https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/ukraine-christmas-orthodox-church-celebration-russia-war\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"“Ukraine\u2019s Orthodox worshippers have always celebrated Christmas on January 7 \u2014 but that will change for many this year, with the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) for the first time allowing its congregations to celebrate on December 25.
\nThis move creates a dividing line with Russia, which celebrates on January 7, and is likely to widen a rift between Ukraine\u2019s two feuding churches.<\/p>\n
In 2018, the OCU split from the similarly named Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), which is seen as politically linked to Moscow and is facing public demands for its closure amid accusations that it is a hotbed of fifth columnists \u2014 that is, people who support and secretly help the enemies of the country they live in.”<\/p>\n
…<\/p>\n
“According to Yevstratiy, already before the invasion, more than a third of Ukrainians wanted to change to the Gregorian calendar. \u201cThe numbers are probably higher now, and we are having an experiment to try to understand what worshippers really want,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are not moving the day of Christmas,\u201d he added. \u201cThis will be an additional day of worship,\u201d with celebrations held in accordance with the official Julian church calendar.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, the church will \u201cconsider what to do in the future, and we will observe closely how many congregations take up the opportunity to celebrate on December 25,\u201d Yevstratiy continued.” <\/p>\n
…<\/p>\n
“Political differences underpin the the split between the churches of the predominantly Orthodox nation: Western-oriented OCU churches offered support to the Maidan protesters of 2014, which toppled Viktor Yanukovych, Moscow\u2019s viceroy in Ukraine. Over recent years, the church been a strong advocate of Ukrainian statehood and sovereignty.<\/p>\n
The Russian-tied UOC claimed in May to have ended its subordination to Moscow\u2019s Metropolitan Kirill, a vociferous supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin \u2014 although few believe the split is sincere. The church\u2019s spokesperson, Metropolitan Klyment, dismissed as a political stunt the OCU\u2019s decision to allow its congregants to celebrate on December 25, claiming it as evidence of how the rival church is not a religious institution but a political organization eager to do the government\u2019s bidding.”<\/p>\n
…<\/p>\n
“The Kyiv-headquartered UOC dismisses the charge that its decision to allow congregations to celebrate Christmas on December 25 has anything to do with politics. Instead, it is merely responding to \u201cnumerous requests and taking into account the discussion that has been going on for many years in the church and in society.\u201d”<\/p>\n
…<\/p>\n
“The Gregorian calendar was introduced by Pope Gregory in 1582; the Julian calendar, established by Julius Caesar, harks back to 46 B.C.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[60,1799,57,311],"class_list":["post-9704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-share","tag-christianity","tag-christmas","tag-religion","tag-ukraine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9704"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9704\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9705,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9704\/revisions\/9705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}