The Western Rite
Excerpted from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Rite_Orthodox
http://orthodoxwiki.org/Western_Rite.
Western Rite Orthodoxy or Western Orthodoxy or Orthodox Western Rite are terms used to describe congregations and groups which are in communion with Eastern Orthodox Churches or Oriental Orthodox Churches using traditional Western liturgies rather than adopting Eastern liturgies such as the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. While there are some ancient examples of Western Rite churches in areas predominately using the Byzantine Rite (the Monastery of Saint Mary of the Latins, often referred to as Amalfi, is a common example), the history of the movement is often considered to begin in the nineteenth century with the life and work of Julius Joseph Overbeck. Less commonly, Western Orthodoxy refers to the Western Church before the Great Schism.
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. There are also numerous devotional societies and publishing ventures related to the Western Rite. Despite having a place within many Orthodox jurisdictions, the Western Rite remains a contentious issue for some.
History
Western Orthodox Christians look back to time prior to the Great Schism when the Eastern Orthodox and Western Churches remained united with each other. At that period in history, there was a variety of different liturgies in use in the West, with no specific move towards ritual uniformity, although the Roman Rite was most influential. In the East, the Byzantine Rite was the most prominent of a variety of different local rites. When the Latin-speaking Western Church and the Greek-speaking Eastern Church parted ways, many of the Churches in communion with Constantinople used the Byzantine Rite, though there were still pockets where other liturgies (including the Roman Rite) were used. However, the Byzantine Rite eventually dominated (almost to the point of exclusion of any other liturgy) the entirety of the Orthodox world, especially after the thirteenth century. 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.
Liturgy
Western Rite parishes do not all utilize the same liturgy, but often use a particular liturgy depending upon their individual affiliations prior to entering Orthodoxy. At present, there are six different Uses available to Western Rite parishes:
Divine Liturgy of Saint 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, and to include prayers for the dead, the invocation of the saints, and strengthening the epiclesis within the Eucharistic prayer, and by adding the pre-communion prayers from the Byzantine Rite. It is utilized primarily by parishes formally of an Anglican/Episcopal background.
Divine Liturgy of Saint Gregory: Utilized by the remainder of the AWRV as well as some communities in ROCOR, 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 Saint Basil in 1961. Additionally, in the Russian Orthodox Church, there are three versions in common use: that of Overbeck (The Overbeck text was printed in full in the 1960 ROCOR yearbook), the Use of Mt. Royal (based upon the Carthusian use, itself adapted from the old rite of Grenoble), and the derivative use of Christminster (Usus Providentiae) which includes an epiclesis from the Gothic Missal.
Sarum Liturgy: A British use of the Divine Liturgy of Saint Gregory, which retains many local Anglo-Saxon and Celtic elements. Saint Petroc Monastery, a ROCOR monastery, as well as some of its dependencies celebrate the Sarum Liturgy. The text is based upon a 19th c. Pearson English translation of the Sarum missal, corrected of post-Schism insertions. An epiclesis from the Gothic Missal is included.
English Liturgy: The Russian adaptation of the 1549 English Book of Common Prayer according to the criteria set forth by the Holy Synod of Russia in 1907. This liturgy has been augmented with material from the Sarum Missal, Gothic Missal, York rite, and 1718 Scottish Non-Juror liturgy. An epiclesis from the Gothic Missal is included. This liturgy is not the same rite as the Liturgy of Saint Tikhon, and the two rites differ in many respects.
Liturgy of Saint Germanus: Utilized by some parishes of ROCOR and the Serbian and Romanian Patriarchates. The liturgy of St. Germanus is a reconstructed version of what was presumed to be Gallican rite, but which has been supplemented with elements from the Byzantine, Celtic and Mozarabic rites.
The Liturgy of Saint John the Divine: Utilized by a monastery of the Moscow Patriarchate, and in publication within ROCOR. A reconstructed version of the first millennium Celtic British Isles rite after the Stowe Missal and other sources - intended for modern use. The name is from the origin asserted by the Church in the British Isles before the Great Schism.
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. The praxis and ecclesiology of "non-canonical" Orthodox churches are 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.
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 Kephalonia, has in the present time 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 Rome. 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 historically complex political and ecclesiastical developments, 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 as the so called "Uniates" do in the minds of some. 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.
Whether the Western Rite survives in the Orthodox Church and will 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 been 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 the Orthodox Church includes only the Byzantine Rite, and so if one wants to be truly Orthodox, one must also be Byzantine.
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For more information about the Western Rite:
- Antiochian Western Rite Vicariate
- Western Rite Parish Directory
- Western Rite Music and Hymns
