Ukrainian Lutheran Church to Move Christmas to December 25 on Julian Calendar

The Ukrainian Lutheran Church (ULC) has announced that it will move to the New Julian Calendar, according to a report by risu.org. The source describes the change as the first such case in Ukraine.

The synod made the decision, and the church said its next Christmas would fall on December 25, 2018, rather than on January 7, 2019. The church said it wished to celebrate Christmas together with the wider Christian world on the same date.

The source says the decision followed an earlier exchange of views and discussion in parishes. A video of the synod’s day on the transition is dated December 16, 2017. The source names pastor Taras Kokovsky in connection with the announcement, and it reports that members may celebrate Christmas on the Julian calendar under the ULC decision made on that date.

The church gave two main reasons for the change. The first was to preserve its historic tradition. The second, according to the source, was that Ukrainian Lutheranism developed out of a close relationship with the Ukrainian people, and the synod wished to keep that legacy. The synod said the decision was meant to honor the work of the church’s founding fathers and its early faithful, passing on that inheritance to the next generation (Psalm 78:4).

The source also says that information about the changes was not yet widely known to Ukrainians at the time of the report.

Source: Read the original report (translated from Ukrainian)