The Western Rite: Not in the Russian Tradition

Archpriest Igor Shitikov | December 18, 2011 | Voices from Russia

 

 

A statement of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR) on 10 December 2011 said, “The ROCOR was created to unify the Russian people trapped in foreign exile, who wanted to remain faithful children of the Local Orthodox Church of Russia, who longed for its rebirth, and, from its very beginning, had the missionary task of disseminating Orthodox faith amongst the people living in its host-countries. These objectives remain unchanged”.

Indeed, throughout the history of its existence, the ROCOR maintained Russian Orthodox traditions and spread these traditions amongst the indigenous populations of its host-countries. However, in recent years, especially since 2007, the ROCOR began to spread the so-called “Western Rite”. The very existence of this rite questions the assertion in the letter of the ROCOR Holy Synod of the immutability of the tasks of preserving and disseminating the traditions of Russian Orthodoxy, as such traditions don’t apply to the “Western Rite”. The Western Rite contains nothing special, let alone anything terrible. It isn’t just another eastern (not “Orthodox” in its modern sense) liturgical tradition.

The main service of the daily liturgical circle in both Eastern and Western recensions is the Liturgy. This service embodies the sacrament of the Eucharist, that is, the remembrance of the Perfect Saviour’s redemption of the world, offering the Mystery of the Body and Blood of Christ under the appearances of bread and wine as a sacrifice to God, and distributing them to believers as a symbolic meal. Our Lord Jesus Christ established the Sacrament of the Eucharist at the Last Supper. The Divine Liturgy is its repetition and it’s a memorial of the Lord. This, the most ancient rite of the Liturgy is the ritual of the Jewish Passover Supper.

In the ancient Church, there were dozens of official liturgies. By the 7th century, in the East, the Liturgies of John Chrysostom and St Basil the Great were the usual forms used in the Roman Empire. Although it had wide usage in the West, the Roman Mass only gained formal approval in the 16th century at the RC Council of Trent. Therefore, there were two traditions, Eastern and Western. It’s worth noting that both traditions allow the use of earlier forms of divine service. For example, some Orthodox churches still serve the Liturgy of St James on his feastday, 23 October. Some in Africa serve the Liturgy of St Mark in the Egyptian style.

In Orthodox tradition, the practice is to serve the Liturgy of John Chrysostom, and, on particular days marked in the Typikon, the Liturgy of St Basil the Great. In addition, on the weekdays of the Great Lent, when the canons don’t allow us to celebrate the Eucharist, we serve the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts of St Gregory the Dialogist. The Russian Orthodox Church doesn’t have any other official liturgies. Russian liturgical usages are distinct, especially in the service of the Liturgy, which we don’t find in the Greek usage. For example, the Russian usage artificially inserts a prayer of the Third Hour in one Eucharistic prayer. There are other differences. When you look at a Russian priest, his vestments distinguish him from a Greek priest. You can say that’s not important, it’s secondary. However, it’s precisely these minor points that formed the Russian tradition, which serve to protect our Russian Orthodox clergy and their parishioners. The Russian Orthodox Church always understood missionary activity as spreading the Russian Orthodox tradition in indigenous languages. Many of our English-speaking priests are wonderful ascetics and guardians of the Russian tradition.

We can’t call the Western Rite adopted in the ROCOR “Western” in its purest form. When the Orthodox entered into the Unia with the Vatican, they kept the Orthodox liturgical tradition. It really is true Oriental tradition, but in the Western church. It seems strange, but the Uniates better preserve the Orthodox rite than some of the Local Orthodox Churches do. Thus, Ukrainian Greek-Catholic parishes outside of the Ukraine almost universally maintain the old (Julian) calendar, but most Ukrainian Orthodox churches in the west use the Gregorian calendar. The ROCOR’s Western Rite parishes don’t use a “pure” Western liturgy. There, the liturgical text inserts the Proskomedia and Eucharistic canon of the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom. Therefore, this isn’t a true Western Rite; it’s a warped Western Rite. I don’t know what you’d call it, but it’s not of the Russian Orthodox tradition and irrelevant to its missionary calling.

In 1978, the ROCOR Holy Synod issued its verdict on the so-called Western Rite. Here’s the verbatim text of this decision:

RESOLVED: The Western rite in its present form came into being after the defection of the West from the Orthodox Church; so, it isn’t in accordance with the liturgical life of the Orthodox Church, with whom she shared a common life for many centuries. It (Western Rite) doesn’t reflect the liturgical traditions of the Orthodox Church. Thus, we can’t sufficiently amend it to Orthodox standards, even when we review it to a greater degree, and nowhere is it (Western Rite) a success. Because of this, the Synod doesn’t recognise the possible use of the traditions of the Western Rite in the Russian Church.

The question of the equality of the Eastern and Western Rites came to our Church from a Catholic origin. This is the so-called “Neo-Unia”. For almost four centuries, the Jesuit Order raised the issue of equality of rites in Rome. In 1923, Rome adopted a plan of Catholic Archbishop Ropp on bi-ritualism under the authority of the Roman See. In the same way, the Western Rite in the form of bi-ritualism entered into the life of the ROCOR. Biritualism allows the same priest to perform the services in both Eastern and Western fashions.

Russian media sources reported that the ROCOR created a Western Rite Vicariate, but that wasn’t the case. There wasn’t a vicariate… it was just one vicar bishop allowed to serve in such a manner. If he visits a traditional ROCOR parish, he wears the usual Orthodox vestments. If he goes to a Western Rite location, the same hierarch uses Western vestments. Photos of a Russian Bishop in Western garb caused no little embarrassment amongst Orthodox believers, including in Russia, where the photographs were widely distributed. In the Russian Church, there’s no equality of rites. It utilizes Russian Orthodox ceremonies. Even the most “lenient” Local Church, Antioch, forbids bi-ritualism amongst its clergy. Only Antioch and the ROCOR allow the practises of the Western Rite.

In 1959, St John Maximovich, when he was the ruling bishop of the ROCOR Diocese of Western Europe, took under his omofor the group of Kovalevsky, the so-called “Catholic Eglise de France Orthodoxe”, which used a revised version of the Roman Mass. However, even then, the ROCOR allowed no bi-ritualism. After the death of St John in 1966, this group left our church. There have been other isolated cases of the adoption of Western Rite communities into the ROCOR. They all eventually left us, being essentially foreign bodies. This ended with the ROCOR Holy Synod saying enough with such experiments and made the decision cited above.

Now, we’re again trying to revive a dead tradition. If we don’t watch out, then, we’ll restore the usages of the ancient Jewish Vespers. After all, no one has any doubt that this was the first Orthodox liturgy, during which the Lord Jesus Christ instituted the sacrament of the Eucharist and Communion of the Holy Apostles. Clearly, we’re witnessing a sad time when the ROCOR has lost its bearings. In recent years, we’ve evolved from one of the most conservative Orthodox Churches to one of the most liberal. Our bishops ceased to be guardians of the Russian Orthodox tradition. They allow themselves to wear Western vestments and not serve liturgy with Orthodox New Calendarists. More and more, they talk about universality of Orthodoxy, and they talk less and less about Russian traditions.

 

Source: https://02varvara.wordpress.com/2011/12/24/western-rite-not-in-the-russian-tradition/