Starting this year, Ukrainian Orthodox churches will be able to celebrate Christmas on December 25th, in a further step away from Russia where it is celebrated on January 7th, based on the Julian calendar. For several years Ukraine has been discussing whether to align with the West in celebrating Christmas. Since 2017, 25 December is a public holiday, with the possibility for the faithful to pray in the Church. But the Russian invasion in February accelerated the process of religious and cultural separation, fueled by the position of the Russian Patriarch Kirill, so close to the Kremlin that he promised the absolution of all sins for the soldiers who die fighting in Ukraine.
As is known, in December 2018 the Ukrainian Orthodox Church formally separated from the Moscow Patriarchate, in a step blessed by the Patriarch of Constantinople but decidedly rejected by the Russian Church. Over 7,000 churches have embraced the new patriarchate of Kiev, but after the invasion at least half of the 1600 that had remained loyal to Moscow have distanced themselves from Kirill and no longer mention him in their prayers.
In October, the Ukrainian metropolitan announced that any church that so wishes will be able to celebrate a Christmas mass on 25 December. “We do not want to force anyone – the spokesman of the Church, Archbishop Yevstratiy Zoria told the Guardian today – I myself will decide what to do after speaking with my parishioners”.
There are those who will celebrate the two dates, so as not to upset the elderly
“It is best to promote this process slowly and successfully,” Zoria points out. Before the war, a third of the faithful were in favor of the change of date, he remarks, but now the consensus is much higher. The possibility of celebrating mass on December 25 will also be used to test the degree of membership.
Taras Pshenychnyi, a professor of Church history at Taras Shevchenko University told the Guardian that his students spontaneously raised the issue and were all in favor of December 25. At his home, he says, this year will be celebrated on both dates, so as not to upset the elderly parents. “Traditions can be progressive or retrograde. We must separate ourselves from the Russian cultural and mental traditions that hold us hostage – explains Pshenychny – We must proceed with caution, but we must do it. Russia uses its Orthodox parishes on Ukrainian territory as an ideological weapon“. Meanwhile, both Kirill and the Russian leaders describe the war in increasingly apocalyptic terms, with former president Dmitry Medvedev speaking of a clash against Satan. They are invectives that, together with the horrors of war, always contribute to digging a furrow deeper between the two churches.
After the Bolshevik revolution, the USSR adopted the Gregorian calendar with regard to civil life. The Orthodox Church, on the other hand, remained faithful to the Julian calendar. Now Ukraine is preparing to follow the calendar introduced by Pope Gregory in 1582 also with regard to Christmas.
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