The
Western Rite
The ancient usages of the undivided Church in
the West - the Western Rite - are today celebrated in a number of
Orthodox
jurisdictions. The Western Rite was lost to the Church following the
separation
of the Church of Rome from the Church in the 11th century.
However
since the early 20th century, various forms of the Western
Rite
have been available to facilitate the "coming home" of those in the
West.
We are indebted in particular to the Moscow Patriarchate for
facilitating
the re-introduction of the Western Rite in the early 20th
century.
The Patriarchate of Antioch sanctioned the use of the Western Rite in
the
mid-20th century.
The Western Rite has been available to
Orthodox
Christians in New Zealand since the 1970's and is most frequently used
by the missions in Ashley and Wellington. To many older Western
Christians,
the services will be familiar as they are very like the forms used in
the
Anglican Communion (English Missal) and the Roman Catholic Church
(Tridentine
Mass) prior to the reforms of the 1960's.
For many years Fr Jack
Witbrock
has laboured to perfect his translations of the Western Rite from Latin
into "Prayer Book" English. He is currently working to generate
electronic
versions of the translations. The work is being published on this
website as it is completed.
New
Zealand Western Rite texts
- files ready for
downloading
The
Orthodox Western Rite
-paper written by Fr
Jack and presented by Fr Ian at the Symposium at Wollongong. 24 4 07
More
on the Western Rite and its varieties
- Fr Jack
North
American
Western Rite website
- a treasury of information on the Western Rite