Western-Rite Orthodox Churches

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Western-Rite Orthodox Churches are communities of Eastern Orthodox Christians whose form of worship is not that of the Byzantine Rite. Almost by definition, they exist in countries that are predominantly Catholic or Protestant.

There is no single type of Western Rite Parish, but four major lineages of rituals and practices, according to the historical backgrounds of their parishioners:

• Episcopalian
  • About 2/3rds of the Antiochian Western Rite Vicariate (AWRV) parishes use the Liturgy of St. Tikhon, a modification of the 1892 American Book of Common Prayer.
• Roman Catholic Church
  • About 1/3rd of the AWRV parishes, and one ROCOR monastery use the "Liturgy of St. Gregory", similar to the Tridentine Mass but in English rather than Latin.
• Anglican
  • A few ROCOR parishes, and one ROCOR monastery follow the Sarum Rite (as the English use of the Roman rite is called), a modification of the 1549 English Book of Common Prayer.
• Gallican
  • The churches of the French Orthodox use a reconstructed liturgy based upon Gallican documents. (They have been canonically isolated from most Orthodox jurisdictions.)

By far the largest group of these parishes in the United States and Canada is the Western Rite Vicariate, an department of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America. The Antiochian Orthodox Church also has a few Western-Rite Orthodox missions in New Zealand. The Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR) also has a small number of Western-Rite parishes and monasteries in the United States, Brazil, and Australia. A few French Orthodox parishes in France and the United States are in talks with the Serbian Orthodox Church with the goal of regularizing their canonical status.

One can with difficulty compare the situation of these Western Orthodox parishes with the status of the autonomous ("sui iuris") Eastern Rite Catholic Churches. For centuries, these Churches in full communion with the Holy See not only have their own liturgies (e.g. they confer chrismation on infants immediately after baptizing them), canonical disciplines (e.g. married men may be ordained as priests), and theological and devotional traditions, but furthermore are under their own bishops and, if the Church is large enough, their own holy synods. The situation of Western Rite Orthodox differs, in that their communities are all under the local Eastern Orthodox bishops, and they share Eastern Orthodox theology, though they retain the rituals, culture, language, ethos and ornaments of Western civilization.

"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, and have a divergent theology.

[edit] See also

• Saint Tikhon - approved the commissioning of a liturgy based on the American 1928 Book of Common Prayer, named after him as the Liturgy of Saint Tikhon of Moscow. It is hoped that the work may prove to be in the future the basis of ecclesiastical union between the Eastern Orthodox Church and Westerners who use it, as it incorporates Biblical doctrine and theology acceptable to both.

[edit] External links

• Western Rite Orthodoxy at the OrthodoxWiki
• http://www.antiochian.org/ Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America
  • http://www.antiochian.org/western-rite Western Rite Vicariate
• webpage for ROCOR Western Orthodox in Australia
• webpage for ROCOR Western Orthodox in USA
• webpage for Antiochian Orthodox Western Orthodox in New Zealand
• directory of canonical Western Orthodox worldwide
• An independent Western Rite Orthodox jurisdiction not in communion with the Eastern Orthodox Church