The Wacky Word of the Sedevacantists
http://www.petersnet.net/research/retrieve.cfm?recnum=2651 There are do-it-yourself Popes, and now:
Do-it-Yourself Rites?
Since the 70's there are various groups who call themselves "western orthodox" and several jurisdictions (most of them non-canonical) have established some parishes that offer this kind of "western rites".
Some of them (those who hold some credibility) offer corrected forms of the Tridentine Latin Mass, or the New Mass (BCP, Novus Ordo).
The problem is that the western rite movement in many cases has become a phenomenon of "do-it-yourself" rites.
Good examples of this are the French Galican Orthodox Church, whose bishops were ordained in the "Liberal Catholic Church", then they decided to return to the Galican Rite, and created a Galican liturgy, based on old manuscripts. Some of them entered in contact with the Romanian Patriarchate and the ROCOR, but now they are "fully independent".
Other do-it-yourself rites can be: the Sarum Mass, The Liturgy of Saint Peter and other lost rites that were "discovered" and "restored" by these jursidictions.
The AOC, in order to receive some non-canonical western rites groups, created the Western Rite Vicariate. They offer both the Tridentine Mass (Liturgy of St Gregory) and a corrected Novus Ordo (named after St Tykhon). The background of the Vicariate is Anglo-catholic.
The creation of this diocese has caused some distress among orthodox hierarch from other jurisdictions. The Greek Archbishop, for example, recommended his faithful to avoid any contact with these parishes and forbid his priests to celebrate with western-rite people. However the western rite parishes are now succesful.
Although the Vicariate used both rites (Tridentine and the Tykhon one) recently, ArchBishop Bashir himself, recommended the use of the first mass and discouraged the use of the second one (the Liturgy of St Tykhon). It was obvious that that Mass was seriously deficient in the eyes of some Bishops and priests who thought it could cause "protestantization". Now the Liturgy of Saint Gregory is the "official" liturgy of this Vicariate.
The main point of the topic is the identity. I can not asure this because I've never been in a Western Rite parish, but the identity trouble is big. Although the Liturgy they use is in theory a Tridentine Latin Liturgy, the communities have restored a Tridentine Mass that looks, sounds, and tastes like the New Mass (the liturgy is celebrated in English, the anthems sound like Anglican anthems, and the churches have no religious images).
[ 08-16-2002: Message edited by: Remie ]
