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Bulgarian Orthodox Church rejects changing the date of Christmas
20:29 Sat 17 May 2008 - Clive Leviev-Sawyer
In a decision on an issue that symbolises the divisions in the
Bulgarian Orthodox Church, its national council has turned down a
proposal to return to the Julian calendar and celebrate Christmas on
January 7.
The decision was taken at the sixth National Orthodox Church Council,
which began meeting on May 14 and closes on May 18. The council is
discussing wide range of issues, including the permissible minimum
age limit for its head, to be elected after the death of Patriarch
Maxim, who is in his 90s and in frail health.
"There is no need to change the calendar, more so because Bulgaria is
on the road to Western Europe where holidays are established and are
celebrated on the same day," the spokesperson for the council,
Patriarch Tihon, was quoted as saying by Bulgaria's Focus news agency.
Bulgaria, as a country, changed from the Julian to the Gregorian
calendar in March 1916. The Bulgarian Orthodox Church made the change
in 1968, sparking a long-running feud between "Old Calendarists" and
"New Calendarists" which resurfaced on the agenda of this year's
council meeting at Rila Monastery.
Among countries where the Eastern Orthodox Christian Church
dominates, Russia, Georgia and Serbia celebrate Christmas on January
- Armenia, on a slightly different calendar celebrates on January 6.
The Greek Orthodox Church celebrates Christmas on December 25.
The 2008 council, attended by 190 delegates, is significant because
rivals in the church are preparing for the time when Patriarch Maxim,
now 93 and who has been head of the church since 1971, will die.
There has been severe strife in the church during his leadership,
especially after the fall of communism, when there were attempts by
anti-communist political and church forces to oust him. Maxim's ill
health was given as the reason for the postponement of this council's
meeting two years ago.
However, observers of the church note that Maxim's continued
presence, in spite of his frailty which has kept him away from a
vigorous public role, is keeping the lid on disputes between rival
factions on serious issues, from the direction the church should take
as a social force, to whether to allow the alienation of church
property for real estate development.
One idea doing the rounds at the Rila gathering was whether to lower
the minimum age for a Patriarch from 50 to 45 or even 40. Another
debate which symbolises the tension between conservatives and
reformists is about whether to stop using Church Slavonic at services
and adopt modern Bulgarian to enable churchgoers to easily understand
what is being said.
Standart newspaper reported on May 14 that an idea to reduce the size
of the Holy Synod had numerous supporters. The reform envisages that
the Holy Synod would be cut down to six metropolitans, applying a
rotation principle for replacements.
On May 17, it was announced that the council would probably soon
resume deliberations because it was unlikely to complete its agenda.
In another decision, the council, which gathers both clergy and
Bulgarian Orthodox laity, decided to remove the word "People's" from
the name of the gathering.
Speaking on May 14 at the opening of the council, President Georgi
Purvanov said that the gathering should play an important role in
strengthening the church's place in Bulgarian society.
In a reference to the strife involving the church after the fall of
communism, Purvanov said that there had been "negative events" that
had damaged the standing of the church, but this had been ended with
the approval in 2002 of a new law on the registration of religious
denominations.
According to a report by Bulgarian news agency BTA, Purvanov said
that Bulgaria pinned its hopes on the Bulgarian Orthodox Church
helping inovercoming the negative and alarming phenomena happening
with the new generation that was born and grew up in the difficult
years of Bulgaria's post-communist transition.