Русская Версия

September 14, 2009
New York: Epistle of Bishop Jerome on the Ecclesiastical New Year

Dear in the Lord brothers and sisters,

On the first day of September (Sept. 1/14 according the Julian calendar), we observe the ecclesiastical New Year.

In the Russian Church, there are two New Years: at the beginning of September, we celebrate the beginning of “Anno Creationis”, that is, we now mark the beginning of A.C. 7518; and on January 1/14, that of A.D. 2010 (considering the first year “A.D.” as beginning one week after the birth of Christ). Of course, both these dates are “stylized”, since no one knows the exact date of the Creation, or of the birth of the Divine Child. However, since, on the Julian computation, one year is a precise measurement of time (consisting of exactly 365 and one quarter days), unlike the New Style or Gregorian calendar where a year can fluctuate, we can count exactly how many days have gone by since any date in the past. Therefore, our “Old Style” coincides with the calculations used in astronomy and navigation.

In our churches, for that reason, we sing “Bless, O Lord, the crown of Thy year of goodness” twice per annum, and that reminds one of the double-headed eagle, symbol of Byzantium, Russia, and Orthodoxy!

We wish that all might begin the new year and new season of God's goodness, with grace and spiritual joy, on the field of Christ's Holy Church.

With love in Christ

+Jerome, Bishop of Manhattan

Media Office of the Eastern American Diocese