Regarding the
Diversity of Western Rites
Thoughts on the Diversity of Western
Rite Forms,
by Archpriest John Shaw, Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, June
26, 1999
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Now consecrated as
Bishop Jerome of Manhattan, Fr. John Shaw has had long experience with
various forms of Western rite, and is currently assigned as an
assistant to the Metropolitan of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad as
relates to Western Rite affairs. The following is excerpted from a
somewhat longer post in which many details of Eastern Rite topics were
mentioned as well. The issue at hand was the objection that there are
too many variants of Western Rite used in the world today.
I ... have a
copy of the Latin original of the "Overbeck Liturgy", which was
approved by the Holy Synod of Russia, as I had up to now believed, in
1868 rather than 1879--though that is a minor point. This is simply the
Tridentine Mass, corrected to remove the Filioque and references to the
merits of Saints, and with the (Gallican!) addition of
the Trisagion immediately after the Great Doxology (or in place of the
Doxology on days when it was not said).
This "Overbeck Rite" was revived in the Church Abroad in 1968 and was
celebrated in an English translation in one or two parishes, the last
being in Atlanta up to the repose of Fr. Cyril Sandiford in about 1980.
Of interest in regard to the "Overbeck Rite" is that the accompanying
remarks in the Synodal decision approving it stated that the Sarum Rite
had also been considered, and could have been used instead of this, but
that the Tridentine form had been chosen as being (at that point in
time) the most useful. (I neglected to say that it also contained the
near-universal correction of having an Epiclesis added, basically the
same one that is still in use today).
The idea that there is a danger in having "too many forms of the
Western Rite" is of course the same opinion as Fr. Paul Schneirla has
expressed to me several times in conversation. However, it must be
borne in mind that there are really only two separate Western Rites
that have come down to us--the Roman and the Mozarabic--and now the
restored Gallican makes three. All the variants of the Roman Rite--be
they those in the current Antiochian practice, the Church Abroad, the
Moscow Patriarchate, the jurisdictions of several Greek Old Calendar
hierarchies and wherever else they may be found--really are only local
forms of the one Roman Rite. There are a handful of people using the
Mozarabic rite (that is, outside of the other handful in communion with
Rome who use it); and a fairly large contingent already brought up for
two or three generations on the restored Gallican rite in Europe.
At a "solemn high Mass", assuming one uses the Latin books, the
differences between the Sarum and Tridentine use would be comparable to
those between the Slavonic Liturgy as celebrated by the Old Believers
and by a typical Russian Orthodox parish.
How many forms of the Eastern Rite are there?
Simply looking at the Slavic tradition, one could point out several:
the Russians and Serbs use basically the same books, but the Old
Believers, and also the Carpatho-Russians, have preserved their own
variants. Thus on the same day, besides the slight variations in the
"Ordinary", there could be extensive, minor, or no divergences in terms
of
the assigned "Propers". This exaclty parallels the dichotomy between
Sarum/York/Hereford vs. Trent.
Then, there are other Eastern Liturgies in use besides the "familiar
three" of St. John Chrysostom, St. Basil the Great, and St. Gregory's
Presanctified. In many places one can now attend the Liturgy of St.
James on certain days; but since 1938 there have been *two versions* of
that: one based on the Greek, and another "reconstructed" by Dr. Johann
von Gardner. The latter is more controversial by far than the
"reconstructed Gallican". More recently a third, "compromise" form of
the Liturgy of St. James has beenpublished by th Serbian Orthodox
Church; that makes 3. And more recently yet, the "pre-Niconian"
Slavonic Liturgy of St. James, from the Serbian Hilandar Monastery on
Mt. Athos, has become available. Thus we have 4 versions of the Liturgy
of St. James, ignoring the Georgian
versions, of which there are said to be two.
Besides that, there is also the Liturgy of St. Mark... Then there is
the Presanctified Liturgy of St. James. This is
available in a Greek version, also published by Dr. Foundoulis, and a
Slavonic one, by Bishop Chrysostom of the Banat, in Serbia... Finally
there is the Liturgy of St. Peter. This, interestingly enough,
transcends all liturgical families. It has a Byzantine structure, with
elements in common with the Liturgies of Ss. John Chrysostom, St.
Basil, St. James and even St. Mark; but it has the Roman Eucharistic
Canon along with prayers of its own; the Greek version has a text that
seems to be more ancient than the Latin now in use; and the Slavonic
also preserves "pre-Niconian" features and forms, so that it belongs to
the Old Believers as much as to the Hilandar Monastery on Athos. Indeed
I know for a fact that at least one group of Old Believers celebrated
this Liturgy as recently as 1962 or 1963. Thus it also bridges the
"gap" in the use of the Roman Liturgy in the Orthodox Church.
I think it's a mistake to think too much in terms of "standardized
texts" and the good opinion of people not familiar with the Western
Rite. Any Liturgy celebrated today is a Liturgy of our century. Any
celebration in a given parish or monastery, simply is the reality of
the Eucharist in a given time and place, and community. Neither the
Western nor Eastern rites, as celebrated in one place or time, is
identical to the celebration, even from the same books, in another
place or congregation that very day, or the same church when the same
service comes up again.
And yet, all celebrations of the Eucharist
are one--since there is only One Christ, and One Church.
Thus [on Sunday] when we "go up to the Altar of God", each in our own
communities, we are all together, and the entirety of the Church is
always present with us, so long as we are in and of the Church.
Yours with love in Christ
Fr. John R. Shaw
June 26, 1999
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