LVIV, Ukraine (RNS) — On a recent Sunday, Ukrainian Orthodox Abbott Job Olshansky faced 50 stoic parishioners and presented his case for why the community should switch to the Gregorian liturgical calendar on Sept. 1.The war in Ukraine has accelerated a restructuring of religious life across the country that aims to untangle itself from Russian influence, which has long shaped its history. The leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, has enthusiastically supported Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin’s view that Ukraine’s land and culture are foundationally Russian.
“The desire to preserve and affirm our own, Ukrainian, spiritual identity, protection from the aggression of the ‘Russian world,’ requires us to make a timely decision,” Olshansky told his parishioners.
For centuries, Orthodox Ukrainians saw the traditional Julian calendar as one of the anchors of their church’s identity — first as a sign of resistance to Latinization by the Catholic monarchs reigning in western Ukraine and then as resistance to the Soviet system. But in recent decades, the Julian calendar has become associated with support for Russian, not Ukrainian, Orthodoxy.
The calendar shift means millions of Ukrainians will celebrate Christmas on Dec. 25 this year instead of Jan. 7, when Russian and some other Orthodox churches celebra …
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“The desire to preserve and affirm our own, Ukrainian, spiritual identity, protection from the aggression of the ‘Russian world,’ requires us to make a timely decision,” Olshansky told his parishioners.
For centuries, Orthodox Ukrainians saw the traditional Julian calendar as one of the anchors of their church’s identity — first as a sign of resistance to Latinization by the Catholic monarchs reigning in western Ukraine and then as resistance to the Soviet system. But in recent decades, the Julian calendar has become associated with support for Russian, not Ukrainian, Orthodoxy.
The calendar shift means millions of Ukrainians will celebrate Christmas on Dec. 25 this year instead of Jan. 7, when Russian and some other Orthodox churches celebra …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]