The Soviet regime demanded that Patriarch St. Tikhon (+1925) change the liturgical calendar from Julian to Gregorian on this day in 1923. At the end of 1917, the future Renovationist priest Mikhail Galkin addressed the Soviet government with a proposal to implement civil marriages (at that time, marriages for Orthodox fell under the jurisdiction of the Church) and a new ecclesiastical calendar, and to confiscate church property. According to Arseny V. Sokolov, Galkin’s letter became the foundation for the Soviet Decree on the Separation of Church and State, published on February 2, 1918. Even though the decree proclaimed freedom of conscience, it was impossible to defend believers from abuses of power in this new “atheist” country without any checks and balances in its system of government. From 1922 to 1928, the Commission for the Separation of Church and State (the so-called Anti-Religious Commission) pressured church leaders and attempted to recruit them as state informants and agents. At a meeting of the Commission on September 18, 1923, it was decided that Patriarch Tikhon should reform the church calendar to make it compatible with the civil one, shut down parish councils (which had been introduced by a decision of the All-Russian Council in 1918), and permit the second marriages for clergy. On September 24, at the meeting with his Synod, Patriarch Tikhon decided to adopt the revised Julian calendar in the Russian Church without changing the Paschalia. The Russian Church introduced the new calendar on October 15, 1923. The motivation for introducing the new calendar was to remain in prayerful communion with the rest of the Orthodox Church (apparently, the Patriarch was under the impression that all Orthodox Churches had switched to the new calendar). Patriarch Tikhon’s epistle was never published, and the calendar reform was only carried out in Moscow. On November 8, 1923, Patriarch Tikhon, under the advice of Archbishop St. Hilarion (Troitskii), put the whole calendar reform on hold, making Evgenii Tuchkov, the Secretary of the Anti-Religious Commission (whom one might call the Soviet "Ober-Procurator") furious. This decision became another testimony to Patriarch Tikhon’s conciliar mindset. On another occasion, he changed his mind regarding an ecclesiastical union with two Renovationist leaders. Nor did he follow through on his decision to shut down the Supreme Church Administration of the Church Abroad. Sources Arkhivy kremlia: Politburo i Tserkov (1922-1925) [Kremlin Archives. In 2 books / Book 1. Politburo and the Church] 1. (Moscow-Novosibirsk, 1997). Arsenii V. Sokolov, Gosudarstvo I Pravolsavnaia tserkov’ v Rossii, fevral’ 1917- ianvar’ 1918 [The State and Orthodox Church in Russia in February 1917-January 1918 ](Dissertation, St.Petersburg, 2014]. Letopis’ tserkovnykh sobytii nachinaia s 1917 goda [Timeline of Church Events Beginning with 1917]. Part 1: 1917-1927. Historical Studies of the Russian Church Abroad.
|
