On February 7, 2023, OCU speaker Yevstratiy Zorya expressed his opinion on three popular arguments against the calendar reform. All of them are connected with the Jerusalem church. This is reported by the website of the publication Glavkom.

According to Zorya, Jerusalem does not keep the old calendar because they “know something” or because their tradition is “older”.

“In fact, the reason is completely different and quite prosaic. It’s called the status quo. This is the order of using holy places in general and the Church of the Resurrection and the Holy Sepulcher in particular, established over the previous centuries. As you know, they are divided between a number of Christian confessions (Orthodox, Catholics, Copts, Armenians) according to the time of use and space. The status quo was formed on the basis of the calendar difference that arose back in the 16th century. If (when) the Patriarchate of Jerusalem adopts the New Julian calendar, as all the neighboring Churches and all the Churches of the Greek tradition did, the problem of changing the status quo will arise, when it will be necessary to re-determine when and how to use holy places on holidays that fall at the same time. Changing the status quo is a revolution. Nobody wants a revolution. Therefore, the calendar remains unchanged, ”said the speaker of the OCU.

Regarding the time of the convergence of the Holy Fire according to the Julian calendar, Zorya stated that “the mythology around the ceremony of the Holy Light is widespread to a large extent in the Moscow Patriarchate. In Greek, no one calls the fire of Great Saturday – grace-filled, but Holy light, which symbolizes the light from the tomb that shone at the moment of the Resurrection of Christ. The light shone, but not the fire caught fire! However, this is a different topic. The ceremony of the Holy Light itself takes place on Great Saturday after Paschal, which is followed by all Local Churches, including those that adhere to the New Julian calendar.”

He emphasized that, thus, the calendar reform “does not concern the date of calculating Easter (and Great Saturday before it), therefore, according to the“ old ”and“ new ”style, it will be the same day.”

The speaker also spoke about the argument that on Tabor the cloud descends on the Transfiguration on August 19, and the Jordan turns its course on January 19, that is, on holidays according to the Julian calendar.

“Without examining even the most dubious certainty that such “calendar miracles” really occur (the appearance of a cloud over a mountain or a change in the current in a river is possible anywhere from time to time), we must say that even if this really happened every year in the same days, is it not more logical to explain this by saying that it is on such days that the faithful celebrate? And not vice versa. That is, that God shows a sign of his mercy when the holiday. And when they celebrate 13 days earlier, then these signs may appear during the celebration, and not according to the number on the calendar, ”the “hierarch” said.

In the end, Zorya summed up that “none of these three arguments really have any weight to deny the adoption of the New Julian calendar.”