Some Orthodox Christians in Ukraine are no longer celebrating Christmas on the usual Jan. 7. For the first time ever, Kyiv’s St. Michael’s monastery offered a Christmas mass on Dec. 25. The date change signals a wider cultural shift from Russia:
observe the cease-fire and has long viewed suggestions of a truce as efforts to buy Moscow time.
“Most … people will still celebrate Christmas in January and this shift will be very gradual,” he said. “Celebrating on Dec. 25 is a conscious decision, kind of public political statement, while celebrating on Jan. 7 is a tribute to tradition.” “It’s being suggested to change the calendar according to political slogans,” said Serhiy Yushchyk, pro-rector of the Kyiv Theological Academy. “We support all the patriotic moves, but at the same time reserve our right to have our own worldview on the issues of celebrating, calendar and so on.”
Some Ukrainians refer to UOC priests — many of whom attended seminary in Moscow and St. Petersburg — as “spies in robes.” Such contempt isn’t entirely misplaced: Ukrainian courts have convicted UOC priests of providing Russia’s military with the locations of Ukrainian military maneuvers. When the synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, considered the supreme global authority for Orthodox Christians, announced that it would begin the process of granting autocephaly, or independence, to the breakaway OCU in 2018, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church almost immediately broke ties with the Constantinople Patriarchate, triggering a schism.
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