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:Metropolitan [[Gerasimos (Messara) of Beirut|Gerassimos (Messerah) of Beirut]] received a Western Rite movement in England before World War I, and Metropolitan [[Germanos (Shehadi) of Zahle|Germanos (Shehadi)]], while resident in the United States, engaged in negotiations to receive a [[Roman Catholic Church|Roman Catholic]] movement in Mexico in the 1920s. Neither of these projects resulted in a continuing community. They are noticed here to demonstrate that an Orthodox Western Rite is not a recent project.
:Our present Western Rite Vicariate began with the return of a few parishes of converts that had dropped out of our diocese in the difficult days after World War I. It was approved by the late Patriarch Alexander and was finally received in the early 1950s. There are presently some twenty centers. There are no invented services: the parishes use either the form approved for Overbeck or for Patriarch Tikhon, now a saint of the Church.[http://www.westernorthodox.com/twain]
Thus, in some sense, the Antiochian Archdiocese "inherited" the parishes which made up the Western Rite Vicariate.
===The Vicariate today===
Since its founding in 1958, the Western Rite Vicariate has nearly doubled in size and now consists of a rapidly growing dimension of the Church's mission in America [http://www.stcolumbachurch.org/aboutorthodox.cfm], including 16 30 [[parish]]es and 7 missions. Because of his association with the founding of the [[Western Rite]] in America, the Vicariate holds St. [[Tikhon of Moscow]] as its [[patron saint]].
==Commission==
*[http://www.emmanuelorthodox.org/ Emmanuel Orthodox Catholic Church], Warren, MA
*[http://www.ststephensorthodox.org/ St. Stephens Orthodox Catholic Church], Springfield, MA
*[http://www.stgregoryoc.org/ St. Gregory the Great Church], Falls ChurchWashington, VADC
*[http://www.stmichaeloc.org/ St. Michael the Archangel Mission], Wichita, KS
*[http://www.stvincentchurch.org/ St. Vincent of Lerins Church], Omaha, NE
