THE WESTERN RITE IN HOLY ORTHODOXY

Before the year 1054 there would have been no difficulty in declaring that 
the Western Rite of the Undivided Church was simply the use of the 
Latin speaking Churches.  The Rite used by Christians in Scotland, 
Ireland and England, was as Orthodox as that used in Constantinople.  In 
the first thousand years of Christendom all the far flung Churches that 
were in Communion with the Five Patriarchates (Constantinople, Jerusalem, 
Antioch, Alexandria, Rome) were Orthodox.  After 1054, and more 
precisely, after the Norman Conquest (1066) of England, the Churches of 
the West were drawn into the Great Schism of the Roman Patriarchate away 
from the Unity of the Orthodox Church.  The Western Liturgy came to reflect 
the Papal errors and even incorporated the _Filioque_ in the Nicene Creed 
with other aberrations.

     The restoration of a corrected, Orthodox, Western Rite in the United 
States was not originated by laity or by parish clergy.  The vision of the 
Western Rite as a part of the Orthodox Mission in America belonged to 
Archbishop Tikhon of the American Archdiocese.  Ninety years ago he 
examined the existing American _Book of Common Prayer_ and sent it to the 
Holy Synod of Moscow.  That Liturgy, derived from the ancient use of the 
Orthodox West, and first expressed in English in 1549 by authority of King 
Edward VI or England, was corrected and approved by the Holy Synod for 
Orthodox Church use.

     In the years following, blessed Tikhon was elevated to Patriarch of 
Moscow (1917), martyred by the Communists in 1925, since declared a Saint, 
and is now known to Orthodox throughout the world as Saint Tikhon, 
Enlightener of America.  This is the same bishop who, about the time he 
obtained approval for the restoration of the Western Rite in America, also 
consecrated (in 1904) Bishop Raphael for the Syrian Orthodox mission of the 
Orthodox Church of North America, from which the Antiochian Orthodox 
Christian Archdiocese descends.

     As the Orthodox Mission in America grew in numbers and in maturity, 
further authorization of the Western Rite was given by the Patriarchs of 
Antioch.  Metropolitan Anthony Bashir founded the Western Rite Vicariate 
for Western Rite Missions in the Archdiocese.  Metropolitan Philip has 
promoted an increasing number of Western Rite Parishes.  New additions of 
Clergy and Laity to this work have more than doubled its size in a few 
years.  Western Rite Orthodoxy is a growing dimension of Orthodox mission 
in America.

     The Western Rite Parishes represent a restoration of the Western 
Liturgy of the Undivided Church of the first 1,000 years, by Patriarchal 
authority, for the benefit of all Orthodox people.

                                 --  Fr. John Connely

                         -------------------

            THE LITURGY FOR SUNDAYS, HOLY DAYS AND FERIAS
                  The American Book of Common Prayer
          Holy Communion Service According to the Orthodox
       Western Rite of St. Tikhon, the Enlightener of America
         for use of Saint Mark's Parish, Denver, Colorado

An Essay published with this tract, "The Western Rite in Holy Orthodoxy"
touches but a part of the history of the English, Scottish, and American 
Prayer Book Tradition.  Several helpful books are available at St. Mark's 
including Bishop Blunt's _Annotated Book of Common Prayer_ (1899).  Much of 
what has been restored in the Liturgy of St. Tikhon was already present in 
the Liturgy of the Non-juring Church of England of 1718.  The eminent 
English liturgical scholar, Dr. Thomas Brett (1667-1744), had discovered 
the necessity of restoring an explicit Oblation of the Eucharist Elements 
to the Father, and an _Epiclesis_ (Invocation) of the Holy Ghost, to the 
English Liturgy of the Book of Common Prayer.  The explicit Oblation and 
invocation were restored to the Scottish Prayer Book of 1764, but 1789 saw 
changes.  The 1764 Scottish Prayer Book was to be used in America after the 
Consecration of Bishop Samuel Seabury in Aberdeen, Scotland.  Yet, the 
first General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in America in 
1789, discarded part of the agreement between Bishop Seabury and the 
Scottish clergy to use the Scottish Prayer Book.  The 1789 General 
Convention, in an act foreboding of future rash revisions, removed the 
explicit "Invocation" from the Consecration.  This is restored in 
the Orthodox text:

       Scottish           General Convention          Orthodox "St.
         1764                   1789                  Tikhon" 1904
  "... vouchsafe to       "... vouchsafe to        "... vouchsafe to
   bless and sanctify,     bless and sanctify       send down thy Holy
   with Thy Word and       with thy Word and        Spirit upon these 
   Holy Spirit, these      Holy Spirit, these       thy gifts and 
   Thy gifts and           thy gifts and            creatures of bread 
   creatures of Bread      creatures of bread       and wine, that they  
   and Wine, that they     and wine; that we,       may be changed into
   may become the          receiving them           the _Body and Blood
   _Body and Blood of      according to thy Son     of Thy most dearly
   Thy most dearly         our Saviour Jesus        beloved Son._
   beloved Son._           Christ's holy 
                           institution.

_________________

The preceding is "reprinted" from the Liturgy Booklet in use at St. Mary's 
Parish, Denver, Colorado (Western Rite Orthodox).

Official Copies of the Liturgy are available from: The Vicar General, 
Western Rite Vicariate, St. Mary's Church, 8005 Ridge Boulevard, Brooklyn, 
New York 11209