the very important St. Catharine’s Monastery in Sinai uses the Julian Calendar.
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Frankly, it would be easier and more realistic for the RCC to return to using the Julian Calendar.
I would note that the Church of Finland is a special case because there, the Orthodox, who represent about 10% of the actively practicing Christians in Finland, were essentially persuaded into standardizing the date by the Finnish Government, which subsidizes both the Lutheran and the Orthodox church. Lately however some Finns have joined ROCOR parishes, frustrated by the antics of the Finnish hierarchy, which is the most liberal of any of the others mentioned.
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
