Western Orthodoxy

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Western Orthodoxy is a strand of Orthodox Christian worship adapted for congregations in traditionally Catholic or Protestant countries.

There are certain parishes known as Western Orthodox within Eastern Orthodoxy that follow the rituals of either:

  • Episcopalian (about 2/3rds of the AWRV parishes, using the Liturgy of St. Tikhon, a modification of the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer); or
  • Roman Catholic Churches (about 1/3rd of the AWRV parishes, and one ROCOR monastery, using the Liturgy of St. Gregory, similar to the Tridentine Mass and usually of the Benedictine or Curial use).
  • Anglican (one ROCOR monastery, and a few ROCOR parishes, using the Sarum use of the Roman rite or the English rite, a modification of the 1549 English Book of Common Prayer.)
  • Gallican (the churches of the French Orthodox, canonically isolated from the rest of the Orthodox during the past decade, using a reconstructed liturgy based upon Gallican documents.)

By far the largest group of these parishes in the United States and Canada is represented by the Western Rite Vicariate of the North American Archdiocese of the Antiochian Orthodox Church, which has neither autocephaly (complete hierarchical independence) nor autonomy (governance of internal affairs, but its primate is appointed by and answerable to a parent jurisdiction's synod), but reports ultimately to the Patriarch of Antioch. The Patriarchate of Antioch 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 located in the United States, Brazil, and Australia. A few French Orthodox parishes in France and the United States are currently in talks with the Serbian Orthodox Church with the goal of regularizing their canonical status once again.

One can with difficulty compare the situation of Western Orthodox parishes with the analogous status of autonomous Eastern-Rite Catholic churches. For centuries, there have been hierarchical churches in full communion with the Vatican, but which the Pope allows to follow customs and rules like those of the Eastern Orthodox Church (e.g., they confirm newly baptized infants via chrismation, they have married priests, and they have iconostases. With the Western Rite Orthodox the situation differs, in that their communities are all under the local Byzantine rite Orthodox bishops, and they share Orthodox theology though they retain the rituals, culture, language, ethos and ornaments of Western civilization.

"Western Orthodox" can also refer to several church bodies that follow Western forms of worship and claim to be Orthodox or have the word "Orthodox" in their names, but which are unconnected to the worldwide Orthodox community. Many are in fact descended from the Old Catholic movement, Continuing Anglicanism, or Liberal Catholicism rather than Eastern Orthodoxy. Some had some connection with bodies that broke away from Orthodoxy, or were released, abandoned, or cut off by Orthodox hierarchs for irregularities, during the 20th century. Practices differ with Orthodoxy in that these independent churches often have a married episcopate, sometimes women are ordained to the priesthood or diaconate, or other irregularities in theology, praxis, and ecclesiology not accepted by the Eastern Orthodox churches.

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