Western Rite Orthodoxy - Liturgy

Liturgy

Western Rite parishes do not all utilize the same liturgy, but often use a particular liturgy depending upon their individual affiliations prior to entering Orthodoxy. At present, there are six different Uses available to Western Rite parishes:

• Divine Liturgy of Saint Tikhon – This liturgy is currently used by approximately two-thirds of congregations in the AWRV. The Rite of St. Tikhon was developed utilizing the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer and the Anglican Missal. The Book of Common Prayer was altered by removing the filioque from the text of the Nicene Creed, and to include prayers for the dead, the invocation of the saints, and strengthening the epiclesis within the Eucharistic prayer, and by adding the pre-communion prayers from the Byzantine Rite. It is utilized primarily by parishes formerly of an Anglican/Episcopal background.

• Divine Liturgy of Saint Gregory – Utilized by the remainder of the AWRV as well as some communities in ROCOR, this rite is a version of the Roman Tridentine Mass which has been altered to remove the filioque and inserting a Byzantine epiclesis. It is used primarily by parishes formerly of a Lutheran, Roman Catholic, or Old Catholic background, including those incorporated from the Society of Saint Basil in 1961. In the Russian Orthodox Church, there are three versions in common use: that of Overbeck (The Overbeck text was printed in full in the 1960 ROCOR yearbook), the Use of Mt. Royal (based upon the Carthusian use, itself adapted from the old rite of Grenoble), and the derivative use of Christminster (Usus Providentiae) which includes an epiclesis from the Gothic Missal.

• Sarum Liturgy – A British use of the Divine Liturgy of Saint Gregory, which retained many local Anglo-Saxon, Gallican, and Celtic elements. Saint Petroc Monastery, a ROCOR monastery; some of its dependencies; and the Hermitage of the Holy Cross; celebrate the Sarum Liturgy. The Sarum is occasionally celebrated at St. Nicholas ROCOR Monastery in Ft. Myers, Florida. The text is based upon a nineteenth-century Pearson English translation of the Sarum Missal, corrected of post-Schism insertions. An epiclesis from the Gothic Missal is included. St. Hilarion Press and St. Gregory's Press editions of Sarum services were also blessed for canonical use, in September 2008 and December 2008 respectively.

• English Liturgy – The Russian adaptation of the 1549 English Book of Common Prayer according to the criteria set forth by the Holy Synod of Russia in 1907. This liturgy has been augmented with material from the Sarum Missal, Gothic Missal, York rite, and 1718 Scottish Non-Juror liturgy. An epiclesis from the Gothic Missal is included. This liturgy is not the same rite as the Liturgy of Saint Tikhon, and the two rites differ in many respects.

• Liturgy of Saint Germanus – Utilized by some parishes of ROCOR and the Serbian and Romanian Patriarchates. The liturgy of St. Germanus is a reconstructed version of what was presumed to be Gallican rite, but which has been supplemented with elements from the Byzantine, Celtic and Mozarabic rites

• The Liturgy of Saint John the Divine – Utilized by a monastery of the Moscow Patriarchate, and in publication within ROCOR. A reconstructed version of the first millennium Celtic British Isles rite after the Stowe Missal and other sources – intended for modern use. The name is from the origin asserted by the Church in the British Isles before the Great Schism.

• Mozarabic Rite-- The Autonomous Orthodox Metropolia of North and South America and the British Isles as well as the Holy Synod of Milan permits use of the Mozarabic Rite as well as the Sarum use.