The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kyiv Patriarchate (KP) claimed that the United Local Church does not consider the issue of the transfer of the celebration of Christmas from January 7 to December 25 as Archbishop Yevstraty (Zoria), the spokesperson of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – KP reported.
According to him, the spread of the information that due to the provision of the Tomos, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church will shift to a "new style" is the informational provocation of Moscow origin. It is an informational diversion, which should raise disputes and distrust between the believers in Ukraine on the eve of the important events.
"The mass media of the Russian propaganda provide the fact in its news that the United Local Church supposedly "will use new style of the church calendar" without any evidence or links. I would like to officially reported that the issue of the switch to another calendar was not raised and considered in the process of the unification and provision of the Tomos. Each autocephaly Church will consider the calendar issue on its own and any regulations or demands on this issue in Tomos provided by Ecumenical Patriarchate in the 20th century were not established," Zoria reported on Facebook.
He also reminded that last year December 25 was recognized as a holiday by the law of Ukraine and everyone who wants celebrate it in accordance with own convictions can do this as the issue of Tomos and autocephaly is not connected with it.
As we reported the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko and the Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine Oleksandr Turchynov congratulated people of Ukraine with Christmas on December 25 before the New Year for the first time in the history of the independent Ukraine.
