Old calendarists

The term Old Calendarist refers to any Orthodox Christian or any Orthodox Church body which uses the historic Julian calendar (called "Old Style Calendar" or "Church calendar" or "Old Calendar"), and whose Church body is not in communion with the Orthodox Churches that use the New Calendar. The "Old Calendarists" (who are also sometimes styled "Old Calendar") are to be distinguished from Orthodox Christians or Orthodox Church bodies which are "on the" Old Calendar. The latter use the historic Julian calendar cited above, but "are" in communion with the Orthodox Churches that use the New Calendar. Thus, to be "Old Calendarist" or "Old Calendar" is not the same thing as being "on the Old Calendar"; and the Russian Orthodox Church, for instance, is not Old Calendarist (or Old Calendar), but it is on the Old Calendar. There are a great many Orthodox Christians who are (or who belong to Churches that are) "on the Old Calendar", but far fewer in number are the Orthodox Christians who are "Old Calendar" or "Old Calendarist."

The Julian Calendar is commonly opposed to the Gregorian Calendar introduced to Christianity by the Pope during the 15th century.

A revised form of the Julian Calendar, developed by Serbian astronomer Milutin Milanković, which mostly coincides with the Gregorian one, was finally adopted by the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Constantinople in 1924 as well as by the autocephalous Church of Greece. A minority of Orthodox Christians regarded this as a surrender of the Orthodox Church to the west and to the Pope and continued following the old calendar; some of these also broke communion with those who had adopted the new calendar, thus creating their own church.

This schism is the beginning of The Old Calendar Churches who suspended full communion and/or concelebration with other Orthodox churches ("New calendarists") over the adoption by the latter of the Revised Julian calendar (called " New Style Calendar", though the Revised Julian and New Style calendars are not strictly the same.) This is the most common use of the term.

Those Orthodox Churches which remain in full communion with the New calendarists and yet continue to use the Julian calendar, include the Orthodox Church of Jerusalem, the Russian Orthodox Church, the Serbian Orthodox Church, and the Georgian Orthodox Church. (The Julian calendar is also used by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia which has reunited with the Russian Orthodox Church.) Mount Athos subordinate to the Patriarchate of Constantinople also follows the Julian Calendar.

Some Orthodox Church bodies which are Old Calendarist have, in recent memory, sanctioned the practice of the New Calendar among some of their dioceses or parishes. For example, a group of parishes today known as the Bulgarian Diocese of the Orthodox Church in America, were until 1976 a part of Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR). These parishes were permitted to practice the New Calendar, even though the rest of ROCOR was on the Old Calendar. Thus, ROCOR at that time could have been called "New Calendarist".

External links

* [http://www.orthodoxfaith.com/calendar.html www.orthodoxfaith.com for an Old Calendarist perspective]
* [http://orthodoxwiki.org/Old_Calendarists OrthodoxWiki article about the Old Calendarists]
* [http://www.synodinresistance.org/Annals_en/E2d029barnes.pdf Statement on the Supposed “Anti-Patristic” Nature of Our Ecclesiology of Resistance]