WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.419 Have you ever put off a software update on your 00:00:02.419 --> 00:00:05.580 phone for a few days? Oh, uh, definitely. Usually 00:00:05.580 --> 00:00:07.700 until the phone just forces me to do it. Right. 00:00:08.000 --> 00:00:10.199 You know that exact feeling. The notification 00:00:10.199 --> 00:00:12.720 pops up, it tells you there are crucial bug fixes, 00:00:12.900 --> 00:00:16.260 maybe some fancy new security features, but you 00:00:16.260 --> 00:00:18.460 just hit remind me later. Yeah, you just don't 00:00:18.460 --> 00:00:21.250 want to deal with the reboot. Exactly. the temporary 00:00:21.250 --> 00:00:24.129 inconvenience the slight change to your interface 00:00:24.129 --> 00:00:27.309 now i want you to imagine putting off an update 00:00:27.309 --> 00:00:30.329 for over three centuries three centuries wow 00:00:30.329 --> 00:00:33.630 and when you finally eventually try to force 00:00:33.630 --> 00:00:36.469 that installation it absolutely breaks your entire 00:00:36.469 --> 00:00:39.229 system welcome to this deep dive it is great 00:00:39.229 --> 00:00:41.380 to be here to get into this one We are taking 00:00:41.380 --> 00:00:44.079 a stack of fascinating historical and academic 00:00:44.079 --> 00:00:46.859 texts and extracting the core insights for you. 00:00:46.960 --> 00:00:49.560 Today, we are looking specifically at the Council 00:00:49.560 --> 00:00:53.439 of Constantinople in 1923. Right. It was an event 00:00:53.439 --> 00:00:56.020 that basically attempted a massive system update 00:00:56.020 --> 00:00:59.179 for the Eastern Orthodox Church. And it's an 00:00:59.179 --> 00:01:02.600 incredible historical moment to examine. We are 00:01:02.600 --> 00:01:04.879 looking at a collision between the relentless 00:01:04.879 --> 00:01:09.620 push of modernity and the... the deep unyielding 00:01:09.620 --> 00:01:12.260 roots of ancient tradition absolutely to really 00:01:12.260 --> 00:01:14.579 set the stage for you picture the atmosphere 00:01:14.579 --> 00:01:17.459 of our discussion today We are navigating the 00:01:17.459 --> 00:01:21.299 dusty, echoing meeting halls of 1920s Constantinople. 00:01:21.500 --> 00:01:24.859 The air is thick with geopolitical tension, the 00:01:24.859 --> 00:01:27.579 aftermath of a world war, and the heavy weight 00:01:27.579 --> 00:01:30.140 of centuries of ecclesiastical authority. You 00:01:30.140 --> 00:01:31.980 can almost feel the tension in the room. Exactly. 00:01:32.140 --> 00:01:35.299 But as we zoom out, those meeting halls fade 00:01:35.299 --> 00:01:38.760 into a backdrop of ancient story calendars mechanisms 00:01:38.760 --> 00:01:41.859 tracking the movements of the heavens over millennia. 00:01:41.879 --> 00:01:44.159 Because it's about so much more than time. Precisely. 00:01:44.159 --> 00:01:46.219 What we are analyzing is... isn't just a matter 00:01:46.219 --> 00:01:48.760 of changing some dates on a piece of paper. It 00:01:48.760 --> 00:01:51.900 is fundamentally about authority, identity, and 00:01:51.900 --> 00:01:54.420 the immense, sometimes destructive friction that 00:01:54.420 --> 00:01:56.980 occurs when you try to force a synchronized rhythm 00:01:56.980 --> 00:01:59.480 onto a decentralized world. Okay, let's unpack 00:01:59.480 --> 00:02:01.219 this. Let's start with the core issue that brought 00:02:01.219 --> 00:02:03.180 everyone to the table, which is the calendar 00:02:03.180 --> 00:02:05.480 itself. The root of the whole problem. Right. 00:02:05.540 --> 00:02:08.840 We have to rewind well before 1923 to understand 00:02:08.840 --> 00:02:12.060 the baseline. Back in the 16th century, The Roman 00:02:12.060 --> 00:02:15.080 Catholic Church and almost all of Western Europe 00:02:15.080 --> 00:02:18.039 completed a massive switch. They moved from the 00:02:18.039 --> 00:02:20.979 old Julian calendar over to the new Gregorian 00:02:20.979 --> 00:02:23.280 calendar. Which was a huge scientific undertaking 00:02:23.280 --> 00:02:26.060 at the time. Huge. And the Gregorian calendar 00:02:26.060 --> 00:02:28.639 is the standard that you and I use today to run 00:02:28.639 --> 00:02:31.580 our lives. But the massive historical caveat 00:02:31.580 --> 00:02:34.900 here is that the East did not make that switch. 00:02:34.979 --> 00:02:37.080 They completely ignored the update. Completely. 00:02:37.159 --> 00:02:40.199 Russia and the rest of the Orthodox world bypassed 00:02:40.199 --> 00:02:42.740 this update altogether. They remained on the 00:02:42.740 --> 00:02:46.139 old Julian calendar right up until the 1920s. 00:02:46.139 --> 00:02:48.580 If we connect this to the bigger picture, the 00:02:48.580 --> 00:02:50.740 friction this caused by the 1920s was becoming 00:02:50.740 --> 00:02:53.180 entirely unsustainable. I can't even imagine. 00:02:53.539 --> 00:02:55.219 Well, think about the infrastructure of the early 00:02:55.219 --> 00:02:57.939 20th century. We are in the immediate aftermath 00:02:57.939 --> 00:03:00.020 of the First World War. You have international 00:03:00.020 --> 00:03:03.379 trade, complex diplomacy, integrated postal systems, 00:03:03.699 --> 00:03:05.879 railway schedules that cross continents. Global 00:03:05.879 --> 00:03:09.180 telecommunications. Exactly. All of these networks 00:03:09.180 --> 00:03:12.360 were becoming deeply intertwined. Yet you had 00:03:12.360 --> 00:03:14.680 a hard line drawn through the way time itself 00:03:14.680 --> 00:03:17.919 was recorded. For hundreds of years, the East 00:03:17.919 --> 00:03:20.379 and West were quite literally living on different 00:03:20.379 --> 00:03:22.819 dates. It's a logistical nightmare just trying 00:03:22.819 --> 00:03:25.639 to picture it. You cross a border. And suddenly 00:03:25.639 --> 00:03:28.979 you travel weeks back in time purely based on 00:03:28.979 --> 00:03:30.759 the calendar the local authority recognized. 00:03:31.180 --> 00:03:32.939 It sounds like science fiction, but it was just 00:03:32.939 --> 00:03:35.620 daily commerce. I keep coming back to the operating 00:03:35.620 --> 00:03:38.000 system analogy. Half the world is running on 00:03:38.000 --> 00:03:40.500 this shiny new software. And they've been running 00:03:40.500 --> 00:03:42.659 it smoothly, optimizing it, building entirely 00:03:42.659 --> 00:03:46.180 new economies on it since the 1500s. Right. Meanwhile, 00:03:46.400 --> 00:03:49.759 you have vast empires and entire societies stubbornly 00:03:49.759 --> 00:03:51.379 keeping their infrastructure running on legacy 00:03:51.379 --> 00:03:54.129 software. And the push to modernize wasn't a 00:03:54.129 --> 00:03:57.069 philosophical whim for the leaders in Constantinople. 00:03:57.169 --> 00:04:00.090 It was a pressing practical necessity. You just 00:04:00.090 --> 00:04:02.370 couldn't function. You cannot run a globalized 00:04:02.370 --> 00:04:05.430 economy or participate fully in post -war European 00:04:05.430 --> 00:04:08.750 diplomacy if your telegrams are dated two weeks 00:04:08.750 --> 00:04:10.729 in the past compared to the people receiving 00:04:10.729 --> 00:04:13.389 them in Paris or London. The confusion that must 00:04:13.389 --> 00:04:15.780 have caused. Oh, it was constant. The pressure 00:04:15.780 --> 00:04:18.459 to align with the West was immense, but it was 00:04:18.459 --> 00:04:20.879 countered by an equally immense pressure to maintain 00:04:20.879 --> 00:04:23.480 the distinct, independent identity of the Eastern 00:04:23.480 --> 00:04:27.459 Church. That tension is exactly what forced the 00:04:27.459 --> 00:04:29.800 leadership to finally act. Which brings us to 00:04:29.800 --> 00:04:33.959 the main event. By May of 1923, the leaders of 00:04:33.959 --> 00:04:37.060 the Eastern Orthodox Church convened in Constantinople 00:04:37.060 --> 00:04:39.699 to figure this out. To finally force the update. 00:04:39.899 --> 00:04:42.740 Right. The meetings ran from May 10th to June 00:04:42.740 --> 00:04:45.230 8th. driven largely by the initiative of the 00:04:45.230 --> 00:04:48.610 ecumenical patriarch at the time, Meletius Metacus, 00:04:48.769 --> 00:04:52.170 also known as Meletius IV. A very ambitious figure. 00:04:52.389 --> 00:04:54.730 And right out of the gate, there is a major historical 00:04:54.730 --> 00:04:56.829 discrepancy regarding what this gathering was 00:04:56.829 --> 00:04:58.949 actually called and what kind of authority it 00:04:58.949 --> 00:05:01.629 really held. Yes. The nomenclature of this event 00:05:01.629 --> 00:05:04.850 is highly contested, which is a massive red flag 00:05:04.850 --> 00:05:07.639 in ecclesiastical history. How so? While some 00:05:07.639 --> 00:05:09.740 contemporaries and certain historical records 00:05:09.740 --> 00:05:12.879 labeled this the Pan -Orthodox Council of Constantinople, 00:05:13.060 --> 00:05:16.860 others referred to it more broadly as a Pan -Orthodox 00:05:16.860 --> 00:05:19.620 gathering. And some factions even attempted to 00:05:19.620 --> 00:05:22.279 elevate its status by floating the term Ecumenical 00:05:22.279 --> 00:05:24.860 Council. But the academic consensus pushes back 00:05:24.860 --> 00:05:28.040 hard on those grand titles. Strongly. This raises 00:05:28.040 --> 00:05:29.800 an important question regarding the fundamental 00:05:29.800 --> 00:05:32.199 legitimacy of the council's authority. Because 00:05:32.199 --> 00:05:35.079 it wasn't exactly a full house. Not at all. The 00:05:35.079 --> 00:05:37.819 academic analysis we have, specifically the Orthodox 00:05:37.819 --> 00:05:41.199 Encyclopedia entry by Grigori Skobe from 2005, 00:05:41.480 --> 00:05:44.540 is definitive on this point. The term ecumenical 00:05:44.540 --> 00:05:47.300 is widely rejected by historians and theologians 00:05:47.300 --> 00:05:49.620 alike. Because so many people were missing. Exactly. 00:05:49.860 --> 00:05:52.589 The reasoning is structural. Representatives 00:05:52.589 --> 00:05:55.050 from the Alexandrian, Antiochian, and Jerusalem 00:05:55.050 --> 00:05:58.189 churches, along with a vast majority of the other 00:05:58.189 --> 00:06:00.790 local churches, simply did not participate in 00:06:00.790 --> 00:06:03.449 the work of the council. The profound irony of 00:06:03.449 --> 00:06:06.170 calling a meeting pan -Orthodox when the most 00:06:06.170 --> 00:06:08.389 crucial players are missing is just staggering. 00:06:08.649 --> 00:06:11.449 It really is. It's like imagine throwing a massive 00:06:11.449 --> 00:06:14.009 family reunion where you plan to make rules for 00:06:14.009 --> 00:06:16.069 the entire extended family. But three quarters 00:06:16.069 --> 00:06:18.550 of the family actively boycotts the event. Exactly. 00:06:19.009 --> 00:06:22.139 Alexandria is absent. Antioch is absent. Jerusalem 00:06:22.139 --> 00:06:25.100 is a no -show. Yet the faction sitting in the 00:06:25.100 --> 00:06:27.420 room in Constantinople decides they are going 00:06:27.420 --> 00:06:29.620 to forge ahead anyway. Which is an incredibly 00:06:29.620 --> 00:06:32.300 bold move. They are preparing to rewrite the 00:06:32.300 --> 00:06:35.480 very measurement of time for an entire decentralized 00:06:35.480 --> 00:06:38.699 network of believers without their input. It 00:06:38.699 --> 00:06:41.740 exposes a critical structural flaw in how malicious 00:06:41.740 --> 00:06:44.720 the fief approached the crisis. We have to look 00:06:44.720 --> 00:06:47.240 calmly at the gravity of that institutional risk. 00:06:47.420 --> 00:06:49.540 It seems like a recipe for disaster. Because 00:06:49.540 --> 00:06:52.540 it is. When an authority figure attempts to mandate 00:06:52.540 --> 00:06:54.959 sweeping changes that affect the daily spiritual 00:06:54.959 --> 00:06:57.540 rhythms and practical lives of a massive decentralized 00:06:57.540 --> 00:07:00.620 population, doing so without broad representation 00:07:00.620 --> 00:07:03.420 is incredibly dangerous. I can't just mandate 00:07:03.420 --> 00:07:06.279 a paradigm shift. You cannot dictate a universal 00:07:06.279 --> 00:07:08.699 paradigm shift to a tradition -bound network 00:07:08.699 --> 00:07:11.199 of autocephalous churches without consensus. 00:07:11.639 --> 00:07:14.819 By pushing forward without those key patriarchates, 00:07:14.959 --> 00:07:17.319 the council was essentially building a new house 00:07:17.319 --> 00:07:20.060 on a fractured foundation. And despite the missing 00:07:20.060 --> 00:07:23.660 RSVPs and that fractured foundation, they pushed 00:07:23.660 --> 00:07:26.740 forward anyway. The council actually reached 00:07:26.740 --> 00:07:29.259 a primary decision regarding the calendar reform. 00:07:29.519 --> 00:07:32.740 They did. The Greek Orthodox Church along with 00:07:32.740 --> 00:07:34.800 several other branches that were present or compliant 00:07:34.800 --> 00:07:38.740 finally agreed to adopt a new calendar but this 00:07:38.740 --> 00:07:41.899 is a big but they explicitly refused to just 00:07:41.899 --> 00:07:44.160 adopt the western gregorian calendar which is 00:07:44.160 --> 00:07:47.160 fascinating right even though the gregorian calendar 00:07:47.160 --> 00:07:49.879 was the established international standard the 00:07:49.879 --> 00:07:52.220 eastern orthodox leaders went a completely different 00:07:52.220 --> 00:07:55.360 route they adopted something called the new julian 00:07:55.360 --> 00:07:57.660 calendar The terminology they chose there is 00:07:57.660 --> 00:07:59.600 doing an incredible amount of heavy lifting. 00:07:59.779 --> 00:08:01.660 Oh, absolutely. Calling it the New Julian Calendar 00:08:01.660 --> 00:08:04.199 is a masterclass in ecclesiastical diplomacy. 00:08:04.560 --> 00:08:06.519 Here's where it gets really interesting. The 00:08:06.519 --> 00:08:08.720 mathematical quirk of this New Julian system 00:08:08.720 --> 00:08:11.279 is brilliant. It's extremely clever. This calendar 00:08:11.279 --> 00:08:13.680 corresponds perfectly with the Gregorian calendar. 00:08:14.170 --> 00:08:16.790 If you look at a Gregorian calendar and a new 00:08:16.790 --> 00:08:19.910 Julian calendar side by side today, the dates 00:08:19.910 --> 00:08:22.850 match exactly. But not forever. Right. It comes 00:08:22.850 --> 00:08:25.290 with a built -in divergence. They will only match 00:08:25.290 --> 00:08:28.970 until the year 2800. After the year 2800, the 00:08:28.970 --> 00:08:31.589 two calendars begin to drift apart again. It's 00:08:31.589 --> 00:08:35.190 such a specific detail. They sat down in 1923 00:08:35.190 --> 00:08:37.990 and agreed to standardize their time with the 00:08:37.990 --> 00:08:40.600 West. But they engineered an expiration date 00:08:40.600 --> 00:08:43.279 almost 900 years in the future. It sounds like 00:08:43.279 --> 00:08:46.139 a quirky workaround, but structurally, it was 00:08:46.139 --> 00:08:50.419 a profound ideological shield. We have to ask 00:08:50.419 --> 00:08:52.220 why they would go through the immense trouble 00:08:52.220 --> 00:08:55.220 of endorsing a new Julian calendar that meticulously 00:08:55.220 --> 00:08:58.059 mimics the Gregorian one, complete with a mathematical 00:08:58.059 --> 00:09:00.700 divergence in the 29th century. Instead of just 00:09:00.700 --> 00:09:02.399 saying, hey, we're using the Gregorian one now. 00:09:02.500 --> 00:09:05.279 Exactly. It was a deeply calculated face -saving 00:09:05.279 --> 00:09:08.440 technicality. They recognized the unavoidable 00:09:08.440 --> 00:09:11.220 need to modernize. They had to align their dates 00:09:11.220 --> 00:09:13.019 with the rest of the globe for trade, communication, 00:09:13.500 --> 00:09:16.039 and global integration. The telegrams needed 00:09:16.039 --> 00:09:18.919 to match up. Yes, but they could not totally 00:09:18.919 --> 00:09:21.500 capitulate to what was viewed as a distinctly 00:09:21.500 --> 00:09:24.720 Western or Roman Catholic invention. The ideological 00:09:24.720 --> 00:09:27.700 legacy of the 16th century divide was still way 00:09:27.700 --> 00:09:30.100 too potent. So it's essentially a loophole. A 00:09:30.100 --> 00:09:32.059 massively polar... They get the practical benefits 00:09:32.059 --> 00:09:34.220 of the Gregorian calendar without ever having 00:09:34.220 --> 00:09:36.360 to admit they adopted the Pope's calendar. Exactly. 00:09:36.539 --> 00:09:39.059 It allowed them to sync up with the modern world 00:09:39.059 --> 00:09:41.539 schedule while maintaining the technical theological 00:09:41.539 --> 00:09:44.139 stance that they were still using an updated 00:09:44.139 --> 00:09:46.220 version of their own Eastern tradition. That 00:09:46.220 --> 00:09:48.620 is so smart. They didn't bow to the West. They 00:09:48.620 --> 00:09:51.000 just simultaneously arrived at the exact same 00:09:51.000 --> 00:09:53.879 dates with a slight astronomical correction that 00:09:53.879 --> 00:09:57.059 won't manifest for centuries. It's a fascinating 00:09:57.059 --> 00:10:00.480 example of using complex... mathematics to solve 00:10:00.480 --> 00:10:03.179 an emotional and political problem. So what does 00:10:03.179 --> 00:10:05.960 this all mean? They have their face -saving technicality, 00:10:06.000 --> 00:10:08.080 they have their highly specific new calendar 00:10:08.080 --> 00:10:11.679 that works perfectly until the year 2800, and 00:10:11.679 --> 00:10:14.320 they roll it out to the masses. Did it actually 00:10:14.320 --> 00:10:17.899 work? Did it bring the orthodox world into modern 00:10:17.899 --> 00:10:20.879 synchronized harmony? Not even close. The historical 00:10:20.879 --> 00:10:23.480 record shows that it was an unmitigated disaster. 00:10:24.019 --> 00:10:26.220 Rather than uniting the church under a modern 00:10:26.220 --> 00:10:29.740 framework, The 1923 Council of Constantinople 00:10:29.740 --> 00:10:32.200 became one of the most controversial events in 00:10:32.200 --> 00:10:34.759 modern Orthodox history. It sparked outrage. 00:10:35.039 --> 00:10:38.019 It led to massive fracturing schisms across the 00:10:38.019 --> 00:10:40.639 entire faith. The consequences were immediate 00:10:40.639 --> 00:10:42.559 and severe. You have to remember that religion, 00:10:42.779 --> 00:10:45.379 particularly within this tradition, is deeply 00:10:45.379 --> 00:10:47.460 intertwined with the daily routine. It's not 00:10:47.460 --> 00:10:50.360 just a Sunday thing. Right. Feast days, fasting 00:10:50.360 --> 00:10:52.899 periods, the complex calculations of Easter. 00:10:52.960 --> 00:10:55.840 These are the very rhythms of life for the faithful. 00:10:56.830 --> 00:10:58.769 Changing the calendar isn't just an administrative 00:10:58.769 --> 00:11:02.110 update. It fundamentally disrupts the lived experience 00:11:02.110 --> 00:11:05.470 of the religion. And this disruption led directly 00:11:05.470 --> 00:11:08.330 to schisms within many of the autocephalous churches. 00:11:08.879 --> 00:11:10.820 Because these churches operate independently, 00:11:11.240 --> 00:11:13.460 appointing their own leaders without a higher 00:11:13.460 --> 00:11:16.399 external authority dictating their moves, introducing 00:11:16.399 --> 00:11:18.840 this new calendar caused immediate splintering. 00:11:18.860 --> 00:11:21.200 People just walked away. Entire factions completely 00:11:21.200 --> 00:11:23.940 rejected the new dates. These splinter factions 00:11:23.940 --> 00:11:26.820 became known as the old calendarist groups. The 00:11:26.820 --> 00:11:29.879 traditionalists. Exactly. They essentially looked 00:11:29.879 --> 00:11:32.809 at Constantinople and said, We do not recognize 00:11:32.809 --> 00:11:35.669 the authority of this half -empty council. We 00:11:35.669 --> 00:11:37.909 reject the lack of representation from the absent 00:11:37.909 --> 00:11:41.830 churches. And we absolutely reject this new Julian 00:11:41.830 --> 00:11:44.269 loophole. They saw right through it. They firmly 00:11:44.269 --> 00:11:46.470 planted their feet and refused to shift their 00:11:46.470 --> 00:11:48.970 timeline. What's fascinating here is how this 00:11:48.970 --> 00:11:52.549 event is analyzed in contemporary academia, moving 00:11:52.549 --> 00:11:55.409 beyond just the historical facts to the institutional 00:11:55.409 --> 00:11:58.129 psychology of the schism. The postmortem, basically. 00:11:58.330 --> 00:12:01.490 Exactly. One of the key references we are examining 00:12:01.490 --> 00:12:03.610 is a presentation by the University of Tartu 00:12:03.610 --> 00:12:05.769 School of Theology and Religious Studies. Right, 00:12:05.889 --> 00:12:08.750 from 2021. Featuring scholars Natalia Vasiljevic, 00:12:08.769 --> 00:12:11.409 Irina Peret, and Andrei Shishkov. Look at the 00:12:11.409 --> 00:12:13.909 title of their work, How the Pan -Orthodox Congress 00:12:13.909 --> 00:12:17.309 in Constantinople Has Broken Orthodoxy. Broken. 00:12:17.429 --> 00:12:20.529 That is an incredibly powerful, deliberate choice 00:12:20.529 --> 00:12:23.250 of words. It didn't merely challenge the institution 00:12:23.250 --> 00:12:26.590 or cause a temporary disagreement. It broke it. 00:12:26.710 --> 00:12:29.429 Using the word broken really emphasizes the sheer 00:12:29.429 --> 00:12:31.889 scale of the failure. It wasn't a bump in the 00:12:31.889 --> 00:12:34.470 road. It was a fundamental shattering of the 00:12:34.470 --> 00:12:37.429 system. It forces a critical look at the mechanics 00:12:37.429 --> 00:12:40.309 of change management. This is true whether you 00:12:40.309 --> 00:12:42.450 are looking at an ancient religious institution 00:12:42.450 --> 00:12:46.269 or a modern global organization. The rules are 00:12:46.269 --> 00:12:49.350 the same. Yes. When leadership forces a systemic 00:12:49.350 --> 00:12:52.250 update, even one that is completely logical and 00:12:52.250 --> 00:12:54.549 practically necessary, like standardizing the 00:12:54.549 --> 00:12:57.289 calendar to match global trade, if they completely 00:12:57.289 --> 00:12:59.710 ignore the emotional, cultural, and traditional 00:12:59.710 --> 00:13:02.549 ties of the people they are leading, the system 00:13:02.549 --> 00:13:05.379 breaks. The logic wasn't the problem. The pure 00:13:05.379 --> 00:13:08.120 logic of the calendar reform was completely sound. 00:13:08.360 --> 00:13:11.639 But the implementation lacked the necessary consensus, 00:13:11.919 --> 00:13:14.919 the institutional patience, and the respect for 00:13:14.919 --> 00:13:17.559 the deep -seated traditions of the old calendarists. 00:13:17.779 --> 00:13:19.940 They tried to force the software up to you. Exactly. 00:13:20.730 --> 00:13:23.190 The leadership prioritized the mechanical fix 00:13:23.190 --> 00:13:26.370 over the human element, and the resulting schism 00:13:26.370 --> 00:13:28.649 is a fracture that the institution is still dealing 00:13:28.649 --> 00:13:30.909 with today. And as if the history of the event 00:13:30.909 --> 00:13:33.789 itself isn't wild enough, there is one final 00:13:33.789 --> 00:13:36.169 mind -boggling fact regarding these texts that 00:13:36.169 --> 00:13:37.909 really stopped me in my tracks. The translation 00:13:37.909 --> 00:13:41.159 delay. Yes, we've just spent all this time discussing 00:13:41.159 --> 00:13:44.360 how the 1923 Council was a reality fracturing 00:13:44.360 --> 00:13:47.320 event. It broke orthodoxy, it caused lasting 00:13:47.320 --> 00:13:50.080 schisms, and it fundamentally changed the perception 00:13:50.080 --> 00:13:53.480 of time for millions of people. Yet, despite 00:13:53.480 --> 00:13:56.460 its immense historical gravity, the actual acts 00:13:56.460 --> 00:13:59.779 and decisions of this 1923 meeting were not translated 00:13:59.779 --> 00:14:03.070 into English until the year 2006. The duration 00:14:03.070 --> 00:14:06.049 of that delay is remarkable. 83 years. 83 years 00:14:06.049 --> 00:14:08.009 of silence in the English -speaking academic 00:14:08.009 --> 00:14:10.330 world. I really want you to let that sink in. 00:14:10.759 --> 00:14:12.740 For over eight decades, if you were an English 00:14:12.740 --> 00:14:14.860 -speaking scholar, a historian, a theologian, 00:14:14.860 --> 00:14:17.220 or just a curious individual trying to read the 00:14:17.220 --> 00:14:19.720 primary source documents about why your calendar 00:14:19.720 --> 00:14:21.840 was suddenly shifted, you couldn't do it. The 00:14:21.840 --> 00:14:24.320 texts were inaccessible. The exact transcripts 00:14:24.320 --> 00:14:26.679 and decisions were essentially locked away behind 00:14:26.679 --> 00:14:28.840 a language barrier. It wasn't until a translator 00:14:28.840 --> 00:14:31.500 named Reverend Dr. Patrick Viscuso took on the 00:14:31.500 --> 00:14:34.379 monumental project in 2006 that these texts were 00:14:34.379 --> 00:14:37.159 made accessible. A huge undertaking. The book 00:14:37.159 --> 00:14:39.940 was published by the Interorthodox Press, featuring 00:14:39.940 --> 00:14:43.080 a foreword by Demetrius Constantellus, and it 00:14:43.080 --> 00:14:45.600 finally brought the specific, granular acts of 00:14:45.600 --> 00:14:48.139 the Council into the light for the English -speaking 00:14:48.139 --> 00:14:50.600 world. This point really forces a reflection 00:14:50.600 --> 00:14:52.940 on historiography and the mechanics of modern 00:14:52.940 --> 00:14:54.860 learning. It makes you wonder what else we're 00:14:54.860 --> 00:14:58.360 missing. Exactly. For over 80 years, a massive 00:14:58.360 --> 00:15:01.279 portion of the global academic community was 00:15:01.279 --> 00:15:03.559 essentially locked out of the primary documents 00:15:03.559 --> 00:15:06.100 of the very council that fractured the Eastern 00:15:06.100 --> 00:15:09.019 Orthodox calendar. We have this modern assumption 00:15:09.019 --> 00:15:11.940 that important historical information, especially 00:15:11.940 --> 00:15:15.000 from the 20th century, is universally accessible, 00:15:15.399 --> 00:15:18.279 heavily documented, and broadly translated. But 00:15:18.279 --> 00:15:21.120 it's not always true. No! This is a glaring example 00:15:21.120 --> 00:15:24.419 of how information access, or the distinct lack 00:15:24.419 --> 00:15:26.460 thereof, shapes our fundamental understanding 00:15:26.460 --> 00:15:29.039 of history. It creates a massive blind spot. 00:15:29.519 --> 00:15:31.460 If you can't read the primary documents, you 00:15:31.460 --> 00:15:34.299 are entirely reliant on hearsay, summaries, or 00:15:34.299 --> 00:15:36.299 the biased interpretations of whatever secondary 00:15:36.299 --> 00:15:38.240 sources happen to be available in your language. 00:15:38.580 --> 00:15:41.860 Exactly. Without Vizcuso's translation work in 00:15:41.860 --> 00:15:45.399 2006, English speakers were likely relying on 00:15:45.399 --> 00:15:47.980 deeply filtered accounts of what actually happened 00:15:47.980 --> 00:15:50.519 in those meeting halls in Constantinople. You're 00:15:50.519 --> 00:15:52.899 just getting someone else's spin on it. It underscores 00:15:52.899 --> 00:15:55.419 a vital reality for anyone doing a deep dive 00:15:55.419 --> 00:15:58.179 into history. Your understanding of the past 00:15:58.179 --> 00:16:00.460 is entirely dependent on the documents you can 00:16:00.460 --> 00:16:03.899 actually read. It highlights the immense, often 00:16:03.899 --> 00:16:07.019 underappreciated power of translators and archivists. 00:16:07.179 --> 00:16:09.879 The unsung heroes. Truly. They are the ones who 00:16:09.879 --> 00:16:12.059 actually build the bridges between the primary 00:16:12.059 --> 00:16:14.659 events and our modern understanding of them. 00:16:14.759 --> 00:16:16.740 It definitely gives you a newfound appreciation 00:16:16.740 --> 00:16:19.820 for the people doing the tedious work of digging 00:16:19.820 --> 00:16:22.360 through archives and translating obscure texts 00:16:22.360 --> 00:16:24.179 so the rest of us can actually get the full story. 00:16:24.399 --> 00:16:27.490 Absolutely. As we wrap up this deep dive, let's 00:16:27.490 --> 00:16:29.669 take a look at the incredible journey we've navigated 00:16:29.669 --> 00:16:32.809 through these sources. We started with a staggering 00:16:32.809 --> 00:16:35.549 400 -year calendar delay between the East and 00:16:35.549 --> 00:16:37.950 the West, creating a logistical nightmare for 00:16:37.950 --> 00:16:40.649 a rapidly globalizing world. A world that desperately 00:16:40.649 --> 00:16:43.740 needed to sync up. Right. And that tension finally 00:16:43.740 --> 00:16:47.600 combinated in Constantinople in 1923, resulting 00:16:47.600 --> 00:16:50.039 in a half -empty council convened by Patriarch 00:16:50.039 --> 00:16:52.759 Malicious the Firth, where the most crucial players 00:16:52.759 --> 00:16:55.120 boycotted the room. A recipe for structural failure. 00:16:55.320 --> 00:16:57.559 Then we analyzed the creation of the new Julian 00:16:57.559 --> 00:17:00.500 calendar, a quirky mathematical band -aid designed 00:17:00.500 --> 00:17:03.200 to save face while syncing up with the Gregorian 00:17:03.200 --> 00:17:06.200 standard, perfectly calibrated to expire in the 00:17:06.200 --> 00:17:09.710 year 2800. A brilliant bit of compromise. And 00:17:09.710 --> 00:17:12.609 finally, we saw how forcing that purely logical 00:17:12.609 --> 00:17:15.569 update without universal consensus resulted in 00:17:15.569 --> 00:17:18.130 the old calendarist schisms, proving just how 00:17:18.130 --> 00:17:20.309 incredibly difficult it is to overwrite human 00:17:20.309 --> 00:17:22.930 traditions. It is a profound narrative about 00:17:22.930 --> 00:17:25.049 the collision between practical modernization 00:17:25.049 --> 00:17:28.309 and deep -rooted identity. The logistics required 00:17:28.309 --> 00:17:31.029 change, but the culture resisted the method of 00:17:31.029 --> 00:17:33.230 that change. So the next time you glance at the 00:17:33.230 --> 00:17:35.410 calendar on your wall or check the date on your 00:17:35.410 --> 00:17:37.970 phone's lock screen, I want you to remember the 00:17:37.970 --> 00:17:40.809 immense institutional friction, the boycotts, 00:17:40.809 --> 00:17:43.410 and the deep theological schisms that were required 00:17:43.410 --> 00:17:46.130 historically just to get people to agree on what 00:17:46.130 --> 00:17:48.750 day it is. It wasn't easy. It is so easy to take 00:17:48.750 --> 00:17:51.069 synchronized global time for granted, but it 00:17:51.069 --> 00:17:54.309 was incredibly hard fought. It truly was. I want 00:17:54.309 --> 00:17:56.309 to leave you with a final lingering thought to 00:17:56.309 --> 00:17:58.670 explore on your own. Go for it. We saw today 00:17:58.670 --> 00:18:01.849 how a relatively minor mathematical shift, just 00:18:01.849 --> 00:18:04.289 aligning dates on a page to facilitate trade 00:18:04.289 --> 00:18:07.009 and communication, caused a lasting, painful 00:18:07.009 --> 00:18:11.250 schism in 1923. Yeah. It makes you wonder. As 00:18:11.250 --> 00:18:13.849 we move rapidly into an era where global authorities 00:18:13.849 --> 00:18:16.789 and tech infrastructure are proposing entirely 00:18:16.789 --> 00:18:20.230 new universal standards, things like global digital 00:18:20.230 --> 00:18:22.970 identities or new frameworks for digital timekeeping, 00:18:23.519 --> 00:18:25.839 How much of our resistance to these modernizations 00:18:25.839 --> 00:18:28.240 will be driven by pure logic? That's a great 00:18:28.240 --> 00:18:30.119 point. And how much of that resistance will be 00:18:30.119 --> 00:18:32.980 driven by our deep -seated, entirely human need 00:18:32.980 --> 00:18:35.220 to protect our traditional identities from being 00:18:35.220 --> 00:18:38.259 overwritten by a new global standard? A fantastic 00:18:38.259 --> 00:18:41.339 question to ponder as we navigate our own era 00:18:41.339 --> 00:18:43.759 of rapid updates. Thank you so much for joining 00:18:43.759 --> 00:18:46.420 us on this deep dive into the archives. And keep 00:18:46.420 --> 00:18:48.660 questioning the history behind the everyday systems 00:18:48.660 --> 00:18:49.500 that run your world.