TASHKENT (UCAN) -- Russian Orthodox churches in this Central Asian country finished celebrating the Bright Week, the week following Easter Sunday, on April 14, in what is said to be an unusual year for Christians.

Opening an Easter concert on April 9, Metropolitan Vladimir, the head of the Eparchy of Tashkent and Central Asia, reminded his flock of the peculiarity of 2007, when Easter was celebrated by Orthodox, Catholics and Protestants on April 8. Normally, the Orthodox Church marks Easter on a different day from Catholics and Protestants, with as many as 13 days separating the celebrations.

Speaking at the concert held in the Russian Drama Theatre, Metropolitan Vladimir said this was just a coincidence. He said the Orthodox Church continues to follow the Julian, or Old Style, calendar, while the Western Churches celebrate their main religious holy days in accordance with the Gregorian, or New Style, calendar.

He briefly told the audience about the modification made to the Julian calendar in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII, after whom the Gregorian calendar was named. Nevertheless, the Russian Orthodox Church, like some other Orthodox Churches, still follows the Julian calendar established by Julius Caesar in 46 B.C, he said.

Metropolitan Vladimir claimed the Julian calendar is more accurate than the Gregorian, and claimed there were at least two miraculous signs to prove it. One is the descent of the Blessed Fire or Holy Fire, a yearly miracle which is said to take place in Jerusalem on the eve of the Orthodox Easter yearly, marked on a different day by Catholics, he said.

The other is the cloud that gathers around the Orthodox monastery on Mount Thabor yearly, on Aug. 19, the place where Jesus Christ is said to have transfigured before His disciples. But the clouds do not gather around the nearby Catholic Church. So the Orthodox Church marks the feast of the Transfiguration on Aug. 19 by the Julian calendar, while Catholics mark the Feast of Transfiguration on Aug. 6.

Many parishioners of the Holy Assumption Cathedral, the main Russian Orthodox Church in the Eparchy of Tashkent and in Central Asia, appear to share Metropolitan Vladimir's point of view. Nina Fedorova reflected the sentiment when she told UCA News that Catholics rejected the Old Style calendar and adopted the new one.

"Of course it would be good if all Christians celebrated their feasts on the same days," she said, but noted that the metropolitan said that the Russian Orthodox Church cannot change the dates when it observes these feasts.

A Russian Orthodox priest who serves at the cathedral in Tashkent told UCA News that there was nothing wrong in a common celebration of feasts, "but there are canonical and dogmatic divisions between the Orthodox and Catholics that are difficult to resolve."

The Russian Orthodox Church gained a foothold in Central Asia in the 19th century, when the Russian empire annexed the region, then called Turkistan. The Eparchy of Tashkent and Central Asia was officially established in 1871. Now it comprises 46 parishes in Kyrgyzstan, 15 in Turkmenistan, six in Tajikistan and 34 in Uzbekistan. The Church in Kazakhstan has three separate eparchies, which together have 212 parishes.

Orthodox faithful make up the largest Christian community in Uzbekistan where 88 percent of the people are Muslims. Among the country's 25 million people, 9 percent belong to the Russian Orthodox Church and 3 percent belong to other religions including Catholicism. In Tashkent, which has a population of 2.5 million, there are five Orthodox churches.

Bishop Jerzy Maculewicz, apostolic administrator of Uzbekistan, said that nobody knows exactly when Christ's resurrection took place. "No matter two weeks earlier or later, the most important thing is that we celebrate Easter," he told UCA News, adding that he would accept any date if all Christians were willing to compromise on the issue.

One Catholic, Eduard Chudov, from the Sacred Heart Parish in Tashkent, said he would love to celebrate Church holidays on the same day as other Christians but the decision lies with the pope.

"I accept the primacy of the pope as a Christ's deputy and St. Peter's successor and if the pope decides that we should celebrate feasts on the same day, I will, no matter what the date," Chudov told UCA News.

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