My brief comment on "Western Rite Orthodoxy":
Years ago, when I was a young fresh naive student in 1962 at St. Vladimir's Seminary in New York, I studied the Western Rite, up-front and speaking with its defenders and clerical practitioners, visiting -and witnessing, where it was early first being crudely and disorganizedly being liturgically served, back then: The Antiochian's, under their Met. Anthony-Bashir, who started it, because as he openly proclaimed: "Did I protest, when the Pope stole some of my people!?"...i.e. reverse Uniatism!, the Catholics stole some of our Orthodox Arab people,[under their deceptive "Byzantine-Rite Catholicism"], so we shall now get even, and steal some of their people!), their Western Rite, then centered in Mt. Vernon, New York, (Church of the Holy Paraclete, the Holy Spirit'...which had in it NO ICONS...or statues! whatsoever, as strange Fr. Alexander was in fact an icono-clast, labeling all icons, no matter in what style," as: "Oriental Grease-Balls!") and also what was being done with 'it' (in its many quite bizarre widely divergent variations) at the MP's St. Nicholas Cathedral in New York City. It was being pushed by its enthusiastic advocates as: "The best missionary tool for bringing westerners [especially former converted, Latin-Rite Roman Catholics] ...into our "Eastern Orthodoxy".
But Alexander Schmemman rejected it, as he said: "It is reviving a long dead corpse, which was separated from the living church for centuries!, and it thus has lost its APOSTOLIC CONNECTION-"- so in his OCA, it has never been pushed, as far as I know of, even-though Fr. Alexander had a strong pro-ecumenist bend to him, and he being a main plotter and organizer of his church submitting to Moscow in 1970, under 'autocephaly'.
But instead, what they have done in their modernist version of Orthodox worship is to greatly shorten it: 'to RENOVATE" it.
But back to Met. Anthony Bashir: ...And why? Because as the head of the Antiochean Western rite, Fr. Alexander Turner-a very eccentric former Episcopalian [defrocked, if I remember correctly, clergyman, so succinctly put it: "Because the western mind [whatever that is!?] cannot comprehend the Eastern ritual, i.e. westerners need a western ritual!"...i.e. some version of a past form of the Roman Rite?...or of some other moldy & ancient long-dead & forbidden by Rome, western European form of worship. And by Western Rite , he meant not only the actual 'ordo'/ustav and texts and chanting, in the liturgical worship services, & their own liturgical calendar!, ...but also...western canon laws!...in reality creating a separate religion within the Orthodox Church, -i.e. making permanent outsiders of new converts.
We poor Americans, who already were OFTEN not made to feel welcome in the many local ethnic-Orthodox parish churches, because we were not of the right blood, and thus we were seen as a threat to the newly arrived ethnics, as a threat to them preserving their language and culture- while living in this foreign land of America. Those ethnocentric anti-missionary churches all rejected English for a long time....as they lost many of their own children and grandchildren, who left the church saying: "But I can't understand anything they say in church"...and who often then joined some American Protestant churches or became Roman Catholics, etc.
Western Rite Orthodoxy, in my observation over the years, is unnecessary, and it only is but one more obstacle to converts to our church, AND TOO, it is usually rejected by the born-Orthodox as well!,... to become an INTEGRATED PART OF THE WHOLE of the faithful-it only divides people...and makes them, second-class church citizens within Orthodoxy, it does not unify. IT IS COUNTER-PRODUCTIVE to effective Orthodox missionary outreach.
We all need, to only learn and use our age-old and apostolic ORTHODOX WORSHIP, which is not 'eastern' but UNIVERSAL!,
but we need to be able to worship in our own native languages!- that is important!
For myself back then in 1962, being a convert from my former born mainstream- American Protestant-Methodism, [who was used to a very more or less, vaguely -liturgical style of worship]...for myself to wish for anything smacking of hated Roman Catholicism, as a convert to Orthodoxy, -that was not an attraction for me personally, not at all.
But yes, for former Roman Catholics, raised in their old Tridentine Roman Rite,[which had its beauty and majesty] I can understand their attraction to it....well at least for some of them.
Once there was in New York City, a popular & well attended Byzantine-Rite/Uniate Catholic church which used only Slavonic, and which was attended by a lot of Irish Catholics....who were attracted by the beauty of our Orthodox style of worship, even ..(who were strictly forbidden, by their pope, to worship in any but...their 'born-rite' the approved by Rome, Latin-language Tridentine Roman Rite)... as performed in Slavonic, ...and who rejected even the use of English!
Rome permitted different 'rites', but forbade any mixing of rites-those who were born into one or the other., as Rome did its deceptive long-range true plan of, of gradually "Latinizing" their Eastern rites, to eventually make them all into 'regular good normal-Roman Catholics'.
This is what they were doing for some centuries ...one sneaky step at a time, little-by-little, to the captive Orthodox Slavs, who fell under the oppressive Polish or Austro-Hungarian Catholic domination.
But, much for : "The western mind cannot comprehend the eastern rite!"...!
Some defend the Orthodox Western Rite, because St. John Maximovitch blessed some (Gallican) form of it, FOR FRANCE- in order to SAVE SOULS.
Did he, a saint, make an error?...and as only God makes no mistakes anyway. Saints are holy, but they are not God,
(remember: as is the purpose of all church canons: "To if, by any means, to at least save some!"!!) -Which is why Our Saviour came to earth.
To me, that question about St. John is not of importance, but what counts spiritually, is that Saint John Maximovitch DID ALL THAT HE COULD, to SAVE SOULS....he emulated Our Saviour!
That is why St. John was revealed by God, as among his saints.
Save us O Lord!
From my fading memories:
Retired Reader Daniel in the woods-
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Maybe it is a good time to recall that even the ROCOR-MP got fed up the western rite.
The party's over!
NEW YORK: July 12, 2013
An Extraordinary Session of the Synod of ROCOR-MP Bishops was Held
On Wednesday, July 10, 2013, an extraordinary session of the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia was held, presided over by its First Hierarch, His Eminence Metropolitan Hilarion of Eastern America and New York. Participating in the meeting were permanent members of the Synod of Bishops: His Eminence Archbishop Mark of Berlin and Germany; His Eminence Archbishop Kyrill of San Francisco and Western America; His Eminence Archbishop Gabriel of Montreal and Canada, and His Grace Bishop Peter of Cleveland, Administrator of the Diocese of Chicago and Mid-America.
Deliberating on the matter of Bishop Jerome of Manhattan, the Synod of Bishops made a decision as follows:
“During a meeting of the Synod of Bishops on Wednesday, July 10, 2013, presided over by the First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad, A DECISION WAS MADE: on the activities of Bishop Jerome of Manhattan, Vicar of the President for the Administration of Western Rite Parishes.
After exhaustive deliberation, IT WAS DECREED:
1) To halt the ordination of new clergymen for parishes adhering to the Western Rite.
2) To censure Bishop Jerome for his willfulness in administering the parishes adhering to the Western Rite, and in performing various ecclesial services not approved by the Synod of Bishops, and for criticizing his brethren in letters to clergy and laity.
3) To deny recognition of the ordination of a group of individuals by Bishop Jerome during a single divine service, and to regularize them following a thorough examination of the candidates.
4) To release Bishop Jerome from all duties, including those of Vicar of the President in administering Western Rite parishes, designating him as retired without the right to serve in the Synodal Cathedral “of the Sign” in New York, or to perform ordinations or award clergymen, and designating his place of residence at St Vladimir Memorial Church of the 1000th Anniversary of the Baptism of Russia in Jackson, NJ.
5) To bless Bishop Jerome to perform divine services within the confines of the Eastern American Diocese with the consent of its Ruling Bishop.
6) To release Monk Anthony (Bondi) from all of his administrative duties and from the spiritual ministry to the Vicariate of Western Rite Parishes.
7) To establish a commission to examine the means of integrating clergymen and communities of the Western Rite into the liturgical life of the Russian Orthodox Church, consisting of: Metropolitan Hilarion of Eastern America and New York, President; Bishop George of Mayfield, Vicar of the Eastern American Diocese; Protopriest David Straut of the Eastern American Diocese, and Protopriest Anthony Nelson of the Mid-American Diocese.
8) To address an epistle to the clergymen and communities of the Western Rite regarding the need for them to adopt the order of divine services of the Eastern Orthodox Catholic Church, while preserving, when necessary, certain particularities of the Western Rite.
9) To emphasize our adherence to the rules and traditions of the Eastern Orthodox Catholic Church in general and of the Russian Orthodox Church in particular.
10) To deem this decree immediately valid and to submit it to the members of the Council of Bishops in the form of a questionnaire for confirmation.”
The meeting concluded with the singing of “It is Truly Meet.”
Related post: in the latest issue of The Shepherd magazine
Under "From correspondence":-an excellent critical analysis of the "Western Rite", and why it is a failure.
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