Autocephalous Orthodox Catholic Church of America
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A Western Ecclesiastical Background
The Orthodox Catholic Archdiocese and Metropolitanate of America is the definitive Orthodox Catholic Mission to western people, officiating the Eucharist and conveying the faith in a meaningful western setting commonly called "the western rite" which approximates the liturgical consciousness of the Orthodox Church in the West of the Conciliar centuries. As such it differs from the majority "Byzantine" or "Eastern" Rite segment of the Orthodox Church which identifies with the cultural and liturgical traditions of the patriarchal and historic national churches indigenous to Greece, Russia, the Balkans, the Middle East.
The liturgical and sacramental life of the Orthodox Catholic Archdiocese and Metropolitanate of America reflects the tradition and consciousness of the first millennium Church in the West which was forfeited and rendered dormant in the eleventh century in consequence of the teaching of the Apostles becoming subordinate to the dogmas of an emerging ecclesio-monarchial papism which sought to centre the reality of the Church in itself as the source from which all church identity, episcopacy, sacraments, and doctrine radiated out to all others. In wake of this assault on the main body of the Church in the West the core of Orthodox Christian doctrine was preserved in the churches of the East, which foundations were laid by the Apostles. Ås time progressed, and more by happenstance than design, the Orthodox identity of the Çhurch came to be viewed as inseparable from the Eastern European and Middle Eastern regions. In America an immigrant constituency of this "Byzantinized" or "Easternized" Orthodoxy established a plurality of nationally defined, mutually independent American Bishoprics with an aim to preserve the ethnic identity of their particular national group.
For innumerable Americans of a western ecclesiastical background seeking to find a new spiritual identity and church home through the Orthodox Church, where they can respond to the faith according to a liturgical and sacramental life familiar to them, according to their own endowments and attributes the Orthodox Catholic Archdiocese and Metropolitanate of Åmerica provides those in quest with opportunities for an encounter with God through the framework of faith, community and Eucharist, in a religious community with its own independent Åmerican structures and western liturgical identity, in the ordination and succession of the historic Syrian Orthodox Church of Åntioch.
An Ecclesiological Overview
The Orthodox Catholic Archdiocese and Metropolitanate of America is the canonical and doctrinal continuation of a Community of Faith organised in 1885 by converts to the Orthodox Faith formerly of Roman and Episcopalian ecclesiastical backgrounds and confession. The first priest of this nascent Community of Faith was the Reverend Father Joseph Rene Vilatte who was ordained to the priesthood in 1885 by Bishop Eduard Herzog of Berne, Switzerland (Roman-Utrecht hierarchical lineage). Briefly in 1891 in order to achieve the realm of the Orthodox Çhurch under easier conditions the hierarchial patronage and ecclesiastical protection of Bishop Vladimir Sokolvsky head of the North American Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church was accepted. In 1892 by Act of the Patriarch of the historic Syrian Orthodox Church of Antioch the emerging "American Orthodox Catholic Church" was chartered and commissioned as the "Orthodox Catholic Archdiocese and Metropolitanate of America" with the Reverend Fr. Joseph Vilatte being elevated to episcopal dignity as its first Archbishop and Metropolitan-Primate. In this Act in the name of a common faith and exhibition that the Orthodox Faith and Tradition is not to be regarded as synonymous with the eastern liturgical traditions alone nor bound to any one ethnic or national culture, the Antiochian Patriarch clearly attested to the positive element in the western liturgical tradition as an inheritance preserved under the influence of the Holy Spirit. Thus the "western liturgical voice" of Orthodox Christianity - silent for eight centuries - was once again blended with the "eastern liturgical voice" in a harmonious Orthodox doxology to God.
In 1910 the autocephaly (independence and self-government) of the Archdiocese and Metropolitanate was proclaimed under the title of the "Orthodox Çatholic Church of America" as a definitive local church competent to manage its own affairs and to guide its destiny encompassed by its own body of Western Bishops. As such its episcopate and jurisdictional prerogatives are the second oldest in all of Orthodoxy in North America, being junior only to that of the original North American episcopate of the Russian Orthodox Church. Indeed, until 1922 when the Patriarch of Constantinople established a Greek Bishopric in the United States the totality of the Orthodox Community in North America was encompassed by only two Bishoprics: the original Russian-American Bishopric which served the needs of those of an eastern cultural extraction, and that of the indigenous Orthodox Catholic Church of America which served the liturgical, sacramental, spiritual needs of those of a western ecclesiastical background.
Enter Theological Aberrations and Dislocations
In 1995 a majority of the bishops and clergy of the Orthodox Catholic Church of America introduced theological aberrations and dislocations into the church's Orthodox doctrine of priesthood so as to allow the ordination of women. In response a minority of priests and faithful - appealing to canon 15 of the Council of Constantinople of 861 Å.D. which concedes to clergy the right to separate from bishops and a faith community publicly teaching or practicing heresy - solicited a retired Archbishop of the church, the Most Reverend George Augustine (Hyde), who likewise opposed the ordination of women as against the legislation of Christ, to come out of retirement to address and serve the spiritual, sacramental and liturgical needs of those opposed to such "feminist theology". Archbishop George Augustine had been elevated to hierarchical dignity in 1957 and elected third primate of the Orthodox Catholic Church of America in 1970. Although retired since 1983 Archbishop George Augustine responded positively to the heartfelt request of the dissenters.
In order to distinguish themselves from the pro-feminists these dissenters adopted the long dormant (since 1910) original identity of the American Church - i.e. the Orthodox Catholic Archdiocese and Metropolitanate of America. For legal purposes a new corporate title was adopted: the "Autocephalous Orthodox Catholic Church of America". In the few years since the estrangement (1995 to 2004) the number of clergy doubled and the faithful in established congregations and missions multiplied four times over.
Liturgical and Sacramental Life
The Autocephalous Orthodox Catholic Church of Åmerica officiates the Eucharist and conveys the Faith in a parochial and pastoral setting approximating the liturgical consciousness and tradition of the Orthodox Church in the West of the Conciliar centuries, as bequeathed by such spiritual forefathers as St. Irenaeus of Lyons (140 to 203), St. Hilary of Poitiers (315 to 368), St. Ambrose of Milan (339 to 397), St. Germain of Paris (6th century) and scores of others of the pre-schism Church in the West. St. Irenaeus brought with him to Lyons the tradition of public worship which had been created in Asia Minor as an outgrowth of apostolic institutions, and which in time evolved into several sub-rites (Gallican, Mozarabic, Ambrosian). Transplanted by St. Irenaeous to Celtic Gaul this order of worship subsequently was indigenousized with the cultural priorities and realities of Gallican life finding expression in the liturgy. Its later development and form is attributed to St. Germain of Paris who eliminated certain accretions and included or moved to their proper places original elements which had disappeared or been transposed over the centuries. In the ninth century the Gallican Rite became victim of the dual political and ecclesiastical reforms which were forced on the Church in the West by the Bishop of Rome and the Emperor Charlemagne. This resulted in the rite then celebrated at the papal court in Rome supplanting the Gallican and all other non-Roman Rites.
Through a determined return to the source and spring of the authentic classical patristic theologico-liturgical tradition and consciousness which for nine centuries was a living Orthodox witness in the western world there has been restored and indigenousized with the cultural priorities and realities of present day western ecclesiastical culture a liturgical setting designed to accommodate the needs of our American contemporaries, and thus reintegrated with that wholeness and balance which is the Orthodox Paradosis. While not an exact duplicate the American edition of such liturgical restoration harmonizes with a liturgical restoration published by the (Western Rite) Orthodox Catholic Church of France, which has received the approbation of the Holy Synod and Patriarch of Moscow and All-Russia, the late Russian Orthodox Archbishop of San Francisco Saint John Maximovitch, the Holy Synod and Patriarch of the Orthodox Church of Romania, for use by groups of clergy and faithful officiating a western rite in the jurisdictional patronage of an Eastern (Rite) Bishopric.
Sharing A Common Faith
The Orthodox Catholic Archdiocese and Metropolitanate of Åmerica is conscious of being the spiritual rebirth of a long-dormant historic Orthodox Catholic Çhurch of the West, and that the Faith can be more effectively placed at the disposal of our contemporaries if there is the desire, readiness and ability to share with our "Eastern Orthodox" counterparts a common sacramental and community life on the basis of no other criterion and principle than our common faith, belonging to the same Church, hoping for the same salvation, sharing in the same anticipation of the Kingdom of God. Obviously since any written description of the reality of an indigenous American Orthodoxy in its western expression is at best an inadequate one for responding to those in search of a new spiritual identity as manifested in the liturgical, sacramental, and spiritual life of an American Community of Faith, perhaps the best advice which can be given to pilgrims in quest is the same as that which Philip gave to the questioning Nathaniel "come and see" (John 1:46).
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