Ukrainian Orthodox Church to switch to Julian Calendar.

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church will switch to the Julian calendar starting on September 1.

Pope adds Coptic Orthodox martyrs to Catholic calendar

From the US Conference of Catholic Bishops:

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis has continued his predecessors' serious commitment to ecumenical dialogue, but he also makes ecumenical gestures that underline that seriousness.

During his formal meeting May 11 with Coptic Orthodox Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria, Egypt, Pope Francis announced that he was adding to the Catholic calendar of saints the 21 Coptic martyrs killed in Libya by Islamic State fighters in 2015

Of note:

The Coptic church is one of the Oriental Orthodox churches -- Christian communities of North Africa, the Middle East and India -- that accepted the teachings adopted at the first three ecumenical councils, but rejected the Christological definition of the fourth council, held in Chalcedon in 451.

However, through theological and ecumenical dialogue, the Oriental Orthodox churches and mainline Christian communities have concluded that those differences were a matter of terminology and not substance. Between 1971 and 1996, leaders of each of the independent Oriental Orthodox churches signed declarations with either St. Paul VI or St. John Paul II affirming a common faith in Christ's humanity and divinity.

"Reconciliation and unity require a long journey," Pope Tawadros told reporters, "and this is happening after 15 centuries of separation."

Truly remarkable, and a great action in my view.

Lex Anteinternet: Thursday, May 3, 1923. The attempt to depose Archbishop Tikhon.

Lex Anteinternet: Thursday, May 3, 1923. The attempt to depose Arc...:   

Thursday, May 3, 1923. The attempt to depose Archbishop Tikhon.

 

Archbishop Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, was expelled by the church and declared a traitor by the Communist dominated All Russian Church Council and declared "henceforth a simple citizen—Vasily Bellavin."

The body further declared:

Inasmuch as the Soviet Government is the only one in the whole world fighting capitalism, which is one of the seven deadly sins, therefore its struggle is a sacred struggle. The Council condemns the counterrevolutionary acts of Tikhon and his adherents, lifts the ban of excommunication he laid on the Soviet Government, and brands him as a traitor to the Church and to Russia. It hereby formally abolishes the office of Patriarch forever and establishes an annual Church Council as the supreme directive body in Church affairs.

The Russian Orthodox Church naturally did not recognize the move, and he continued to offer Devine Liturgy for the rest of his life, which at this point was not to be much longer. The Russian Orthodox Church has declared him to be a saint.  The move by the All Russian Church Council lead to the establishment of a competing church, which died out in the 1940s.  Of note, the establishment of competing government aligned churches is a common practice by authoritarian regimes.  Communist China at one time established a rival church to the Catholic Church, aligned with the government, and Nazi Germany attempted to create an aligned Lutheran Church, although the German efforts failed.

The move would lead to a period of irregular leadership in the Russian Orthodox Church, which was unable to procedural choose a successor in the regular method for a period of time, after Tikhon's death.

Then Bishop Tikhon at the consecration of Anglican Bishop Reginald Heber Weller at St. Paul's Cathedral in the Episcopal Diocese of Fond du Lac.  Also present are Anthony Kozlowski of the Polish National Catholic Church in what sort of amounts to an interesting collection of clerics either claiming Apostolic succession, in the case of the Anglican's, or actually having it in the case of the Russian Orthodox and Polish National Catholic Church, and yet not being in communion with Rome.

Tikhon had been a clergyman for a very long time, but had only been head of the Russian Orthodox Church since 1917.  Earlier in his career he had been the Bishop of the Aleutian Islands and Alaska, which became the Diocese of the Aleutian Islands and North America, and was a naturalized American citizen.  He was a participant, which is to say receptive, to the conversion of Byzantine Catholics into the Orthodox Church due to the ill feelings caused by Catholic Bishop John Ireland's view toward Eastern Rite Catholics comporting with the Latin Rite and Pope Pius X's restriction on Eastern Rite priests marrying, the latter which was later changed and the former which is recognized as a signficant mistake by Bishop Ireland.