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Whether the Western Rite will survive in the Orthodox Church and be accepted by the majority who follow the Byzantine Rite remains yet to be seen. In the meantime, the Byzantine Rite bishops who oversee the Western Rite parishes continue to declare their Western flocks to be Orthodox Christians and regard them as fully in communion with the rest of the Church.
Some Byzantine Rite Orthodox Christians, however, do not recognize the Orthodoxy of those in the Western Rite (despite their being under the jurisdiction of Byzantine Rite bishops with whom they themselves are in communion), and will not share the [[Eucharist]] with them, declaring them to be "Roman Catholics," "[[schism]]atics," or "[[Uniates]]." As yet, there are no schisms within the episcopacy of the Orthodox Church regarding the issue of Western Rite parishes.
===An Orthodox Unia?===
The situation of Western Orthodox parishes has been compared by some with the analogous status of the autonomous [[Uniate]] churches under the [[Roman Catholic Church]]. For centuries, there have been hierarchical churches in [[full communion]] with and in subjection to the Vatican, but which the Pope allows to follow liturgical customs and rules like those of the [[Orthodox Church]], (e.g., they confirm newly baptized infants via [[chrismation]], they have married [[priest]]s, their churches have [[iconostasis|iconostases]], etc.). Additionally, as the Uniates share a common dogmatic requirement with Latin Rite Catholics, the Western Rite Orthodox share the same faith as their Byzantine Rite brethren.
However, unlike the [[Uniates]], Western Rite Orthodox congregations are not mainly the result of large-scale ecclesiastical political machinations and [[schism]] but rather of small-scale genuine conversion to Orthodoxy by individuals and congregations. In any event, the criticism of the Western Rite based on its similarity with the Uniates is mainly guilt by association by means of a superficial similarity of form. Because the ideas are analogous, the argument goes, they must therefore both be wrong developments. Yet the more firmly established criticisms of Uniatism usually have nothing to do with rite, but rather with issues of dogma, ecclesiology, and allegedly subversive missionary work.
==See also==