Q: “Can you tell me why the New Calendar Churches and those in communion with them are so sensitive about the calendar issue? Why are they so quick in condemning traditionalists?”

A: Of course the true answer to your question is that you should ask them! Because only the New Calendarists and those in communion with them can really answer for themselves, but I think I can hazard a couple of ideas which may not be far off the mark.

First of all, some of the Old Calendarists are so extreme, so intent on condemning others and on constant vigil to see their faults, that I think that many New Calendarists think that all traditionalists are tarred with the same brush. This is not a very intelligent conclusion, but it is an understandable one. We all tend to fall into similar errors, judging whole peoples en bloc, rather than looking and listening to see what their true position is.

Again, many New Calendarists and “those in communion with them” (you were wise to add that phrase!), especially out here in the West where they are in a majority, have been treated unkindly and rudely by Old Calendarists, who think that harshness and rudeness are manifestations of righteous zeal. They are not. However, once bitten, as the proverb says, twice shy, and thereafter they are wary that all Old Calendarists might be the same or assume that they might be

Thirdly, I believe that many New Calendarists understand that their position is a wrong one; they understand that the involvement of their leaders and hierarchs in ecumenical activity is contrary to Orthodox tradition, but they go along with these things for a variety of reasons: convenience, family connections, failure to apply themselves to study those things which pertain to their salvation, false loyalty to clergymen, comfort, and so on. However, in doing this they also feel a little guilt, and one of the things that we tend to do when we feel our own position is unsound or when we feel guilt about something is to strike out at others, deflecting, we think, attention from ourselves.

Then again, there is herd-mentality; one wishes to be “in” with the crowd, and so one adopts the views and opinions one hears from them. (This, of course, can also apply to Old Calendarists). Often the leaders, – and I do not necessarily mean their leaders in the hierarchy or clergy, but often just those who become vocal proponents of their position, – are not adverse to spreading false rumours about the stance of the traditionalists. I remember years ago, when we were in ROCA, which was then part of the traditionalist movement within Orthodoxy, a lady from the Moscow Patriarchate parish visited us. She was surprised that we would allow her to go inside the church, but said: “I would not be allowed to come to a service, though, would I?” Well, of course she would have been and would have been welcome to do so, but somewhere someone had told her that we would not accept her in Christian love.

All this may raise the question, why the New Calendarists, and those in communion with them, are so particularly vehement in their attacks on the moderate traditionalists, and I think the reason for this is that it is easy to dismiss the extremists as fanatical, and therefore they pose no threat. But those that are moderate, understanding of the difficulties, willing to show, as far as lies within them, Christian love, and yet are firm in their adherence to the Church’s traditions perhaps seem more of a threat to their chosen position because they cannot be easily dismissed as nut-cases.

 

- The Shepherd: An Orthodox Christian Pastoral Magazine, Saint Edward Brotherhood, Woking, UK, Vol. XLVI, No. 2, October 2025, pp. 17-19.