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By the Very Reverend John W. Fenton

On 31 May 1958, His Beatitude Alexander III, Patriarch of Antioch, replied favorably to Metropolitan Antony Bashir’s request to establish a Western Rite Vicariate in what is now known as the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America. That reply was given only after His Beatitude had consulted with “representatives of some other autocephalous Churches.” As the Metropolitan reported to the Archdiocese in its 1958 convention, with his blessing to proceed His Beatitude enclosed an Arabic translation of the 1936 Russian Ukase and authorized the Metropolitan to “take the same action” as the Russians had outlined and taken. His Beatitude further entrusted the Metropolitan to “the right to work out the details in the local situation as you see fit” according to His Eminence’s “Orthodox zeal and good judgment.” Continue reading “Take the Same Action: An Introduction to the Liturgical History of the Antiochian Western Rite Vicariate”

By the Very Reverend John W. Fenton

Lex orandi, lex credendi. That axiomatic phrase concisely summarizes the interplay between liturgy and dogma in Orthodoxy theology. Lex orandi, lex credendi means, “the rule of prayer is the rule of faith.” More idiomatically, “what we pray determines what we believe.” Or, using a translation-lite theory: “If you mess with the liturgy, you are messing with the faith.”

As I’ve said in another place, this ancient phrase explains why Orthodoxy does not have one collection of confessional statements like the Lutherans and Calvinists; why Orthodoxy does not have one “explains-all” catechism like the Roman Catholics; and why we should be suspicious of any dogmatic textbook that definitively declares, “Here’s what we believe.” Lex orandi, lex credendi also explains why it’s not only insufficient but dangerous to read, podcast, or YouTube your way into Orthodoxy. Our faith is not a systematic, logical, mental activity. Our faith is a mystical, divine-human experience. The prayer we have received by the Spirit in the Church is the prayer that forms and determines what we believe. What we believe are found exclusively and definitively in the Mass, the Divine Office, and the Ritual. If it’s not in the liturgy, we don’t believe it. Which means that our Orthodox dogmatics do not influence, correct, or define our liturgy; rather, our liturgy defines, corrects, and refines Orthodox dogmatics. That’s lex orandi, lex credendi. Continue reading “Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi: The Purpose & Nature of Orthodox Worship”

By the Very Reverend John W. Fenton

Liturgical Theology is the study of Christian liturgy. Liturgy itself, broadly understood, studies the Church’s ritual, prayer, and worship practices. Generally, it does not include individual practices or prayers, and may even exclude so-called non-liturgical devotions such as Stations of the Cross, the Rosary, etc. Rather, it includes these subdisciplines:

• The texts that are used, and have been used in various times and places, for prayer, blessing, making and giving sacraments, and other forms of public worship.
• The ceremonies that are used in the liturgy, including the rubrics or directions that command or suggest those ceremonies. 
• The items or implements, the art and architecture, the music and instrumentation, the fabrics and colors, the sewing and clothing arts, and whatever else is necessary or used in the conduct of liturgy.
• The context of liturgy, including the cultural, linguistic, practical, geographic, musical, and historical influences on liturgy.
• The meaning and importance of liturgy itself, as a Christian activity; and its place in the Church.
• The level and significance of liturgical participation by the laity, choir, and various clergy.

Continue reading “Wherever the Bishop Appears: Toward an Orthodox Liturgical Theology”

By Fr. David McCready

In the first part of this article we saw that the Fathers, who are the teachers of our holy Orthodox faith, not only recognized the variety of different rites which prevailed in the early church, but actively extolled this diversity. Our conclusion, therefore, was that of Fr Schmemann: ‘Orthodoxy has no objection to the Western Rite as such.’¹

In this part, I want to look at the question as to whether or not the rites actually practiced today in the Antiochian Western Rite Vicariate are Orthodox. Continue reading “Western Rite Orthodoxy: An Apologia — Part 2”

By Fr. David McCready

Part 1: The Witness of Tradition

Cet animal est très méchant. Quand on l’attaque, il se défend. I was reminded of this old French saying the other day, when, in what was quite a stark critique of the western rite, a certain priest-blogger accused those who questioned his theses of being overly defensive! In his hostility to the western rite, this blogger represents, I believe, only a small minority of Orthodox; as a western-rite priest, and, before that, as a western-rite seminarian, I have in general encountered nothing but warmth and welcome from hierarchs, clergy, and lay-people alike, both in the Antiochian Archdiocese, and in other jurisdictions as well. This said, there are some folk who do have honest concerns and questions about the western rite, and it is them especially that I want to address. I shall begin by looking at how Tradition vindicates the principle of a western rite, looking at the witness of the Fathers, at the post-patristic period, and at the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Continue reading “Western Rite Orthodoxy: An Apologia — Part 1”

This essay is an edited version of “Forming the Soul”, which appeared in The Orthodox Word Vol. 19 #1-2, 1983, St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, Platina, CA.

By the Sisters of St. Xenia Skete

To come to Orthodoxy from the world of today is to come from emptiness to riches, from shallowness to depth, from shams to a reality so all-encompassing that it can, at times, leave one quite uncertain as to the possibility of existing both in the Church and in the “real” world.

Continue reading “Forming the Soul With Western Culture”