Western Rite

[Tsarina]

My husband and I are very keen in attending a Western Rite Orthodox Mass. We've been learning about the Western Christianity and have learned about all these new and wonderful Western Saints that i didn't even know about. :angel:

I was wondering, did any of you ever attend a Western Rite Church? and if yes, how was your experience like? What's the difference between the Eastern Liturgy and the Western Orthodox Mass?

God Bless.

[Anhelyna]

where's Knowledge3 when you want him ?

WES , WES come out wherever you are :D

[Mary of Bethany]

I don't think we have any active posters who are Western Rite. Based on my limited experience, it's basically like attending an Anglican church, but with Orthodox theology.

Mary

[Protoevangel]

I haven't been either, but I'm also interested, and have done quite a bit of reading on it. I was crushed to find out that the Western mission in Portland closed it's doors.

Mary is right. If you've been to a good Catholic Mass, a high-church Anglican Mass, or a really high-church Lutheran Mass, you should feel at home.

[Tsarina]

I haven't been to either Catholic Mass, Anglican Mass or Lutheran Mass, so i really don't know what to expect.

I've seen some picture of the Western Rite Mass, it looked different because the vestments are different and there is no iconostas. I know the Western Rite mass is suppose to look like that.
However, i did read somewhere that the iconostas in the West was a gate to separate the the altar and the people.

Okay, so it had an iconostas but it didn't look like what we have today. All this is interesting, and so are the Western Saints! :)

[Knowledge3]

Hello

I attend a Western Rite Mass.

The WR was adopted from the Anglican book of common prayer and was sent to a synod in Russia for approval by St. Tikhon.

I think it was implemented in America around 1904.

There is an ordained priesthood with proper vestments and prayers of consecration said during the service. To receive communion you have to be Orthodox.

Spanning the globe, Russia began missions from Russia to Alaska then to the United States.

It was from across the Pacific ocean and not across the Atlantic to Europe.

[Tsarina]

Hello

I attend a Western Rite Mass.

The WR was adopted from the Anglican book of common prayer and was sent to a synod in Russia for approval by St. Tikhon.

I think it was implemented in America around 1904.

There is an ordained priesthood with proper vestments and prayers of consecration said during the service. To receive communion you have to be Orthodox.

Spanning the globe, Russia began missions from Russia to Alaska then to the United States.

It was from across the Pacific ocean and not across the Atlantic to Europe.

Thank you for sharing this information. How interesting!

I think I'll attend a WR Church once day. To bad they don't have one in my city. I'll you know about my experience.

[Dewi Sant]

Hello

I attend a Western Rite Mass.

The WR was adopted from the Anglican book of common prayer and was sent to a synod in Russia for approval by St. Tikhon.

I think it was implemented in America around 1904.

There is an ordained priesthood with proper vestments and prayers of consecration said during the service. To receive communion you have to be Orthodox.

Spanning the globe, Russia began missions from Russia to Alaska then to the United States.

It was from across the Pacific ocean and not across the Atlantic to Europe.

The screen was sort of like an iconostasis but was less solid.
It was known as a "Rood", which is from the Old/Middle English meaning "Crucifix".
Basically, it was a wooden frame, sometimes with icons on it and above was a scene of the crucifixion.
Traditionally on Palm Sunday, the whole account of the Passion story would be read from the screen (they were often strong enough to hold people).

They were systematically destroyed and removed in the Protestant reformation though, with movements like that of the Oxford Movement, they were re-installed into many higher Church of England churches.


I must visit Durham Cathedral to see the old English icons there (very much pre-schism).

[JM]

I've always been interested in history, and the Western Rite.

Western Orthodoxy (http://www.westernorthodox.com/)


The Sarum Missal (http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bcp/Sarum/index.htm)


Sarum Rite (Use of Salisbury) High Mass (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21pnAoiGnjs)

Orthodox England (http://www.orthodoxengland.org.uk/)


Western Orthodoxy: WARNING: Self-Defense Ahead (http://westernorthodox.blogspot.com/2006/04/warning-self-defense-ahead.html)

Various mp3s of Sarum Chant (http://www.allmercifulsavior.com/Liturgy/Culture.html)

What do you think?

Fr. John Shaw: Bishop Kallistos Ware is reported to have said that having a Western Rite would confuse the Greeks in England. If that was Orthodox, they might assume that the Anglicans and Roman Catholics were "really Orthodox" as well. Perhaps that fear is also present in Russia.

[E.C.]

There is no Western Orthodoxy.

Only Western-rite Eastern Orthodoxy.

[JM]

There is no Western Orthodoxy.

Only Western-rite Eastern Orthodoxy.

Wouldn't it be, "there is neither Eastern or Western Orthodoxy, just Orthodoxy?"

:scratch:

[E.C.]

Wouldn't it be, "there is neither Eastern or Western Orthodoxy, just Orthodoxy?"

:scratch:
Not really.

TAW is for Eastern Orthodox. How the Eastern part came in, I have no clue.

However, there are Western-rite Orthodox. Just no Western Orthodoxy. If there is a supposed Western Orthodox, than it is most likely Protestants who read a book about Orthodoxy and set up a false wannabe church.

[JM]

Not really.

TAW is for Eastern Orthodox. How the Eastern part came in, I have no clue.

However, there are Western-rite Orthodox. Just no Western Orthodoxy. If there is a supposed Western Orthodox, than it is most likely Protestants who read a book about Orthodoxy and set up a false wannabe church.

So, to become Orthodox you have to become Eastern first?

:scratch:

[Shubunkin]

So, to become Orthodox you have to become Eastern first?

:scratch:
Eastern Orthodox is Orthodox, as far as I'm concerned. It's the real thing. ;)

[hungrytiger]

Wouldn't it be, "there is neither Eastern or Western Orthodoxy, just Orthodoxy?"

:scratch:
:) I like that.
I think I see what you're saying. Orthodoxy isn't intrinsicly eastern or western. Just like it's neither intrinsicly say Greek or Russian. They are just different expressions of the same Orthodoxy, because in the end there's only one Orthodoxy and it's independent of all that. The truth is the truth no matter your culture. And no one culture has a monopoly on it.
Something like that?

[JM]

:) I like that.
I think I see what you're saying. Orthodoxy isn't intrinsicly eastern or western. Just like it's neither intrinsicly say Greek or Russian. They are just different expressions of the same Orthodoxy, because in the end there's only one Orthodoxy and it's independent of all that. The truth is the truth no matter your culture. And no one culture has a monopoly on it.
Something like that?

That's the way I understood it when I attended a Greek Orthodox Church...but then again, I wasn't Greek...if you know what I mean.

;)

[Protoevangel]

Orthodoxy is neither Eastern nor Western.

When the West fell away, Orthodoxy was uniquely preserved in the East. This should not be misunderstood as "belonging" to the East, however. Orthodoxia is oecumenicus.

[Qoheleth]

I was wondering, did any of you ever attend a Western Rite Church?



I don't think we have any active posters who are Western Rite.

Sorry for not being so active.


This is the parish I am a member of...

http://holyincarnation.org/

We celebrate the Mass according to the rite of St. Gregory (Gregorian).


If you should have any specific questions regarding the "Western rite", I will be glad to help.


Q

[Tsarina]

I'm reading a book on St. John the Wonderworker. Many times throughout this book, has he stated to many people about the Western Rite Church, and that it shouldn't be overlooked. St. John the Wonderworker always payed great attention to the Pre-schism Saints of the West. I just found that interesting.

However, in the book it didn't say that he participated in a Western Rite Mass. Other people told me that they have read in other writings that he did service Western Rite Mass. Did anyone else read this, or hear about this?

[Mary of Bethany]

Sorry for not being so active.


This is the parish I am a member of...

http://holyincarnation.org/

We celebrate the Mass according to the rite of St. Gregory (Gregorian).


If you should have any specific questions regarding the "Western rite", I will be glad to help.


Q

Sorry - the only one I could think of was K3, and he hadn't posted here in a while. I forgot you! :doh:

Mary

[Rowan]

If you should have any specific questions regarding the "Western rite", I will be glad to help.


Q

I have a question: This may not have anything to do with anything, but why the quotations around Western rite?

[The Virginian]

:) I like that.
I think I see what you're saying. Orthodoxy isn't intrinsicly eastern or western. Just like it's neither intrinsicly say Greek or Russian. They are just different expressions of the same Orthodoxy, because in the end there's only one Orthodoxy and it's independent of all that. The truth is the truth no matter your culture. And no one culture has a monopoly on it.
Something like that?

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you! The reason, and the only reason that I know of for there being a distinction between East and West is because of the geo-political situations in the Byzantine Empire when Constantine The Great moved the capital to the "New Rome", thus creating a geographical divide between the one See in the West, and the four Sees in the East. All of which was eventually caught up in the filioque controversy.
No one ever thought to remove the "Eastern" tag from the Church. This in a sense has helped to make the Church seen as though it is primarily a cultural church for people of Middle Eastern decent.
I have served as a sub-deacon in an AOA Byzantine Rite parish, now I serve in that capacity in an AOA Western Rite parish. I prefer the Byzantine Divine Liturgy, as the flow of the service is more familiar, even though I'm a convert to Orthodoxy from Protestantism.
Again, the term orthodox has no etimology in the East, except for coming from the Greek language, which means "right worship", and as the Apostle Paul so aptly states ( and paraphrased here), "...in Christ there is neither male nor female, slave nor free, East or West."
A person does not have to be Eastern to be Orthodox. And, if there is no Western Orthodox, then the efforts of Metropolitan Philip (and others) to establish an autocephalous American (north & south) Orthodox Church has been a waste of time.

[Qoheleth]

I have a question: This may not have anything to do with anything, but why the quotations around Western rite?


Nothing more than being specific


Q