Bishop Thomas Attends ROCOR Western Rite Ordination

Comment: How times have changed! Is this the same ROCOR that we used to call our own church?

I think not.

As an American convert to Orthodoxy myself, at age 17 many years ago, I totally reject "Western Rite Orthodoxy" and declare it an extreme aberration and departure from our Orthodox Sacred Tradition, and from our ancient ORTHODOX worship and canon law norms.

All that anyone needs, is our normal & very rich  Orthodox worship forms and rituals and prayers and chants, BUT..... YES... each person needs to worship in their own native language.

And for these Western Rite innovators, to ascribe all their  on-going liturgical nonsense  that they are currently playing-church with,  to promote their novel and Roman Catholic type of worship (& their own version of canons/fasting rules, etc. too), to the early experimental liturgical missionary work, mostly in France,  of St. John Maximovitch, is an gross exaggeration and an insult to his memory, of his ideas and his intent, in his limited missionary experiment.

We have zero evidence that he ever wished that such long dead or bizarre rites, would be extended to the whole world, and REPLACE our standard, magnificent, beautiful, almost 2000 years of universal Orthodox worship.,...and for ALL MANKIND?

What absurd assumptions!

I for one, cling strongly & soley  to our beautiful  ORTHODOX  Rite, which has many local & national variations, world-wide already, and I utterly reject both the validity or practical usefulness of this odd/novel/ecumenist in intent,  'western' ritualistic hodgepoge of  garbled ritual experiments,

(like a ketttle of borcht that has gone bad), often made up on the spot by the participants....most of whom are not doctrinally sound in their basic Orthodox formation  anyway. How many of them actually accept genuine Orthodox ecclesiology?

And too, how many come from very questionable clergical backgrounds,many from defrocked former clerical positions with the Roman Catholics, or Episcopalians, or other vagante "Orthodox" non-canonical 'churches'.

What they are engaged in is Playing Church!

"Western Rite Orthodoxy" is a new separate religion, and has no place within Orthodoxy.  And why is such nonsense  being promoted at all?..and especially now by ROCOR/MP?  It was formally and finally officially forbidden in our old ROCOR, and that was regardless of St. John's original blessing for SOME such French experiments, and a couple of them, here in North America. 

But, after him, those experiments, failed, and were proven to be, pastorally and otherwise, non-workable and contrary to good Orthodox church order.

Clearly, today,  the main under lying & real hidden motive, is "Orthodox Ecumenism" to please the heterodox, especially Rome, and to extend Moscow's geopolitical power goals.

ROCOR/MP is now, a willing tool of the Kremlin's world-domination long range goals.  It is the Putin gang, & it's extension, the MP, who are the foremost. ecumenists, these days 'that all may be one' (???)i.e. ...all under the neo-soviet control and preparing for Antichrist's rule.

This is but a version of Sergianism in action, and it is also Apostasy!

Just my thoughts-

Rd. Daniel Everiss in Oregon

Reported on the Antiochian Archdiocese website:

Bishop Thomas Attends ROCOR Western Rite Ordination

(Wappingers Falls, NY) On Thursday, October 25, 2012, His Grace Antiochian Bishop Thomas was invited to attend a ROCOR Western Rite ordination at the Mount Alvernia Franciscan Retreat Center in Wappingers Falls, New York. His Grace Bishop Jerome, the ROCOR-MP bishop of Manhattan and Vicar of the Diocese of Eastern America, presided over the ordination of Deacon Mark Rowe to the Holy Priesthood, and served as the principal celebrant at the Divine Liturgy. Bishop Jerome, who is bi-ritual and fluent in Latin, adorned western vestments and conducted the ordination service in the Western Rite, and said the Divine Liturgy (Mass) almost exclusively in Latin.

Fr. James Hamrick, a Western Rite priest in Bishop Thomas’ diocese, and serving as pastor of St. John the Baptist Mission in Lewistown, Maryland, accompanied Bishop Thomas to the ordination. Bishop Jerome invited Fr. James to participate in the laying-on of hands during the ordination, and to concelebrate at the Mass which followed Fr. Mark’s ordination to the priesthood. Other ROCOR priests who assisted in the service included Father Anthony Bondi and Fr. Nathan Monk.

Fr. Mark Rowe was originally ordained an Anglican clergyman in 1997, and in 1998 was assigned as the rector of St. Mary the Virgin in Tampa, FL. Father Mark originally met Bishop Thomas in about 1998, prior to Bishop Thomas’ elevation to the episcopate, while (then Father Thomas) was still serving as a priest at St. Nicholas in Pinellas Park, Florida. It was in the years following that Father Thomas was instrumental in introducing Father Mark and his parishioners to Holy Orthodoxy.

As a culmination of his 14-year journey, the newly ordained Fr. Mark was able to commune Bishop Thomas and to bless Bishop Thomas with a priestly blessing. Fr. Mark is currently assigned as pastor of St. Joseph’s Church in Sarasota, Florida.

Following the Mass, Bishop Jerome invited Bishop Thomas and Fr. James to join him with his clergymen and their family members for a hearty breakfast in the refectory of the retreat center in celebration of Father Mark’s ordination.

more photos:

http://www.antiochian.org/content/bishop-thomas-attends-ordination-wappinger-falls-ny