Information about Western Orthodoxy

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Western Rite Orthodoxy or Western Orthodoxy or Orthodox Western Rite includes congregations and groups which are in communion with Eastern Orthodox Churches or Oriental Orthodox Churches but have retained the historic Western liturgies rather than adopting Eastern liturgies such as the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. Currently, there are Western Rite parishes within the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR) and the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America as a part of the Antiochian Western Rite Vicariate (AWRV). Western Rite parishes are found almost exclusively in countries with large Roman Catholic or Protestant majorities.

Origins

Western Orthodox Christians look back to time prior to the Great Schism when the Eastern and Western Churches remained united with each other. At that period in history, there were a large variety of different liturgies in use with no specific move towards ritual uniformity. However, when the Latin-speaking Western Church and the Greek-speaking Eastern Church parted ways, the use of the rites of the Western Church ceased to exist within Orthodoxy. This situation began to change slowly in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries when a number of Western Christians began to convert to Orthodoxy, yet desired to retain their familiar forms of worship and thus recovering plurifom ritual nature of pre-schism Christianity.

Nineteenth century

The modern reemergence of an Orthodox Western Rite begins in 1864 with the work of former Catholic priest Julius Joseph Overbeck. Overbeck had left the priesthood, converted to Lutheranism and married, though it is uncertain whether he ever functioned as a Lutheran pastor. He immigrated to England in 1863 to become professor of German at the Royal Military Academy, where he also undertook studies of the Church of England and Orthodoxy. Convinced that both the Papacy and Anglicanism were on the verge of collapse, Overbeck was received into the Orthodox Church at the Russian Embassy in London by Fr. Eugene Poppoff in 1865 as a layman because he had married following his ordination.^[1]

As a part of his conversion to the Orthodox Church, Overbeck had requested permission from the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church to begin a Western Orthodox Church in England. Initially, Metropolitan Philaret was hesitant about Overbeck’s request, but did not rule out the idea entirely. Overbeck outlined his rationale for a Western Orthodox Church in his book "Catholic Orthodoxy and Anglo-Catholicism," a largely polemical work describing why the established Western churches should be rejected. In 1867 Overbeck also began to publish "The Orthodox Catholic Review," a journal for the advancement of Western Orthodoxy.

Overbeck had also begun to convince others of the feasibility of a Western Orthodox Church and was ultimately able to submit a petition of 122 signatures (mostly Tractarians) to the Holy Synod in 1869 asking for the creation of a Western Rite. A synodical commission was established to investigate the question, and Overbeck was invited to state his case before the commission in St. Petersburg in 1870. Overbeck’s idea received the approval of the commission and he was instructed to present a revised Western Liturgy for evaluation by the commission, which he did in December of that year which was subsequently approved.^[2] At the same time as Overbeck was making his overtures to the Russian Church, another anonymous individual was making a similar plea to High church elements within the Anglican Church.

The next several years were spent with further developing the Western liturgies for administration of the other sacraments as well as the praying of the Divine Office. Overbeck also attempted to woo Old Catholics to his scheme since they had just recently gone into schism form the Roman Catholic Church over Vatican I’s definition of Papal infallibility, though to little avail. Overbeck also continued to criticize Roman Catholics and Anglicans as well as those Western converts to Orthodoxy who utilized the Byzantine Rite.

By 1876, Overbeck began to make appeals to other Orthodox Churches for their recognition of his scheme. He received audiences with the Patriarch of Constantinople Joachim III and received recognition from the Patriarch of the theoretical right of Western Christians to have a Western Orthodox Church. However, Overbeck’s efforts did not result in the establishment of a Western Orthodoxy. He was especially suspicious of the role which the Greeks in London (and the Church of Greece generally) played in the stagnation of his ambitions, directly blaming the Greek Church’s protest against the plan in 1892.^[3] The Orthodox Catholic Review published its final issue in 1885 and Overbeck died in 1905 without seeing the implementation of the Western Orthodox Church. Georges Florovsky summed up Overbeck’s experience in this way: "it was not just a fantastic dream. The question raised by Overbeck was pertinent, even if his own answer to it was confusedly conceived. And probably the vision of Overbeck was greater than his personal interpretation."^[4]

Twentieth century

While Overbeck did not live to see his dream successful, the idea of a Western Orthodox Church did not disappear. The early part of the twentieth century was characterized by a series of false starts. In 1911, an Old Catholic bishop, Arnold Harris Mathew, entered into a short-lived union with the Patriarchate of Antioch, under Metropolitan Gerasimos (Messarah) of Beirut. In 1890, the very first North American Western Rite Orthodox community, an Episcopal parish in Green Bay, Wisconsin, pastored by Fr. Joseph Vilatte, was received by Bishop Vladimir (Sokolovsky). However, Vilatte was soon ordained a bishop in the Jacobite Church. Other small groups following the Western Rite have been received, but usually have either had little impact, or have declared their independence soon after their reception.

The Orthodox Church of France

Main article: Orthodox Church of France

In 1937, the Church of Russia received a small group under Louis-Charles (Irénée) Winnaert (1880-1937), under the name l'Eglise Orthodoxe Occidentale (Western Orthodox Church). Winnaert's work was continued, with occasional conflict, by Jean-Nectaire (Kovalevsky) of Saint-Denis (1905-1970) and Denis (Chambault), the latter of which oversaw a small Orthodox Benedictine community in the rue d'Alleray in Paris. After 1946, Kovalevsky began to restore the Gallican usage based on the letters of Saint Germanus, a 6th century bishop of Paris, as well as numerous early Western missals, and sacramentaries and with a few Byzantine modifications, developing what would become the Divine Liturgy according to St Germanus of Paris.

Archimandrite Alexis van der Mensbrugghe was also associated with the Kovalevsky group, desiring the restoration of the ancient Roman rite, replacing medieval accretions with Gallican and Byzantine interpolations, though Alexis remained separate from the EOCF. Eventually Fr. Alexis was consecrated a bishop of the Church of Russia episcopacy in 1960, continuing his Western Rite work under the auspices of the Moscow Patriarchate.

After some years of isolation, Kovalevsky's group came under the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia between 1959 and 1966, with Kovalevsky consecrated in 1964 as bishop Jean-Nectaire (Kovalevsky) of Saint-Denis and receiving considerable encouragement from St. John (Maximovitch) (the ROCOR’s representative in Western Europe at the time). John Maximovitch’s death in 1966 was a serious blow to the Western Orthodox Christians in France.

While Moscow's Western Rite mission withered and ended, Bishop Jean's church continued to thrive; however, after St. John's repose, without canonical protection. Bishop Jean reposed in 1970, but in 1972 the Church found a new canonical superior in the Church of Romania. Gilles Bertrand-Hardy was then consecrated as Bishop Germain (Bertrand-Hardy) of Saint-Denis. In 1993, after long conflict with the Romanian Synod regarding canonical irregularities, the latter withdrew its blessing of the French Church and broke communion with ECOF. Romanian Orthodox Church take the decision, which is contested by ECOF, to depose bishop Germain from all sacerdotal functions. This decision (which was never accepted by ECOF) is applied by the canonical dioceses of the AEOF (Assemblée des Evêques Orthodoxes de France). The sanction was confirmed and explained in 2001 by another document, "Avis d'expertise canonique" from the Secretary of the Romanian Synod (a document which the ECOF considers to have no value). The Romanian patriarchate established a deanery under Bishop Germain's brother Archpriest Gregoire Bertrand-Hardy to minister to those parishes which chose to stay with the Romanian Patriarchate.

In 2001, after the scandal caused by the revelation inside the Church of the marriage of bishop Germain in 1995 (though it is unclear if a legal separation occurred recently), ten parishes left ECOF and formed the Union des Associations Cultuelles Orthodoxes de Rite Occidental (UACORO - the Union of Western Rite Orthodox Worship Associations), and began negotiations in 2004 with the Church of Serbia to be canonically recognized, with the intention of the UACORO entering the Diocese of France and Western Europe. The UACORO was recived individually, laity and priest, into the French diocese of Serbian Patriarcate in 2006.

In the United States

St. Tikhon of Moscow's contribution to the Western Rite has been one more enduring. While he was head of the Russian mission in America, some Episcopalians were interested in the possibility of joining Orthodoxy while retaining Anglican liturgics. St. Tikhon, sending the 1892 Book of Common Prayer, enquired as to the viability of such an idea; in 1904, the Holy Synod admitted its possibility, including many notes on how the Book of Common Prayer could be used in an Orthodox manner.^[5] St. Tikhon did not receive any Episcopalians who used revised Anglican forms, but his efforts laid the groundwork for the later reception of Episcopalians into the AWRV.

The most successful and stable group of Western Rite parishes originated within the Orthodox Church under Bishop Aftimios (Ofiesh) in the 1930s as part of the American Orthodox Catholic Church. In 1932, Bp. Aftimios consecrated an Episcopal priest Ignatius Nichols as auxiliary Bishop of Washington and assigned him to the Western Rite parishes. However, in 1934, due to the Bolshevik Revolution which sundered the unity of the Orthodox Churches in America, Bp. Aftimios' group was left in canonical limbo.

Nichols founded the Society of Clerks Secular of St. Basil as a devotional society for clergy and laity. Nichols also consecrated Alexander Turner as a bishop in 1939. Turner pastored a small parish in Mount Vernon until Nichols' death in 1947, when he assumed leadership of the Society and concluded that there was no future for the Society of St. Basil outside of canonical Orthodoxy. Turner described the situation the Society found itself in by saying:

It was . . . during the tempestuous days following the Bolshevik Revolution that the Society had its inception as a missionary organ of the nascent federation of American Orthodox colonies under Russian suzerainty, though of local Syrian administration. With the collapse of that plan and the submission of the ethnic groups to the churches of their homelands, the Society was left in isolation.^[6]

Through Fr Paul Schneirla, he began unofficial dialogue with Metropolitan Antony Bashir. Even before this, Turner had been promoting the Western Rite Orthodox idea through his periodical Orthodoxy. In 1961, the Society was received into the Syrian Antiochian Archdiocese on the basis of Metropolitan Antony's 1958 edict. Upon reception, Bishop Alexander Turner became a canonical priest of the Orthodox Church, guiding the group as Vicar-General until his death in 1971, thereafter he was succeeded by Fr Paul W.S. Schneirla.

Besides the original communities associated with the Society, a number of other parishes have been received into the Western Rite Vicariate of the Antiochian Archdiocese, particularly as elements within the Episcopal Church became dissatisfied with liturgical change and the ordination of women. The first Episcopal parish to be received into the AWRV was the Episcopal Church of the Incarnation in Detroit, Michigan.^[7] Additionally, several Western Rite missions have been founded within the AWRV, some growing into full parish status. Furthermore, when parishes of the Evangelical Orthodox Church joined the Antiochian Archdiocese in 1987, a few parishes joined as Western Rite congregations. However, many of these former EOC congregations subsequently switched to the Byzantine Rite.

Elsewhere

In 1995, the Church of Antioch also established a British Deanery to absorb converts from the Church of England, though not all of these congregations are Western Rite parishes.

Western Rite Orthodoxy, in Australia and New Zealand, has arisen mostly from Anglican and Continuing Anglican communities. Archbishop Hilarion (Kapral) of Sydney, ROCOR, received some communities into communion (both from outside Orthodoxy and from other Orthodox jurisdictions) while others have been received by Bishop Gibran and Metropolitan Archbishop Paul, both under the Church of Antioch.

Some Western Rite parishes are also a part of the Oriental Orthodox churches. The Syrian patriarchate of Antioch consecrated Antonio Francisco Xavier Alvarez as Archbishop of Ceylon, Goa and India in 1889, authorizing a Roman rite diocese under his supervision. Additionally, in 1891 the Syrians consecrated the aforementioned Vilatte as archbishop for the American Old Catholics.

Current status

At present, the Western Rite within the canonical Orthodox Church remains uncertain. While a number of congregations have been founded as Western Rite congregations in the past several years, still other parishes have begun to voluntarily convert to the Byzantine rite. Ultimately, the Western Rite remains a small proportion of the Orthodox Church, even in Antiochian Archdiocese of North America which has by far the largest number of Western Rite congregations. Only time will tell if the Western rite will continue to grow or if it will remain a small subset of Orthodox in the West or even if it will once again vanish altogether.

Liturgy

Western Rite parishes do not all utilize the same liturgy, but utilize a particular liturgy depending upon their individual affiliations prior to entering Orthodoxy. At present, there are four different uses available to Western Rite parishes:

• Divine Liturgy of St. Tikhon – This liturgy is currently used by approximately two-thirds of congregations in the AWRV. The Rite of St. Tikhon was developed utilizing the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer and the Anglican Missal. The Book of Common Prayer was altered by removing the filioque from the text of the Nicene Creed, include prayers for the dead, the invocation of the saints, strengthening the epiclesis within the Eucharistic prayer, and the addition of a few other prayers from the Byzantine Rite. It is utilized primarily by parishes formally of an Anglican/Episcopal background.
• Divine Liturgy of St. Gregory – Utilized by the remainder of the AWRV as well as one ROCOR monastery, this rite is a version of the Roman Tridentine Mass which has been altered to remove the filioque and inserting a Byzantine epiclesis. It is used primarily by parishes formerly of a Lutheran, Roman Catholic, or Old Catholic background, including those incorporated from the Society of St. Basil in 1961.
• Sarum Rite – There are a few ROCOR parishes which utilize a modified form of the 1549 English Book of Common Prayer which was specifically based on the Sarum Rite. This liturgy has also been augmented with material from the Sarum Missal. Western Rite parishes under the supervision of the Holy Synod of Milian also utilize what is called the Old Sarum Rite.
• Liturgy of St. Germanus – Utilized only by l'Eglise Orthodoxe de France (ECOF), the liturgy of St. Germanus is a reconstructed version of what is presumed to be Gallican rite, but which has been supplemented with elements from the Byzantine, Celtic and Mozarabic rites

Liturgical development

Most of the present Western Rite liturgies have been developed along the guidelines given to Saint Tikhon by the Holy Synod in 1904. As noted above, Saint Tikhon’s request to the Holy Synod concerned accepting Episcopal parishes into the Orthodox Church while permitting them to retain the liturgies of the Book of Common Prayer. While Tikhon’s request was specifically concerned, its recommendations came to be implemented for those parishes who did not have a specifically Anglican background. The two most important required changes included the removal of the filoque from the Nicene Creed and the addition of an epiclesis which specifically invoked the Holy Spirit and a petition for the Spirit to change the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ.

Metropolitan Antony was well aware that the Western Rite was "a work for specialists." The new Western Rite usage of the Antiochian Archdiocese was to be guided by a Commission of Orthodox Theologians, an advisory committee of qualified clerics or laymen to advise the Metropolitan and determine “the mode of reception of groups desiring to employ the Western Rite, and the character of the rites to be used, as well as the authorization of official liturgical texts.” The first WRV Commission, convened by Metropolitan Antony in 1958, was composed of Paul Schneirla, Stephen Upson, Alexander Schmemann and John Meyendorff. Schneirla, Schmemann, and Meyendorff in particular had seen the Western Rite up close in France, as it had been approved in the Russian Ukase of 1936. Schmemann was particularly instrumental in joining together the separate Rites of Initiation of the ‘‘Rituale Romanum’’ – Baptism, Confirmation and First Communion – into one unified rite.

In January of 1962, the official Western Rite Directory was issued, "establishing liturgical usages and customs and discipline," drawing on principles of the 1904 Moscow Synodal response to Saint Tikhon, the authorization of Western Rite offices by Metropolitan Gerassimos (Messarah) of Beirut, and the 1932 Russian Ukase of Metropolitan Sergius.^[8]

Liturgical books

Officially, the AWRV publishes one liturgical book, The Orthodox Missal though its official publishing arm, St. Luke’s Priory Press. This volume contains both the Liturgy of St. Tikhon and the Liturgy of St. Gregory, with appropriate propers for seasons, feasts, saints, and liturgies for a few other rites. St. Luke’s also publishes the Saint Andrew’s Service Book (SASB) which was originally developed by St. Michael’s Church in California under the leadership of Rev. Dr. Michael Trigg. In addition to duplicating the contents of The Orthodox Missal, the SASB also includes forms for Matins and Vespers, the Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, and the threefold Amen common to the Byzantine epiclesis but absent in The Orthodox Missal. While The Orthodox Missal is an official publication of the AWRV, the SASB was produced by the Antiochian Archdiocese without the participation of the AWRV.^[9]

Parishes within the AWRV are permitted to use either the Liturgy of St. Tikhon or that of St. Gregory. While most parishes use the Tikhonite liturgy, several use the Gregorian liturgy on weekdays or on specific Sundays of the year. Presently, there is no breviary specifically designed for the Orthodox Western Rite, though Breviarium Monasticum and the Anglican Breviary are authorized for use within the AWRV.^[10] The orders for Matins and Vespers in the SASB are based on the orders for Morning and Evening Prayer in the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer.

Also in common use within the AWRV, though not officially approved, are St. Dunstans’s Plainsong Psalter and the St. Ambrose Hymnal. The Plainsong Psalter, a publication of Lancelot Andrews Press, sets the Psalter and selected canticles to Gregorian and British Chant and includes orders for Matins and Evensong/Vespers. The St. Ambrose Hymnal, which is currently out of print, provides musical settings of classic Western hymns as well as post-schism and modern hymns which are judged “not to contradict the Orthodox faith.” Despite being out of print, parts of the hymnal are available on-line in pdf format.

For the Western Rite congregations with the ROCOR, the approved liturgy is the St. Coleman Prayer Book published by St. Petroc Monastery in Australia.

Vestments

Priests of the Western Rite utilize standard Western Vestments as a part of their liturgy, whether celebrating on of the Western liturgies or when concelebrating a Byzantine liturgy, with some exceptions (See Criticisms below). Byzantine Rite Orthodox priests who concelebrate Western Rite liturgies wear Byzantine style vestments and hierarchs wear Byzantine vestments when participating in Western liturgies.

Organizations

Unlike Eastern Catholic Churches which have an independent hierarchy and separate Code of Canon law, all Western Rite Orthodox congregations fall under the jurisdiction of their local Orthodox bishop. In North American, the Antiochian Church has established the Western Rite Vicariate and the Western Rite Commission for the purpose of coordinating the activities of Western Rite congregations and to provide a single point of contact for persons and groups concerning Western Rite Orthodoxy. However, the all Western Rite congregations remain under the direct supervision of their normal diocesan bishop, with Bishop Basil (Essey) of Wichita being the "hierarch of reference" and advocate for Western Rite issues within the synod of Bishops.

Publishing houses

The official publishing arm of the AWRV is St. Luke’s Priory Press, located in Stanton, MJ. Among their publications are The Orthodox Missal, the official service book of the AWRV; The Orthodox Ritual, the official source for the administration of all the sacraments in the Western Rite; and the annual Ordo Kalendar. They also publish several apologetic works concerning the Western Rite.

Lancelot Andrewes Press is the publishing arm of the Fellowship of St. Dunstan and publishes material which is utilized by congregations and individuals in the Western Rite. The primary mission of Lancelot Andrewes is to publish material “advancement of historic Christian orthodoxy, as expressed by the liturgical and devotional usages of traditional English Christianity.”^[11] Among their publications are the Monastic Diurnal and St. Dunstan’s Plainsong Psalter.

While not an official publishing house, St. Petroc Monastery and Christminster both publish copies of their liturgies for the use of Western Rite congregations in the ROCOR.

Devotional societies

There are also devotional societies within the Western Rite Vicariate:

• The Orthodox Christian Society of Our Lady of Walsingham – dedicated to encouragement of devotion to the Theotokos, particularly under the title of Our Lady of Walsingham (and the preservation of the replica of the shine of Walsingham).^[12]
• The Fellowship of St. Dunstan – dedicated to historic Christian Orthodoxy particularly traditional English Christianity.

Congregations

By far, the largest numbers of Western Rite parishes are located in North America as a part of the AWRV, though there are Western Rite congregations to be found in Australia, Brazil, and New Zealand.

North America

• Holy Apostles Chapel – Tyler, TX – AWRV
• Holy Incarnation Mission – Detroit, MI – AWRV
• Holy Trinity Mission – Lynchburg, VA – AWRV
• Our Lady of Glastonbary Oratory – Hamilton, ON
• Our Lady of Regla – Miami, FL – AWRV
• Our Lady of Walsingham Church – Mesquite, TX – AWRV
• St. Andrew the Apostle Church – Miami, FL – AWRV
• St. Augustine Church – Denver, CO – AWRV
• St. Benedict of Nursia Antiochian Orthodox Church Wichita Falls, TX – AWRV
• St. Columba Church – Lafayette, CO – AWRV
• St. Gregory the Great Church – Washington, DC – AWRV
• St. Mark’s Church – Denver, CO – AWRV
• St. Michael’s Church – Whittier, CA – AWRV
• St. Michael Archangel Mission – Wichita, KS – AWRV
• St. Nicholas Antiochian Orthodox Church – Spokane, WA – AWRV
• St. Paul Antiochian Orthodox Church – Houston, TX – AWRV
• St. Peter’s Antiochian Orthodox Church – Fort Worth, TX - AWRV
• St. Peter’s Church – North Miami, FL – AWRV
• St. Vincent of Lerins Church – Omaha, NE – AWRV

Australia

• St. Cuthburt Mission – Rowville, VIC – Antiochian
• St. Stephen Orthodox Mission – South Launceston, TAS – ROCOR

New Zealand

• St. Simon and St. Jude Church – Rangoria, Canterbury – Antiochian
• St. George’s Mission – Waiwhetu, Lower Hutt – Antiochian

Monasteries

There are a few monasteries and hermitages which utilize the Western Rite, all associated within the ROCOR and with very few professed brothers.

• Christminster/Christ the Savior Monastery – Providence, RI, USA
• Saint Petroc Monastery – Cascades, TAS, Australia

In addition to the established monasteries, several congregations also have among their members Benedictine “oblates.” While they are not associated with any particular monastery (and thus not oblates in the traditional sense), individuals who become oblates utilize the Benedictine rule as a means of fostering spiritual development, much like other oblates in the Roman Catholic Church.

”Non-canonical” Western Rite churches

"Western Orthodox" is a description taken by several Church bodies that follow claim to be Orthodox or have the word "Orthodox" in their names, but are unconnected to the worldwide Eastern Orthodox Church. Many have not arisen out of contacts with Eastern Orthodoxy and are likened to those bodies known as Independent Catholic Churches or to Continuing Anglicanism. Some have had relationships with bodies that broke away from Eastern Orthodoxy, or were cut off by Eastern Orthodox hierarchs for irregularities. Their praxis and ecclesiology is not acceptable to the Eastern Orthodox Churches in that often they have a married episcopate, ordain women to the priesthood or diaconate, or otherwise have a theology divergent from canonical Orthodoxy.

Criticisms

Despite the fact that the Western Rite is an established part of the Orthodoxy in North America, it does not exist without the presence of some vocal critics. These criticisms run the gamut from objections of a liturgical or historical nature to direct claims that members of the Western Rite are not actually Orthodox in their praxis.

Byzantine Rite only

Many commentators argue that the only rite which is and can be acceptable to Orthodoxy is the Byzantine Rite, whether in its Greek or Slavic usages. Many Orthodox Christians currently boast of the Church's liturgical homogeneity, claiming that, no matter where one might go in the Orthodox world, the liturgy will be familiar, even if it's in another language. Of course, as Paul Meyendorff points out that despite the fact that the majority of Orthodox Churches use the Byzantine Rite, they often use it in very different ways, particularly in North America with the presence of items such as pews, organs, weekly communication of all the laity, and a much shorter liturgy.^[13]

In addition, even if the claim of the homogenous celebration of the Byzantine Rite could be claimed for the modern period, this has historically not been the case. During the period of separation of the Eastern and Western Churches, it would have been impossible to speak of the Byzantine Rite as being the only liturgy in use, even in the Eastern Church. The Rite of Constantinople only acquired dominance in the Eastern Church through a slow process that was not complete until at least the thirteenth century.

Lack of liturgical continuity

In continuation of the above criticism, many commentators argue that while the Western Rite was at one time Orthodox, its Orthodoxy ceased after the Great Schism. This argument essentially states that, because the Western Rite died out in the Church, and because a continuous living tradition is a necessary element of liturgical practice, the Western Rite ought to be abandoned and only the Byzantine Rite should be utilized.

Western Rite advocates have pointed out that there is nothing inherently unorthodox about creating a new rite for the Church provided that the Orthodoxy of the rite is sound. The Byzantine Rite has grown in ways which have caused liturgies and devotions to develop in one location without subsequent universal practice. Such services would have been invented from scratch based on pastoral need at some point, yet few Western Rite critics would say that such services or devotions should be abandoned, thus perceiving to lend to the legitimacy of restoring an ancient rite of the undivided Church.

Furthermore, it is also argued that the Divine Liturgy of St. James, once nearly extinct except in Jerusalem and the island of Crete. In the present time, this liturgy has enjoyed resurgence outside of its traditional strongholds for use on October 23 to celebrate the Feast of St. James.

The Western Rite is Reverse Uniatism

The situation of Western Orthodox parishes has been compared with the status of the autonomous Eastern Catholic Churches (often called "Uniate" by Orthodox Christians) in communion with the Roman Catholic Church. For centuries, there have been hierarchical churches in full communion with and in subjection to the Vatican, but which the Pope allows to follow Byzantine liturgical customs and rules. Eastern Catholics, despite usages that more closely resemble the majority of Orthodox Christians, largely share a common dogma with Latin Catholics, a situation that is called 'Uniatism'. Analogously, the Western Rite Orthodox share the same faith as their Byzantine Rite Orthodox brethren despite a different liturgical rite.

However, generally unlike Eastern Catholics, Western Rite Orthodox congregations are not the result of large-scale ecclesiastical political machinations and schism but rather of small-scale conversion to Orthodoxy by individuals and congregations. Also, Western Rite congregations all adhere to the same bishops as their Byzantine brethren; they do not constitute a separate church of their own. Criticism of the Western Rite based on its similarity with the 'Uniates' has been called guilt by association, overplaying a superficial similarity of form. Because the ideas are analogous, the argument goes, they must therefore share the same negative place of the Uniatism. Yet the more firmly established criticisms of Uniatism usually have nothing to do with rite but rather with dogma, ecclesiology, and allegedly subversive missionary work.

The Western Rite is divisive

Another criticism is that the Western Rite is inherently divisive. Following different liturgical traditions than their neighboring Byzantine Rite Orthodox Christians, those using the Western Rite do not share liturgical unity with them and present an unfamiliar face to the majority of Orthodox Christians. This sentiment is expressed most famously by Kallistos Ware, who was particularly concerned about the further fragmentation of Orthodoxy in non-Orthodox countries, in this case in Britain.^[14]

Whether the Western Rite will survive in the Orthodox Church and be accepted by the majority who follow the Byzantine Rite remains yet to be seen. In the meantime, the Byzantine Rite bishops who oversee Western Rite parishes and many who oversee no Western Rite parishes continue to declare the Western Orthodox to be Orthodox Christians and regard them as fully in communion with the rest of the Church. Though there have negative appraisals on both sides of the Western Rite issue, supporters of the Western Rite claim that there is nothing inherently divisive about having a separate liturgical practice, particularly since these churches remain under the pastoral care of their diocesan bishop rather than a Western Rite bishop. As yet, there are no schisms within the episcopacy of the Orthodox Church regarding the issue of Western Rite parishes.

Conversion without conversion

Another criticism often leveled against the Western Rite is based on the fact that the majority of the members of Western Rite parishes are converts to Orthodoxy. The argument states that Christians want to be Orthodox but "not too Orthodox," so they keep their familiar rites under a new bishop. The unstated assumption behind this argument, however, is similar to the argument against all non-Byzantine liturgical traditions: That Orthodox Church includes only the Byzantine Rite, and so if one wants to be truly Orthodox, one must also be Byzantine.

It is an accident of history that the Western Rite is not yet firmly established again within the Orthodox Church. That most of its adherents are converts is not germane to the question of its Orthodoxy. One might level the same accusation at predominantly convert Byzantine Rite parishes, that they need to learn to give up everything familiar in order to become Orthodox, whether it's language, culture, or some other facet of life. Interestingly enough, a minority of voices have argued precisely that, saying, for instance, that the English language is incapable of expressing the Orthodox faith.

References

External Links

• Western Orthodoxy
• The Unofficial Western Rite Orthodoxy Website
• Western Rite Vicariate of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America
• Saint Petroc Monastery ROCOR Tasmania
• Christ the Savior Monastery ROCOR Rhode Island
• Worldwide directory of canonical Western Rite Orthodox communities.

Liturgies

• Text of the Liturgy of Saint Gregory
• Text of the Liturgy of Saint Tikhon
• Text of the Sarum Rite Liturgy as corrected for use within ROCOR by His Grace Archbishop Hilarion
• Text of the English Liturgy
• Office and Prayers of the Oblates of St. Benedict (PDF) - Western Rite oblates.

Apologetic sites

• Occidental Orthodox Christianity Dedicated to the furtherance of the Western Rite within canonical Orthodoxy.
• An Introduction to Western Rite Orthodoxy, An electronic version of the now out-of-print Conciliar Press book edited by Fr. Michael Trigg.
• The Twain Meet, by Fr. Paul W.S. Schneirla
• Met. PHILIP (Saliba)'s Promise: Western Rite churches will not be Byzantized.
• Comments on the Western Rite by Bishop Basil (Essey) of Wichita
• Lux Occidentalis The Orthodox Western Rite and the Liturgical Tradition of Western Orthodox Christianity, with reference to The Orthodox Missal, Saint Luke's Priory Press, Stanton, NJ, 1995 by the Rev'd John Charles Connely (PDF)
• Doctrinal Issues: Western Rite Orthodoxy, from the Diocesan News for Clergy and Laity (February 1995), Greek Orthodox Diocese of Denver
• Western Rite Orthodoxy: Its history, its validity, and its opportunity, by Annette Milkovich, including an interview with Fr. Paul W.S. Schneirla, constituting a rough Western Rite "FAQ"
• On the Question of Western Orthodoxy, by Patriarch Sergius I (Stragorodsky) of Moscow in a letter to Vladimir Lossky

Criticism

• The Western Rite, by Alexander Schmemann
• Notes and Comments on the "Western Rite", Alexander Schmemann.
• Correspondence on the Western Rite between Bishop Anthony (Gergiannakis) of San Francisco and Fr. Paul W.S. Schneirla
• The Western Rite - Some Final Comments, by Fr. Steven Peter Tsichlis
• The "Western Rite": Is It Right for the Orthodox?, by Fr. Michael Johnson

News and Views

• Occidentalis - maintained by Subdn. Benjamin Andersen (AWRV).
• Western Orthodoxy - Breaking news and views on the Western Rite.