One Objection to the Western Rite

Fr. Hieromonk Aidan (Keller) and Fr. John Shaw

Fr. John Shaw:  Bishop Kallistos Ware is reported to have said that having a Western Rite would confuse the Greeks in England. If that was Orthodox, they might assume that the Anglicans and Roman Catholics were "really Orthodox" as well. Perhaps that fear is also present in Russia.

Fr. Aidan (Keller):  That is a thought-provoking concern. It reminds me of several years ago, when I stood in the altar with Bishop Kallistos, during the celebration of the Divine Liturgy at his church in Oxford.  I remember that occasion very fondly, and I have had a great respect for Bp. Kallistos ever since, that is, a respect based upon the man of God himself, rather than based only upon having read his outstanding books on the Faith.

I will try to frame this concern about Western Rite within Orthodoxy (I can't tell whether Bp. Kallistos himself has this concern, or is relaying the concerns of others) in very concrete terms, so as to draw some lessons from it.  If I understand the objection correctly, a Western Rite Orthodox presentation which is not all that different externally from Anglicanism or Catholicism, may lead some simpler-minded cradle Orthodox to conclude that these heterodox confessions are as valid as Orthodoxy.  In fine, these Orthodox may attend a Western rite Orthodox parish, and experience its architecture, music, art, vestments, and liturgical forms, and come to accept all this as Orthodox. Then, these same Orthodox may attend an Anglican or Roman Catholic parish, and perceive the same architecture, music, art, vestments, and liturgical forms, and conclude these heterodox confessions must therefore also be valid.  Conversely, if an area such as Britain is quarantined from exposure to Western Rite Orthodoxy, then at least the Orthodox faithful within that area who are theologically untrained will identify the Byzantine rite in their local parish with the True Faith, and upon visiting the local Anglican or Roman Catholic church will perceive them as a contrary or "other" faith since the liturgy is different from that of their ethnic parish.

I am keenly interested in the nexus of this objection, which I do not reject out-of-hand. The same objection has been expressed in different terms by those who approach the issue from the viewpoint of Western converts rather than of the cradle Orthodox: Can Western converts really assimilate Holy Orthodoxy as well in a Western rite parish as they would in an Eastern rite parish?  If all that is expected of Western rite Orthodox converts is to accept Orthodox theology formally, to accept chrismation, and to make some nearly-unnoticeable changes in the service, will all that really suffice to impress on them that Orthodoxy is the unique and all-important Truth? Or will many of these converts harbour ambivalence towards Orthodoxy's imperative uniqueness, while treasuring equally their essentially-unaltered modes of church life? Will they rejoice to have escaped the worst excesses of modern Anglicanism (e.g.), and rejoice that their orders and sacraments are now accepted by all three "branches" of sacramental Christianity--Anglo-Catholicism, Roman Catholicism, and Eastern Orthodoxy alike, almost as much as they rejoice in the new spiritual life they ought to be feeling as new Orthodox? Certainly this question was asked by the members of the 1904 Russian Church commission which investigated the nature of the Book of Common Prayer of 1892.

There is a solution possible, which nevertheless allows for a Western Rite in the Orthodox Church.  This solution would allay both concerns: (a) that uncritically-thinking ethno-Orthodox may be led to accept heterodoxy on a gut level, by exposure to modern Western liturgy as "Orthodox," and (b) that converts from a heterodox confession to Orthodoxy who retain their liturgical life which imperceptible changes, will value that church-life expression over their new life as Eastern Orthodox Christians. The solution is the implementation of the old Western Rite, such as we find in the old Sarum Liturgy. Because of its venerable Orthodox history, this older form of Roman rite is sufficiently distinct from modern Anglicanism (incl. Anglo-Catholicism) and from modern Catholicism, as to minimise confusion for the cradle Orthodox. Yet for Orthodox Christians of Western European descent, an old form of Western Rite offers them, richly, the forms and chant and spirituality of their Orthodox ancestors.  On the other hand, it requires the Western convert to learn forms of piety and church praxis which will challenge his heterodox formation. The Western convert will learn to speak more directly to God's Saints (a practice which was mandated by the 1904 Russian Church commission which is often cited as having "approved" the Anglican liturgy). He will learn to stand for long periods in Church, which piety does have a spiritual effect and does proceed from certain ancient-Christian principles, a certain patristic way of approaching God. He will learn a style of music which is more austere, more removed from the later-Western "performance" or "enjoyment" of music in church. He will hear all manner of theological teachings in the services, which evaporated from Tridentine use long ago and were never present in the Book of Common Prayer liturgy. He will learn to venerate at least one holy icon as part of every Mass, when he kisses the pax-brede or pax icon during the Agnus Dei (piety for icons, as part of service, was mandated by the 1904 Russian commission and is found fully-developed in each Sarum Mass). He will rediscover the old piety of kneeling, which connects kneeling with penitence, and the old piety of bowing many times during the services, which connects bowing with general reverence to God. He will hear more of a theological emphasis, at the Liturgy, on the work and role of the Holy Spirit (compared to the Tridentine and Book of Common Prayer texts).  And so his journey into Orthodoxy will have not only a disincarnate dogmatic dimension, but a real, present, liturgical, physical (incarnate), dimension.

Please don't take my words as some kind of disparagement upon any Western Rite Orthodox faithful today. No matter their liturgical life, all today's Western rite Orthodox have sacrificed much for the Faith and are fully members of the body of Eastern Orthodox Christians. I only mean to express how tremendously useful the older, Orthodox-originating Western Rite can be to Orthodoxy pastorally, in the immediate present and also in the future.

Lastly, I must observe that the fear of what negative effects modern Western rites might have upon cradle Orthodox, as expressed by Bp. Kallistos, applies equally to none other than the Byzantine rite itself. Cradle Orthodox can just as easily, by relying viscerally on the "validity" of their liturgical life, visit an Eastern Catholic ("Uniate") parish, and conclude that that heterodox confession is valid. And there are many more Eastern Rite Catholic churches to visit, than there are Western rite Orthodox  churches.

(Fr. John Shaw is an archpriest, Fr. Aidan a hieromonk, of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia.)

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