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==Introduction==
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{{westernrite}}
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'''[[Western Rite|Western-rite communities]]''' make up a substantial portion of the '''[[Old Calendarists]]''' in the United States, so much so that there have been claims that Western-rite Old calendar communities outnumber every other jurisdiction of traditionalist Orthodox communities in the United States, Western Europe and Australia, and make up the second largest Western-rite Orthodox community in the United States. The majority of these parishes are under the [[Holy Synod of Milan]].
  
[[Western Rite|Western-rite communities]] make up a substantial portion of the [[Old Calendarists]] in the United States.  Numerically, Western-rite Old calendar communities outnumber every other jurisdiction of traditionalist Orthodox communities in the United States, and make up the second largest Western-rite Orthodox community in the United States.  The majority of these parishes are under the [[Holy Synod of Milan]]; however, there are two parishes under the [[Orthodox Church of France]] and some under the [[Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia]] using the [[Sarum Rite]].
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There are two monasteries (and dependencies) in Canada and Australia, under the [[Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia]] using the Sarum Rite as well as other Western rites.
  
==Difference in Mindset Among Western Rite Orthodox==
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==The Western Rite among the Old Calendarists==
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{{disputed}}
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It was natural that Orthodox of the Western Rite would have the same fear that Uniates held - that the bodies that they had abandoned would, somehow, re-absorb them.  The Moscow Patriarchate took the unique step of completely abandoning their Western-rite structures, the majority of which joined the either, in the Americas, the Ukrainian Autocephalous Church or, in France, the Romanian Church.
  
Orthodoxy in the West before the schism was a structurally independent group of Churches whose Patriarchate was in Rome, but whom had their own independent communities throughout Metropolitan and Archepiscopal sees in Europe, some of which were Lyons, Toledo, and Milan. Concurrent with the [[Great Schism]] in 1054, a series of events took place which ruptured the continuity of the Orthodox Church in the West with the Church in the East. The interpretation of these events (if one gets their most basic facts straight) can fall into three categories:
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This actually placed these Western Rite communities in the position of having to exist on their own, in some cases perpetuating their hierarchy (Church of France), in some cases expanding it (UAOC, later Milan Synod), but these bodies continued to exist in a manner basically unchanged from that which they had been formed earlier. This fact introduced a new reality into Western Orthodoxy that had not previously existed: since their original mission was not simply to become a "Western branch" of the "Eastern Church", but to actually become organically Western Orthodox bodies, these parishes set to work restoring every pre-schismatic usage available that was Western, and by the mid-1970's, there were fully Orthodox bodies using completely pre-schismatic rituals in origin, which were no longer in communion with anyone.
  
1) The developmental interpretation, or the "Gradual Estrangement" theory common among Roman Catholics and Protestants, as well as a number of Orthodox convert writers, which predisposes that there were no significant changes in the 11th century that marked schism, and that those who were abandoning Orthodoxy were unaware of such.
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In 1969, ROCOR intervened in the Old Calendarist situatino by recognising the consecrations of six Bishops for the [[Old_Calendarists#Divisions_within_the_Florinites|Florinites]]. In 1984, fifteen years later, the Primate of the Greek Old Calendarists at the time, Archbishop Auxentios of Athens, established a provincial Missionary Synod for Western Europe and the Americas (known as the "Autonomous Orthodox Metropolia of Western Europe and the Americas", lated the Milan Synod) which eventually absorbed the various American communities using a Western rite in 1997. In Europe, the Synod uses the Ambrosian rite annually and Mozarabic rites in certain Spanish chapels.
  
2) The catastrophic interpretation, or the "Ethnic Cleansing" theory proposed by a number of Orthodox writers on the West, including [[John S. Romanides|Fr. John Romanides]], which predisposes that heretics physically overtook the Orthodox and wiped them off the map in their native lands, or subjugated them to slavery, while replacing their liturgical forms.
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The French Church, part of the Western Rite Mission of the Moscow Patriarchate, was given a Bishop by St John of Shanghai and San Francisco (a ROCOR bishop), although being on the New Calendar. The ROCOR also received the petition of Abbot Augustine (Whitfield) into the ROCOR in 1975. However, the ROCOR officially rejected the use of Western rites on Sept 5/18, 1978 in its Synodal declarations of that year{{citation}}.  The use of the Western rites gradually gained reacceptance{{citation}}, and in 1993, Christminster monastery was blessed to open by Archbishop Hilarion (Kapral), who later became the First-Hierarch of the ROCOR.
  
3) A domino-effect interpretation, or a "downward spiral" theory which incorporates elements of both of the above.
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==See also==
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*[[Old Calendarists]]
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*[[Holy Synod of Milan]]
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*[[Sarum Rite]]
  
While neither of the first two opinions affects Eastern Orthodoxy's self-interpretation, both color very strongly how Western-rite Orthodox perceive themselves.  For the purposes of this argument, we shall refer to those who adhere to the first theory, even if there is some variation with the overarching premise defined here as "developmentalists", as opposed to those of the second as "catastrophists".
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*[[Differences in Mindset among Western Rite Orthodox]]
 
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==History==
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[[Category:Western Rite]]
 
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The earliest restored Western-rite communities (beginning with the work Dr Julian Joseph Overbeck) were originally hostile to their antecedent heterodox bodies, due to their long-standing estrangement from Orthodoxy.  By the time Overbeck began his famous petition to the Russian Synod, the Anglican establishment was horrified at the scheme; Overbeck notes that the authorities busied themselves "as with a great army," when the petitioners numbered only a few dozen.  Overbeck's stated goal was to see a restoration of the various national Orthodox Churches in the West.  Thus, we could label Overbeck without exaggeration as ''catastrophist''.  As Overbeck's position was to see the Western Christian communions overtaken by Orthodoxy, wishing nothing but their conversion, by the end of the 19th century, it is a given that we would eventually see by the 20th century a Western-rite following develop within the atmosphere of the Orthodox Traditionalists.
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[[Category:Old Calendarist Jurisdictions]]
 
 
By 1895, the [[Patriarchate of Constantinople]] recognized this developing opportunity for Orthodoxy in the West and responded to Pope Leo XIII in the sharpest tones concerning the possibility of union: "With these and such facts in view, the peoples of the West, becoming gradually civilized by the diffusion of letters, began to protest against innovations, and to demand (as was done in the fifteenth century at the Councils of Constance and Basle) the return to the ecclesiastical constitution of the first centuries, to which, by the grace of God, the orthodox Churches throughout the East and North, which alone now form the one holy, catholic and apostolic Church of Christ, the pillar and ground of the truth, remain, and will always remain, faithful. The same was done in the seventeenth century by the learned Gallican theologians, and in the eighteenth by the bishops of Germany; and in this present century of science and criticism, the Christian conscience rose up in one body in the year 1870, in the persons of the celebrated clerics and theologians of Germany, on account of the novel dogma of the infallibility of the Popes, issued by the Vatican Council, a consequence of which rising is seen in the formation of the separate religious communities of the Old Catholics, who, having disowned the papacy, are quite independent of it." ([http://http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/ecumenism/encyc_1895.aspx|1895 Encyclical to Pope Leo XIII on Reunion.])
 
 
 
Within twenty-five years of that letter, however, two historical realities had become very clear: a substantial Western-rite following had developed under Fr Alexander Turner's "[[Society of Clerks Secular of St. Basil]]", or "Basilian Order", a Western-rite Orthodox group, and the Patriarch of Constantinople recognizing the validity of [[Anglican Communion|Anglican]] orders. 
 
 
 
Between the diversity found among Old Catholics, a sudden interest in the Moscow Patriarchate to found Western-rite parishes (the motivations for this were at the time unclear) beginning with Bp Dosistheus (Ivanchenko) in 1962, and the above developments, the two streams of thought-- developmental and catastrophic-- mentioned above began to color the philosophy of the Western-rite communities in America and Europe.  By 1961, the Basilian Order was under the Antiochian Dioceses in America, and a number of Old Catholic bodies and disaffected Roman Catholics had joined the [[Moscow Patriarchate]].
 
 
 
==Ecumenism and the Western Rite==
 
 
 
It naturally followed that Western Orthodox would have the same fear that Uniates had during ecumenical discussions between Rome and the Orthodox during and after the Second Vatican Council: that the bodies they had abandoned for reasons of faith would somehow re-absorb them.  Whereas this was an unavoidable (and foregone) conclusion with the Antiochians, the Moscow Patriarchate took the unique step of completely abandoning their Western-rite structures, leaving them orphaned, the majority of which joined the Ukrainian Autocephalous Church (Americas) or the Romanian Church (France). 
 
 
 
This actually gave these Western Rite communities to exist on their own, in some cases perpetuating their hierarchy (Church of France), in some cases expanding it (Milan Synod parishes in the Americas), but these bodies continued to exist in a manner basically unchanged from that which they had been formed earlier.  This fact introduced a new reality into Western Orthodoxy that had not previously existed:  since their original mission was not simply to become a "Western branch" of the "Eastern Church", but to actually become organically Western Orthodox bodies, these parishes set to work restoring every pre-schismatic usage available that was Western, and by the mid-1970's, there were fully Orthodox bodies which were no longer in communion with anyone.
 
 
 
'''The Old Calendarists.''' By 1969, ROCOR intervened in the Old Calendarist situation by recognizing the consecrations on her part of six Bishops for the Florinite jurisdiction.  In 1984, fifteen years later, the Primate of the Greek Old Calendarists at the time, Archbishop Auxentios of Athens, established a provincial Missionary Synod for Western Europe and the Americas (which became known as the "Milan Synod") which eventually absorbed the various American communities of the Western rite that were, at this point, operating with a small, but functional hierarchy of a few Bishops in 1990.
 
 
 
In Europe, the Church of France remains deadlocked in negotiations with the official bodies, while the Milan Synod has built dioceses and deaneries for Italy, Spain, Germany, and England.
 
 
 
=="Catastrophist" Thought and Orthodox Traditionalism==
 
 
 
Western-Rite "catastrophist" thought makes certain implicit assumptions which are not made by Western-Rite "developmentalists". The two major ones are:
 
 
 
'''Liturgical.''' The "catastrophist" argues that there is an extant body of Orthodox liturgical material for use available for Western-rite Christians from before or around the time of the great schism of 1054, that was either ignored or altered heavily over centuries.  This difference is the most marked separation between the schools of thought, and makes for the bulk of the argument for the separate existence of these communities.  Because the charge is warranted (some pre-schism Western liturgies survive in hundreds of manuscripts, available to the public in copied forms) it is a direct attack on the legitimacy of liturgies in use by "developmentalists" such as the [[Liturgy of St. Tikhon of Moscow]] or the [[Liturgy of St. Gregory the Great]].
 
 
 
'''Ideological.''' The "catastrophist" argues that the Western-rite Orthodox churches are substantially separate bodies from the ecclesial communities they came from; in this, they find support in the writings of virtually every leader in the Western-rite Orthodox movement.  The "developmentalists" tend to defend the ecclesial communities they came from as having "diverged somewhat" from Orthodoxy, without ever clearly defining the difference.
 
 
 
These differences, which have been repeatedly stated within parts of the Orthodox world, tend to define the separations within Western-rite Orthodox Christians, and also reinforce the old Latin dictum, ''Lex orandi, lex credendi'' ("the law of prayer is the law of faith").  The hostility between the different mindsets of Western-rite Orthodox is one precisely of how Orthodox Christians view themselves; and is endemic to Orthodoxy, whether of Eastern or Western rite.
 
 
 
==Related Links==
 
 
 
[[Old Calendarists]]
 
 
 
[[Holy Synod of Milan]]
 
 
 
[[Orthodox Church of France]]
 
 
 
[[Sarum Rite]]
 

Latest revision as of 04:26, August 4, 2008

This article forms part
of the series on the

Western Rite
History
Rule of St. Benedict
Nineteenth Century
Twentieth Century
Criticism
Liturgics
Liturgy of St. Gregory
Liturgy of St. Tikhon
Liturgy of St. Germanus
Sarum Rite
Gallican Rite
Stowe Missal
Service Books
Vestments
Groupings
Antiochian Western Rite Vicariate
Society of St. Basil
Orthodox Church of France
Monasteries
Christminster
Saint Petroc
Holy Name Abbey (Old Calendarist)
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Western-rite communities make up a substantial portion of the Old Calendarists in the United States, so much so that there have been claims that Western-rite Old calendar communities outnumber every other jurisdiction of traditionalist Orthodox communities in the United States, Western Europe and Australia, and make up the second largest Western-rite Orthodox community in the United States. The majority of these parishes are under the Holy Synod of Milan.

There are two monasteries (and dependencies) in Canada and Australia, under the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia using the Sarum Rite as well as other Western rites.

The Western Rite among the Old Calendarists

The factual accuracy of this article is disputed.
See further information on its talk page.

It was natural that Orthodox of the Western Rite would have the same fear that Uniates held - that the bodies that they had abandoned would, somehow, re-absorb them. The Moscow Patriarchate took the unique step of completely abandoning their Western-rite structures, the majority of which joined the either, in the Americas, the Ukrainian Autocephalous Church or, in France, the Romanian Church.

This actually placed these Western Rite communities in the position of having to exist on their own, in some cases perpetuating their hierarchy (Church of France), in some cases expanding it (UAOC, later Milan Synod), but these bodies continued to exist in a manner basically unchanged from that which they had been formed earlier. This fact introduced a new reality into Western Orthodoxy that had not previously existed: since their original mission was not simply to become a "Western branch" of the "Eastern Church", but to actually become organically Western Orthodox bodies, these parishes set to work restoring every pre-schismatic usage available that was Western, and by the mid-1970's, there were fully Orthodox bodies using completely pre-schismatic rituals in origin, which were no longer in communion with anyone.

In 1969, ROCOR intervened in the Old Calendarist situatino by recognising the consecrations of six Bishops for the Florinites. In 1984, fifteen years later, the Primate of the Greek Old Calendarists at the time, Archbishop Auxentios of Athens, established a provincial Missionary Synod for Western Europe and the Americas (known as the "Autonomous Orthodox Metropolia of Western Europe and the Americas", lated the Milan Synod) which eventually absorbed the various American communities using a Western rite in 1997. In Europe, the Synod uses the Ambrosian rite annually and Mozarabic rites in certain Spanish chapels.

The French Church, part of the Western Rite Mission of the Moscow Patriarchate, was given a Bishop by St John of Shanghai and San Francisco (a ROCOR bishop), although being on the New Calendar. The ROCOR also received the petition of Abbot Augustine (Whitfield) into the ROCOR in 1975. However, the ROCOR officially rejected the use of Western rites on Sept 5/18, 1978 in its Synodal declarations of that yearcitation needed. The use of the Western rites gradually gained reacceptancecitation needed, and in 1993, Christminster monastery was blessed to open by Archbishop Hilarion (Kapral), who later became the First-Hierarch of the ROCOR.

See also