ON THE ANTIOCHIAN WESTERN RITE VICARIATE

I began to like the western rite and understand its authentic pre-schism spirituality and its viable character for our time. (…) However, I am now leaving the western rite movement – not because I don’t like the rite, but because I believe the movement itself within the Antiochian Archdiocese has failed. Of course, it continues to grow numerically (…). However, quantity does not ensure quality, and the direction of this movement has been largely ineffective. In many cases, our western rite clergy and faithful have not been adequately instructed, prepared or guided. They do not understand the spirit of Orthodoxy or even their own pre-schism western heritage. In most cases, they sought union with the Orthodox Church above all to preserve a rite that had been abolished in the Church to which they formerly belonged. This is not an adequate reason to become Orthodox, and this is not a sufficient justification for a Church to accept them.

- Excerpt from a personal letter of Fr. Alexy Young, dated August 4, 1996, published with the author’s permission in “Attempts at Creating a Western Orthodox Rite: An Historical Outline,” by Jean-François Mayer.