Page 25 - AECA.org.uk ¦ Koinonia 68

Calendar observed in the West, and what prospect there might be of
celebrating Easter together; secondly, the way in which the Orthodox Calendar
inserts the drama of salvation into the history of creation.
First, the difference between Orthodox and Western Christian
Calendars. As we have seen, Christians in the Roman Empire accepted the
calendar of the Empire, the Julian Calendar. This is an attempt to stop the solar
year from slipping away from its alignment with the seasons. The solar year is
about 365 and a quarter days long; a year of 365 days will be always slipping
back, starting a quarter of a day earlier each year. The Julian calendar created a
leap year every four years; in that year February had an extra day, making 29
days. In this way the awkward quarter day in the solar year is compensated for.
However, this is an overcorrection. Over the centuries the year gets ahead of
itself. In the sixteenth century, in the wake of the changes brought about by
the Council of Trent, the Gregorian calendar was devised, named after Pope
Gregory XIII, who introduced it in 1582. This differs from the Julian Calendar
by having slightly fewer leap years: if the year ends in two zeros, and so would
normally be a leap year, it is only a leap year if it is divisible by 400 (instead of
the normal rule of being divisible by 4). The decree also ordained that in 1582,
October 4 would be followed by October 15, ten days being dropped so as to
restore the equinoxes and solstices to their traditional dates. The Catholic
countries of Europe followed this decree, and rather later the Protestant ones.
The Orthodox, except in Russia, were under the Ottoman yoke; their calendar
had become purely religious, and they stuck to it, as did Russia. At the
beginning of the twentieth century, an attempt was made to reform the
calendar in the Orthodox countries, most of which had only recently gained
independence. This produced the Revised Julian Calendar, which jumped 13
days and brought it into line with the Gregorian Calendar, but which differed
from the Gregorian calendar having a different way of determining leap years
in the years ending with two zeros (two leap years in the final year of the
century every 900 years, instead of two every 800); this slight correction is
meant to keep the calendrical year in more accurate alignment with the
astronomical solar year. The difference is slight, and won’t, in any case, become
apparent until the year AD 2800! A congress of many Orthodox Churches in
Constantinople, held in 1923, endorsed this calendar, but only some Churches
put it into practice, including, incidentally, Russia (or at least Moscow), though
it added so much to the confusion of the times that the decision, by Patriarch

23