About this said Primate of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church Svyatoslav in an interview with Hromadskyi.
“We celebrate together with our Orthodox brothers. We came from the same root – from the Kyiv tradition. We celebrate together with the majority of Christians in the country, and this is a very important moment,” he noted, adding that the fact that Greek Catholics have their own liturgical rhythm does not make them “second class” Catholics.
The spiritual leader of the Ukrainian Greek Catholics reminded of two cycles of calculating the date of holidays: one – according to the solar calendar and includes all the so-called fixed holidays, the other – according to the lunar calendar and includes the moving holidays. The history of calculating the day of the Easter celebration is connected with the decisions of the Ecumenical Council in Nicaea in 325.
Svyatoslav emphasized that in 2025, Easter for Catholics and Orthodox Christians will fall on the same day.
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“Many were hoping that we would be able to celebrate together from now on. Unfortunately, I have to say that it is not possible yet,” he noted.
According to him, the problem is that the Orthodox no longer convene ecumenical councils, they recognize only seven ecumenical councils of the first millennium, because there are various mystifications that the eighth will be the alleged “council of the antichrist”.
Instead, he noted, in the Western Church, ecumenical councils continued to be convened, so today Christians need an all-church council, which would encompass not only Western Christianity, but Eastern Christianity as well. Svyatoslav admitted that this issue cannot be resolved only at the local level.
“I especially want to thank Patriarch Bartholomew for his position and voice in Universal Orthodoxy. He seems to be the only prophet today who says that the Orthodox world needs to reform Easter. In Ukrainian Orthodoxy, even now, no one is talking about it,” Svyatoslav summed up.
- On May 4, the Holy Fire was lit in the temple above the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem.
- President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed citizens on the occasion of the Easter holiday and stated that Ukrainians kneel only in prayer, and never before invaders and occupiers.
- Late in the evening on the eve of Easter, the Holy Fire from Jerusalem arrived in Ukraine.
