Doc. 9954

6 October 2003

Old Calendar Church

Written question No 434 to the Committee of Ministers

presented by Mr Stepaniuc

      Considering that the fate of the Eastern Romanian Orthodox Church also called the Old Calendar Church (some confuse the Old Calendar Church with the Old Ritual Church, whose believers are usually Lipovenians who live in the Danube region on the south of Romania) is a tragic one,

      Noting that, separated by force in 1924 from the so-called Official Church, through introduction of the Gregorian calendar, the old calendar believers – who did not accept the introduction of the Gregorian calendar - were forced to leave their churches and monasteries and continued to profess as apostles, were equally hunted and exterminated by the interwar governments, by communist authorities after the Second World War and by the Ceausescu's totalitarian regime. Those who survived built places of worship. Thus, nowadays, the Old Calendar Church has over 130 churches and monasteries. The Old Calendar churches are built almost in every district of Romania, and two of them are located in the capital of the country. The resistance symbol of the old calendar believers, their spiritual centre, is the Slatioara Monastery in Suciava district where relics of St. Glicherie Marturisitorul martyr, former leader of the old calendar church believers resistance, who was sentenced to death in 1936, are located. The residence of Archbishop and Patriarch Vlasie is at the Slatioara Monastery, which was demolished by the authorities and rebuilt after by monks in 1947. He continues to fight the injustices that have been done and continue to be done by authorities and the Official Church. Between 1924 and the present day the Old Calendar Church has not been registered in Romania as a cult,

      Mr Stepaniuc

      To ask the Committee of Ministers,

      What will the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe do in order to speed up the registration of the Old Calendar Church as a cult?

Signed ¹:

Stepaniuc, Moldova, UEL

¹        SOC: Socialist Group

      EPP/CD: Group of the European People’s Party

      EDG: European Democratic Group

      LDR : Liberal, Democratic and Reformers’ Group

      UEL: Group of the Unified European Left

      NR: not registered in a group