Fanatics and professional mischief-makers would certainly seize with
avidity upon such a godsend of a chance, unparalleled since the days of
Peter the Great's father, when the Patriarch Nikon had the errors of the
copyists in the Scriptures and church service books corrected. But the
present war has fused all parties, united all hearts in patriotism,
loyalty to, and confidence in their Emperor and created a fervid
inclination amounting to enthusiasm to accept even the most drastic
reforms he may make cheerfully, unquestionably, as for the good of the
fatherland.
On the matter of the calendar reform America has for many years past
been exerting a steadily increasing influence. During the past twenty
years the steady flow of immigrants from Russia and other countries
belonging to the Orthodox Catholic Church of the East, (Greco-Russian,)
has increased to a great volume, and it seems destined to attain still
greater proportions when the war is over. These people are obliged to
work and keep holiday by the Gregorian calendar and to worship by the
Julian. This entails hardships.
For example, a devout Russian who has been forced to remain idle on our
Christmas and New Year's Days must sacrifice his pay--sometimes risk or
lose his job--if he wishes to observe the feasts of his own church.
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