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[[Image:Alexander Turner2.jpg|right|frame|Fr. [[Alexander Turner]] celebrating the [[Mass]]]]The most successful and stable group of Western Rite parishes originated within the Orthodox Church under Bishop Aftimios in the 1930s as part of the American Orthodox Catholic Church. In 1932, Bp Aftimios consecrated an Episcopalian priest as auxiliary Bishop of Washington and assigned him to the Western Rite parishes. However, in 1934, due to the Bolshevik Revolution which sundered any ethnic unity in America, Bp Aftimios' group was left in canonical limbo.
The Western Rite group, known as the [[Society of Clerks Secular of St. Basil]] (SSB), was founded by the Bishop of Washington, Ignatius (Nichols) of Washington|Ignatius Nichols]], as a devotional society for clergy and laity based on daily recitation of the Western Breviary. His successor was Alexander Turner. Consecrated a bishop by Nichols in 1939, Turner pastored a small parish in Mount Vernon. After Nichols' repose in 1947, Turner concluded that there was no future for the SSB outside of canonical Orthodoxy. Through Fr Paul Schneirla, he began unofficial dialogue with Metropolitan Antony Bashir. Even before this, Turner had been promoting the Western Rite Orthodox idea through his periodical ''Orthodoxy''. [http://occidentalis.blogspot.com/2004/09/western-rite-history-part-five.html]
In 1961, the Society was received into the Syrian Antiochian Archdiocese on the basis of Metropolitan Antony's 1958 edict. Upon reception, Bishop Alexander Turner became a canonical priest of the Orthodox Church, guiding the group as Vicar-General until his repose in 1971. After his repose, Fr Paul W.S. Schneirla became Vicar-General.
