A Synopsis of Western Orthodox History
AD 37: Saint Aristibule sent to Britain from Tyre as first Bishop - recorded by Saint Dorotheus, Bishop of Tyre. This was six years before the Roman Empire invaded Britain. In those days his most likely point of entry would be Devon or Cornwall.
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The four synods of Pisa 1409, Constance 1417, Sienna 1424 and Basle 1434, mention that "the Churches of France and Spain must yield in points of antiquity and precedence to that of Britain as the latter Church was founded by Joseph of Arimathea immediately after the passion of Christ." It is possible that these references are to Saint Joseph of Arimathea having financed Saint Aristibule and probably having accompanied him.
208: The Roman historian Tertullian, in a tract mentions the Church in Britain as having reached parts as yet unconquered by the Roman Army, which tells us that the Church had developed beyond the Roman pale and was certainly indigenous, as the actions of Saint Lucan clearly show.
238: Origen makes mention the Church in Britain.
300-304: The first recorded Christian Martyrs in England were the layman Saint Alban, Bishop Stephen of London, Bishop Socrates of York, Bishop Argulius of London, as well as Bishop Amphibalus of LLandaff, Bishop Nicolas of Penrhyn, Bishop Melior of Carlisle, and others during the period
306: Constantine the Great was proclaimed as Augustus - ruler of the Roman Empire - at York in northern England.
325: Saint Athanasius specifically states that the British Church recorded her agreement to the decisions of the First Ecumenical Council held at Nicaea.
359: British Bishops attended the Council of Rimini. The archaeological evidence of this period points to the existing chapels at Lullingstone and Silchester as dating from about 345.
360: Born is John Cassian. He will be noted for his role in bringing the ideas and practices of Desert Christian monasticism to the early medieval West.
397: Saint Ninian founded the monastery at Whitehorn in Galloway.
399: Saint John Chrysostom attests to the British Church as integral with the rest of the Church and holding the same faith.
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418: On 1 May 418 a great synod (Augustine of Hippo called it A Council of Africa), which assembled under the presidency of Aurelius, bishop of Carthage, to take action concerning the errors of Caelestius, a disciple of Pelagius (aka Presbyter Morgan), denounced the Pelagian doctrines of human nature, original sin, grace, and perfectibility; and it fully approved the contrary views of Augustine. Prompted by the reinstatement by the bishop of Rome of a deposed African priest (Apiarius of Sicca), the synod enacted that whoever appeals to a court on the other side of the sea (meaning Rome) may not again be received into communion by any one in Africa (canon 17). This paragraph source: wikipedia.org
432: Saint Patrick, born in the west of England, was consecrated Bishop and took up residence in Ireland. He ruled as Abbot-Bishop of Armagh for the next thirty years, founding many monasteries and extending the Church in Ireland until the time of his death in 464.
480: Norcia, Italy the future saint Benedict is born of Eutropio Anicio & Claudia Abondantia Reguardati.
545: The Synod of Brefi is held at Llandewi Brefi to condemn the Pelagian heresy.
545: Saint Dyfrig, Primate and Archbishop of Caerleon resigned his position in favour of Saint David.
545-6: Saint David moved the Archdiocese from Caerleon to Menevia (St. Davids). Death of Saint Dyfrig. He was succeeded as Bishop of Glywysing and Gwent by Saint Teilo.
547: March 21, at Monte Cassino, Italy, our father among the saints Benedict reposes.
547-48: Saint David, Archbishop of Menevia (Wales) Primate of the Church in the British Isles, did obeisance to the Patriarch of Jerusalem (as did his successors Saint Padarn, Bishop of Avranches and Saint Teilo later Archbishop of Menevia). Saint David reposed in 601.
By the midst of the first millennium, the Church in the British Isles boasted a chain of hundreds of monasteries great and small, anchorite cells etc., spread all over the land. The Diocese was typically centred on the monastery in which the Abbot-Bishop lived and from which he ruled his Diocese, sometimes using monastic clergy to service the closer dependent Parishes and married clergy in the further towns and villages. There is reason to believe that secular as well as the numerous monastic Celtic Priests wore plain, equal-armed pectoral Crosses although whether this was universal or by rank is uncertain. Monks of the early period are believed to have worn plain, unbleached, heavy, coarse woven woolen habits with a full hood and leather belt. They habitually carried a plain staff. Secular clergy are believed to have worn black or dark blue cassocks. Later monks wore a darker habit and retained the staff.
563: Saint Columcille travelled with some monks to Iona in Scotland where he founded the famous monastery at Iona on an island off the Atlantic coast.
564: Saint Cadog settled in Weedon in Calchfynedd and was made Bishop there. Saint. Samson attended the Council of Paris and witnesses several Royal decrees.
569: Saint David called the Synod of Victoria to denounce the Pelagian heresy once more.
570: Death of Saint Gildas at Llantokay (Street). He is buried at Glastonbury Abbey.
584: Death of Saint Deiniol Gwyn, Bishop of Bangor Fawr.
588: Skellig Michael Monastery founded by Saint Finnan on a rock 600 ft above the Atlantic Ocean seven miles off the west coast of Ireland. Probably one of the most inaccessible and austere monastic communities in the world, it flourished for a thousand years, at the end, being disbanded because the monks refused to accept the new calendar.
589: Death of Saint Constantine the King of Dumnonia (Devon).
590: The Church in the British Isles at this time numbered 120 bishops, hundreds of monasteries and parishes. It is well organised under a Primate with his See at Menevia, having been in existence since AD 37
- 561 years.
597: The monk-bishop Augustine sent by the pope to invade the British Church lands in Kent and meets Bishop Luidhard, chaplain to the Christian queen of the pagan Saxon king. Instead of leaving, he invades the lands properly belonging to the Local British Church.
598: Canterbury Abbey founded, Glastonbury Abbey founded.
601: The Synod of Chester. Death of Saint Asaph, Bishop of Llanelwy.
602: Saint Augustine of Canterbury met with the British Bishops at Aust near Chepstow. He failed to acknowledge their Local Church and insisted that they yield to him in the conversion of the Saxons, and look to Canterbury as their spiritual centre. The British bishops tactfully declined.
604: The British Bishops met for a second time with Augustine of Canterbury. He neglected to rise to greet them, lectured them again and insisted they submit to him. The British Bishops sent him packing. They refused to recognise the authority of a church within their enemies' territory under such a disrespectful bishop.
634: Saint Aidan, at King Oswald’s invitation, came from the Monastery at Iona, to set up his See at Lindisfarne, as Bishop of all of Northumbria. Here he founded his monastery, staffed by a group of monks who had accompanied him from Iona.
635: Saint Aidan founded Whitby Abbey in Yorkshire. Malmsbury Abbey in Wiltshire, founded by Saint Maildulph.
664: The Synod of Whitby held to reconcile the dating of Easter with that of the universal Church.
669: Saint Theodore of Tarsus, a Greek monk appointed to the See of Canterbury, arrived in at the age of 67 and began a twenty-year episcopate of trying to persuade the British Bishops to accept him as Archbishop.
672/3: The First Synod of Hertford called by Saint Theodore at which the famous ten decrees were passed, paralleling the canons of the Council of Chalcedon. He wrote: “My dearest brothers, for the love and reverence you bear our Redeemer, I beg that we may all deliberate in harmony for our Faith, preserving inviolate the decrees and definitions of our holy and respected Fathers.” I then proceeded to speak at length on the need for charity, and the preservation of the Church's unity. And having concluded my discourse, I asked each in turn whether they agreed to observe all the canonical decrees of the ancient Fathers. To which all our fellow-priests replied: “We agree gladly, and we will readily and willingly obey whatever is laid down in the canons of the holy Fathers.” I then produced the said book of canons, and publicly showed them ten chapters which I had marked in certain places, because I knew them to be of the greatest importance to us, and I asked that all should devote careful attention to them. -- Saint Theodore of Tarsus
The second Synod at Hatfield produced a statement of orthodoxy regarding the monothelite controversy.
682: The great monastery of Jarrow, Northumbria founded. The church there is recorded as having a Rood Screen (similar to an iconostasis) with the icons recorded by Saint Bede. “Abbot Benedict brought “masons to build a church...and glaziers for the windows in the body of the church, the chapels and the clere-story” (Those glaziers set up a stained glass school, the remains of which have been uncovered by archaeologists recently) “an abundant supply of relics of the blessed Apostles and Christian Martyrs which were to prove a benefit to many churches...and many holy pictures of the saints...an icon of the Mother of God, the Blessed Mary, ever-Virgin, and one each of the twelve Apostles, which he had across the central arch on a wooden frame reaching from side to side (a Rood Screen) ...icons of incidents in the Gospels with which he decorated the south wall and scenes from Saint John’s vision of the Apocalypse for the north wall...and...the Last Judgement” (above the arch). This arrangement was loosely followed by the Church until the Great Schism and thereafter until the reformation.
690: The Witenagamot - the Parliament of England - forbade appeals from the Local Church to the Patriarch of Rome, emphasising the sufficiency of the Local Church and its Primate.
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700: Saint Aldhelm, Abbot of Malmesbury, attended a Synod in Wessex, from which he sent King Gerren of Dumnonia a letter insisting that his kingdom's Church comply with the practices agreed thirty-six years previously at the Synod of Whitby.
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---- Evesham Abbey founded by Saint Egwin, Bishop of Worcester.
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704: King Aethelred I retired to the Abbey of Bardney as a monk.
706: Archbishop Bertwald of Canterbury called the Synod of the Nidd which officially recognised Saint Wilfred as Bishop of Hexham and Abbot of Ripon. Saint John of Beverley, the previous Bishop, was transferred to York.
709: King Cenred of Mercia entered a monastery.
731: Saint Bede completed his history of the Church in England.
747: The western ecclesiastical calendar was adopted in England by a Synod meeting in Cloveshoe. In addition, observance of the feast days of Sts. Gregory the Great and Augustine (of Canterbury) was ordered. The English Church made unilateral changes to her calendar until 1161. The Rogation days were adopted.
----: The Witenagamot again forbade appeals to the Roman Patriarch. In both cases, ecclesiastical appeals could go only as far as the Archbishop of Canterbury as Primate of the Local Church.
754: With the Donation of Pepin, the Roman popes became independent of the Eastern Emperor and sovereign in their own territory - which the Franks now referred to as the “Roman Empire”
754-56: The forged “Donation of Constantine” purported to grant the pope of Rome supreme power over the other Patriarchates and to make him the supreme ruler of the universal Church.
768: Archbishop Elfoddw of Gwynedd persuades the Welsh Church to accept the results of the Synod of Whitby.
Regarding vestments of the British Church of the first millennium, perhaps the best example to cite is the set which have survived intact at Durham Cathedral. The stole bears an embroidered inscription which states that the set was made at the order of Queen Elflaed who died in 916, for Bishop Frithstan who held the See of Winchester from 909 to 931. The stole has embroidered on it the figures of sixteen prophets, with Saint Thomas and Saint James at either end, the whole very richly decorated. The matching maniple has the figures of Saint Gregory the Great, Sixtus II Saint Lawrence and Saint Peter, with Saint John the Baptist and Saint John the Divine at either end. Saint Cuthbert wore an equal-armed gold pectoral Cross decorated with garnet rectangles and a central circular garnet. It had no figure, a feature which is extremely common among pectoral Crosses of the period. The T headed crozier was used by bishops of the first millennium as well as the crook-headed crozier.
785: The Synod of Cealchythe erects the Archbishopric of Lichfield at the request of King Offa.
792: The Synod of Regensburg condemned Adoptionism.
796: King Offa of all England signs a commercial treaty with his younger European contemporary, the Emperor Charlemagne dealing with him as an equal, while Charlemagne is recorded as having regarded him as an outstanding ruler.
800: Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne as “Roman Emperor” thus asserting his claim to the West, as presented in the forged “Donation of Constantine”. From this time the term “pope” began to be exclusively used for the Bishop of Rome.
----: The Western Rite Monastery of Saint Mary was established in Jerusalem. A description circa 870 of the monastery is extant.
801: The monks in Jerusalem shocked by Frankish visitors sent by Charlemagne, who used the filioque.
803: The Synod of Cloveshoe made some decisions purporting to effect the whole Church in the British Isles. Introducing the Gregorian Canon into the Liturgy of Saint John the Divine, suppressing the Archbishopric of Lichfield.
804: Bl. Alcuin of York wrote to the people of Lyons cautioning them not to insert the Filioque into the creed. The exiled Spanish bishop Felix was there advocating its use.
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810: Pope Leo III refused permission for the Filioque to be inserted in the Creed, saying that he could not override the Councils and the Fathers.
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860: SS Cyril and Methodios arrived in Moravia and began their mission using the Western Liturgy there. They essentially used a Western (Latin) liturgy translated into Slavonic in Dalmatia (ancient Croatia).
867: A synod at Constantinople. It anathematised the doctrine of the Procession of the Spirit from the Father and the Son (filioque) and the practice of clerical celibacy.
871: Alfred the Great, a warrior and scholar, became King of the West Saxons and most of modern England.
879: In November, a council sometimes referred to as the “Eighth Ecumenical Council” met in Constantinople. The council reaffirmed the creed of A.D. 381 and declared any and all additions to the creed invalid. It also placed Bulgaria formally under the jurisdiction of Constantinople. Three hundred and eighty-three bishops attended. Pope John VIII accepted the council’s teaching that no one should add to the creed and in a letter to Patriatrch Photios indicated that he believed the filioque to be false. The filioque was not used in Rome until 1014.
893: Asser, a cousin of Nobis, Archbishop of Menevia and literary expert at King Alfred’s court, was made Bishop of Sherborne (+909).
909: William of Aquitaine founded the Cluny Monastery.
944: The Western Rite Monastery of the Holy Saviour was established in Constantinople under imperial favour.
951: Of Duke Sergius degli Onesti and his wife Traversara Traversari, an aristocratic family of Byzantine Ravenna, Italy, was born St. Romuald; future Benedictine reformer and great eremitic ascetic.
980-985: The Western Rite Benedictine Monastery of Amalfion was founded on Mount Athos by the first Abbot Leo. Abbot Leo and his monks initially dwelt at the Great Lavra of Saint Athanasius while Amalfion was being built. The two monasteries remained closely linked. Abbot John III of Monte Casino dwelt there at the time of Abbot John of Amalfion (circa 993). The monastery and its abbot were among the five senior (oldest established) - recorded on many still extant documents. It flourished under imperial favour until 1287. This is of note because the monastery remained in imperial favour after the Schism in 1054 and after the Sack of Constantinople in 1204, was given further land grants.
988/9: The conversion of Russia. Vladimir of Kiev (son of Svyatoslav and known as Vladimir Ravnoapostolny, “equal to the Apostles”) was Baptised and married to the Roman (Byzantine) princess Anna, the sister of the Byzantine Emperor Basil II. Mass Baptisms followed Vladimir’s Baptism. Vladimir later established bishoprics at Novgorod and Belgorod and a seminary at Kiev for the instruction of local clergy. The British Church had been Orthodox for 950 years at this time.
----In Istria (Dalmatia) that is ancient Croatia, this area, as was the north of Italy, were under the influence of the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium. This is also where the Onesti family owned land, upon which St Romuald (Onesti) formed a monastic foundation there where he lived as a spiritual mentor and recluse for three years. Reportedly, during that time, Romuald developed mystical, contemplative gifts, whereby he enjoyed a profound comprehension of Sacred Scripture, the gift of tears, and prophetic awareness.
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----St. Romuald the Hesychast established the Monastery at Camaldoli in Tuscany Italy. This would survive as the center of all other monasteries and hermitages attributed to the saint. Prior the establishing Camaldoli, St Romuald pasted three years in seclusion in a cave by the Lim Bay in County Istria; known today as"Romuald's Cave". Following his seclusion St Romuald established the Monastery of St Michael the Archangel in nearby Klostar (pronounced Klosh-tar).
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----The repose of our holy father among the saints Romuald of Ravenna in a small hermitage near the Abbey of Valdicastro in Fabriano, Italy
1054: The Great Schism. At this stage, despite much re-writing of history by later papal historians, the fact is that the papacy held little power in England. It could not enforce its will on the British Bishops. The several pieces of legislation passed by the Witenagamot and the long history of regarding itself as a Local Church which pre-dated the Roman Church, meant that in the aftermath of the Great Schism, the papacy realised that it must secure the British Church by force or risk its possible alliance with Constantinople. The papacy also had little or no power in Sicily and southern Italy, or in northern Europe to the Baltic coast.
1059: The papacy forged an alliance with the Normans against the German emperor (Henry IV, 1056-1106). At the Investiture of Melphi, Pope Nicholas II (1059-61) presented Capua to the Normans Richard of Aversa and Calabria, Apulia, and Sicily to Robert Guiscard. In return, the Normans swore allegiance to the papacy.
1061: Richeldis, the lady of the manor at Little Walsingham, Norfolk, England, had three visions of the Virgin Mary in which Mary showed her the house where she had lived in Nazareth. Mary instructed Richeldis to build a copy of the house. It is said that Richeldis’ workmen began a structure in the style then current. The following day, they found it 70 yards from where they had left it, and completed by unknown hands. Thus began the Shrine of our Lady of Walsingham as a place of pilgrimage. It presently has two Orthodox chapels and an Orthodox Monastery.
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1066: The Norman Conquest of England. William of Normandy’s invasion was instigated and supported by the papacy, which had quarreled with King Harold Godwinson. The pope sent William the banner of St. Peter and funds for the conquest on condition that the bishops and abbots of the English Church be replaced with papal bishops and abbots. In William’s newly conquered kingdom the monasteries controlled one-sixth of the kingdom’s revenues. The widow and sons of the last Orthodox King of England, Harold Godwinson, fled to Orthodox Kiev, where she married Prince Golytsin.
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The British Church claimed its Divine Liturgy as originating in Ephesus at the time of Saint John’s residence there. Accordingly, they referred to it as “the Liturgy of Saint John” (the Theologian). Belonging to the Gallican family of Liturgies, it developed alone in the British Isles for four centuries. After that it began noticeable cross borrowing from other liturgies including as far away as Rome. The Liturgy is best preserved in a book which began its life around AD 600 and ceased having additions and alterations made to it about 950. This Liturgy continued in use in parts of the British Isles until 1171 when the schismatic papal bishops introduced into the British Church in 1066 had it suppressed. It was the basis for the Sarum Liturgy which was used from circa 1020 until after the Henrician split between the English church and the Roman church. It was used thereafter in England by the remnant Roman Catholics until the late nineteenth century, when the 1570 Tridentine rite was enforced. It continued in use in a few Anglican monasteries until the mid-twentieth century. Liturgy of Saint John the Divine is presently used by the ROCOR Saint Bride Hermitage (Scotland) and St John the Divine Hermitage (USA). The rite, directly evolved from the original Liturgy brought to the British Church from Ephesus early in the first millennium, has remained in active use ever since. It is therefore an unarguably legitimate Orthodox Liturgy of very ancient lineage, in continuous use for two millennia. It is also in use in two monasteries in the Russian Orthodox Diocese of Belgium.
1066 - 1171, the Church in the British Isles came under complete control of the Norman, Papal bishops and was therefore involuntarily included in the schismatic papal church.
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1072: The repose of Blessed Peter-Damian, a Romualdian Benedictine & author of Life of Blessed Romuald. Due to Peter-Damian’s work as Cardinal after 1054 in good conscience we cannot consider him among the Saints of the Church. But because of the good he has done for eremitic life and promoting Romualdian Way we at least deem him Blessed.
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----The 1072 ascension of Pope Gregory VII to the Papal Throne indicative of the finality of the Great Schism and the rise of the modern Roman Catholic Church. It was also on this given date that Pope Gregory VII renamed the Romualdians as The Camaldolese (OSB Cam) by papal bull.
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1054 - 1287 The three Western Rite Monasteries in Constantinople, Jerusalem and Mount Athos continued within the Orthodox Church.
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1716-1725: A considerable correspondence was conducted between the English Nonjuring bishops (usually styled in contemporary Orthodox documents as the "Catholic remnant" of the British Church), Peter the Great, Czar of Russia, and the Œcumenical Patriarch of Constantinople. It was proposed that a parish be established in London, which would be Orthodox and Western Rite. The Nonjurers’ lack of funds prevented their sending the proposed two delegates to Russia to seal the agreement. However, the Patriarch’s second letter to the "British Catholics" expressed a willingness to effect union and fix details later: "As for custom and ecclesiastical order and for the form and discipline of administering the sacraments, they will be easily settled when once a union is effected."
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1840s: The Reverend William Palmer, an eminent Anglican churchman, academic and member of the Oxford Movement, for ten years pursued an intense correspondence with Alexei Stepanovich Khomiakov, the great Russian religious thinker and Metropolitan (Saint) Philaret of Moscow towards the establishment of a Western Rite Orthodox Church in England
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1860s Dr. Joseph J. Overbeck held lengthy conversations with Russian Orthodox Church authorities regarding the blessing of the Western Rite for use within Orthodoxy.
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1868: The Primus of Scotland visited Russia, where he held informal discussions with Metropolitan Filaret of Moscow and other Russian Church leaders about their interest in effecting the admittance of the British Church into Orthodoxy. He reported his meetings in detail to the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Convocation of Canterbury.
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1869: In September of this year, the Holy Synod of Russia authorised the use of the corrected text of the Western Rite Liturgy (the Liturgy of Saint Gregory) and Benedictine offices for use in England. This was the text of the pre-Tridentine Roman Liturgy.
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1870-71: In the Roman Catholic Church, the Old Catholic Schism occurred after the “reforms” of the First Vatican Council imposed papal infallibility. The Russian Church openly courted Old Catholics in France and Germany.
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1879: In August of this year, Dr. J. J. Overbeck went to Constantinople to request their approval to use the Latin liturgy and Benedictine offices.
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1882: The Patriarch and Synod of Constantinople gave conditional approval to the use of the Latin liturgy and Benedictine office.
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1890/1891: Bishop Vladimir (Sokolovsky) Russian Orthodox Bishop of Alaska, formally received a parish of Swiss Old Catholics at Dyckesville, near Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, as a Western Rite parish.
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1892: Bishop Nicholas (Ziorov) successor to Bishop Vladimir made a pastoral visit to the Dyckesville/Fond du Lac Western Rite parish.
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1898: The Western Rite Diocese of Moravia and Silesia was organised in Czechoslovakia under the Holy Synod of Russia.
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1904: Archbishop Saint Tikhon (Belavin) and Bishop Saint Raphael (Hawaweeny) assisted by Fr. Saint John (Kochuroff) petitioned the Holy Synod of Russia to permit the adaption of the services taken from the Book of Common Prayer, for use by Anglican converts to Orthodoxy.
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1907: The Commission of the Holy Synod of Russia reported in favour of adaption of the services taken from the Book of Common Prayer and set out the criteria for adaption. The Holy Synod adopted the report. Report never implemented since the congregation in question lost interest over those three years.
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1921: Archbishop Tikhon (Belavin) was elected Patriarch of Moscow (+1925).
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----Patriarch Dimitri of Serbia consecrated (Saint) Fr Gorazd (Pavlik) bishop of the Western Rite Diocese of Moravia and Silesia. Patr. Dimitri’s co-consecrators were Metropolitan Antony (Khrapovitsky) of Kiev (later First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia) and Bishops Barnabas, Dositheus and Joseph. Bishop Gorazd was martyred by the Germans September 4th. 1941. The diocese was later forced to change to Eastern Rite.
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1922: The Alcuin Club in England printed the Holy Synod's Commission report in English.
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----Old Catholic Archbishop William (Francis Henry Brother) relocated his St Dunstan Abbey and the Central Offices of the See of “Western Orthodox Catholic Church” to New York City area.
1926: On the 8th of August, the Polish Catholic National Church - Bishop Alexis of Grodno - was received, as a Western Rite Diocese of Poland under the Moscow Patriarchate. This group was largely destroyed by the Germans during World War II with at least one parish remaining into the 21st century. Saint John of Shanghai was tonsured by Metropolitan Anthony (Khrapovitsky) First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia.
1927: On February 2nd, the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church in America authorised a Western missionary outreach.
1929: The Russian Fraternity of Saint Irenee in France (headed by Vladimir Lossky and Evgraf Kovalevsky) acting under metropolitical guidance, celebrated the Western Rite in a Parish church for the first time.
1934: Saint John of Shanghai was consecrated by Metropolitan Anthony (Khrapovitsky) First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia.
----Old Catholic Archbishop William (Francis Henry Brother) was consecrated into Orthodoxy by +Theofan Metropolitan of Orthodox Church in Albania, +Ierotheos Bishop of Greece with +Christopher (Contegeorge) on June 30th this year at St Nicholas Russian Orthodox Cathedral, NYC.
1936: Under the terms of a Moscow Ukase, the Western Orthodox Church in France, was set up, headed by Fr. Eugraph (Kovalevsky). A group of Old Roman Catholics led by Louis Charles Winnaert formed the original core membership of this Western Rite national Church.
1940: St Dunstan Abbey is transferred from the NYC area to Woodstock, NY in the Catskills region. The significance is that Archbishop William, Dom Augustine (Whitfield) & years late a young Jesuit convert John (LoBue) splinter from this Benedictine/Orthodox community.
1944: Fr. Denis (Chambault) professed as a Benedictine within the Moscow Patriarchate in Paris. He founded the Saint-Denis & Saint-Seraphim de Sarov Priory in rue d’Alleray.
----Fr. Eugraph (Kovalevsky) completed a restoration of the ancient first millennium Gallican Liturgy - the Liturgy of Saint Germanus.
1947: Fr. Gregorio Baccolini, a Benedictine monk was received in France. He set up a small Orthodox Benedictine house in Rome.
1953: Bishop Alexander (Turner) and three parishes received as Western Rite by Metropolitan Anthony (Bashir) of the Antiochian Archdiocese with Alexander Turner becoming an Archpriest.
1958: Archbishop (Saint) John (Maximovitch) of Paris took over direction of the Western Orthodox Church in France, (l'Eglise Catolique et Orthodoxe de France - ECOF) setting up a Western Rite seminary and Ordaining clergy. He authorised provisional use of the current Liturgy of Saint Germanus until further scholarship could be done.
----The Patriarchate of Antioch adopted the provisions of the Russian Holy Synods of 1879 and 1907 and instructed the American Archdiocese to follow them.
1960: The ROCOR yearbook published the text of the Western Rite as authorised by the Holy Synod of Russia in 1869. Archbishop Saint John (Maximovitch) celebrated the Western Rite at the Cathedral of the Orthodox Church of France in Paris.
1961: The Western Rite Vicariate was created within the Antiochian Metropolitanate of North America. Fr. Alexander Turner became the first Dean of the Vicariate.
1962: In the United States, on March 21st the Moscow Patriarchate via Metropolitan John (Wendland) of New York and the Aleutians, the Russian Exarch for North America, received Archbishop William and his Western Orthodox Catholic Church and renamed the Exarch of Western Rite Church of the Moscow Patriarch.
1965: Archbishop John (Maximovitch) Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, having been translated to San Francisco, consecrated Fr. Eugraph Kovalevsky as Bishop Jean-Nectaire, of the Diocese of Saint-Denys for the Orthodox Church of France.
1966: Having been ordered to Moscow by the Patriarch, but not trusting the Soviets possible interference, Archbishop William (Brothers) resigned as Western Rite Exarch & found haven with Archbishop Palladios and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Exile. Also, their St Dunstan Abbey loses its Abbot who chose to remain in the Russian Church. Schemahieromonk John (LoBue) is elected Abbot.
---One of Archbishop William’s monks that had been with him since the 1950s preferred to remain in the Moscow Patriarchate. Benedictine Dom Augustine (Whitfield) petitioned and was accepted by Metropolitan John (Wendland) of New York and the Aleutians to remain Western Rite and to establish his Monastery of Our Lady of Mt Royal.
1966-72: After the repose of Archbishop John of San Francisco, some elements of ROCOR immediately set about undoing much of his work, including l'Eglise Catholique et Orthodoxe de France (ECOF). Being abandoned in this manner by ROCOR, it was taken over by the Patriarchate of Romania with statutes and declarations issued in 1972 by Metropolitan Nicholas.
1967: The small jurisdiction, Synod of Orthodox Bishops of the Western Rite, had secured its autocephalous from the Ecumenical Patriarch Athenogoras via Archbishops Palladios & Williams, and acknowledged as canonical by SCOBA. (Remember: This is the evolution of Archbishop William's small jurisdiction which included the Schema-Abbot John (LoBue) & had lost previously Dom Augustine (Whitfield). The Woodstock Chapel --known as the Orthodox Church of the Transfiguration of Our Lord on the Mount--remains in their possession even as of this reading.)
1971: Metropolitan Antony (Bloom) of the Moscow Patriarchate ordains to the priesthood Hierodeacon Evloghios (Hessler) in a Western Rite ordination service.
1972: Moscow Patriarchate Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh and Archbishop Alexis celebrated the Western Rite Liturgy in a parish in Italy.
1973: In light of the Ecumenical Declaration between Pope Paul VI of Rome & Patriarch Athenogoras of Constantinople invalidating the mutual anathema since 1054 which in effect acknowledged the Pope as the legitimate Chief Hierarch of the Western Church: From that time forward the Synod of Orthodox Bishops of the Western Rite ceased all communications with the Ecumenical Patriarchate. In 1990 Bishop-Abbot John (LoBue) becomes “Locum Tenens”.
1975: In the United States, the ROCOR Archbishop Nikon received Dom Augustine (Whitfield) & the Monastery of Our Lady of Mount Royal and blessed it to the Western Rite.
----Saint Michael’s Anglican Parish, Whittier California was received into Orthodoxy (AWRV) as Western Rite - the first Anglican parish to be so received.
1982 Archimandrite Evloghios (Hessler) was sent to Italy to organize the religious and pastoral life of the parishes of the Moscow Patriarchate of Milan, Bologna, Lugano, Bergamo, Genova, Pavia Brescia e Modena. While there, on 9 September 1984, he became a bishop for the Greek Orthodox Church of the Old Calendar (Headed by Archbishop Auxentios of Athens) on October 19th he becomes Archbishop of Milan.
1993: Bishop Hilarion (Kapral) of Manhattan ROCOR authorised the establishment of the Christ the Saviour Monastery in Providence Rhode Island and blessed it to the Western Rite as founded by Dom James (Deschene), who was the spiritual son of Don Augustine (Whitfield).
1996: Synod of Orthodox Bishops of the Western Rite makes the unfortunate decision to allow itself be absorbed by the Autonomous Orthodox Metropolia of Western Europe [AOMWE] whose Chief Hierarch was Metropolitan Evloghios (Hessler) – an offshoot of the Orthodox “Old Calendar” Church of Greece under Archbishop Auxentios of Athens. The AOMWE colloquially become known as “The Milan Synod”.
1997: Archbishop Hilarion (Kapral) of Sydney ROCOR blessed Saint Petroc Monastery in Cascades to the Western Rite founded by Hieromonk Michael (Wood) a convert from Anglican Church.
1999: Stavrophoremonk Symeon of Syracuse is blessed to establish the Hermitage of St John the Divine in the City of Syracuse, New York State by the Western Orthodox-Old Calendarists Archbishop John (LoBue).
2000: Stavrophoremonk Symeon of Syracuse elevated to the Holy Priesthood to serve the Parochial Mission of the Hermitage of St John the Divine in the City of Syracuse, New York State by the Western Orthodox-Old Calendarists Archbishop John (LoBue).
2002: The Saint Dunstan Psalter produced by the Lancelot Andrewes Press became available for use as a Western Rite Orthodox Psalter by the Antiochians.
----The Saint Ambrose Hymnal produced by the AWRV was authorised for use.
----The completed Saint Colman Prayer Book submitted to Archbishop Hilarion.
----Archbishop Simon (Ichounine) Russian Orthodox Archbishop of Belgium, authorised the Western Liturgy of Saint John the Divine (Stowe Missal) to be used in the vernacular in the ROC monastery at Pervijze.
2003: The Saint Colman Prayer Book produced by Saint Petroc Monastery was authorised for use by Archbishop Hilarion of Sydney.
2005: The Holyrood Hermitage, once under the Western Orthodox-Old Calendarists Archbishop John (LoBue), now affiliated with Saint Petroc Monastery (ROCOR) and blessed to continue in the liturgical observance of the pre-schism/pre-Sarum Anglo-Roman Rite.
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2006: The Saint Colman Prayer Book permitted for use in the ROCOR Diocese of Chicago.
----The Anglican bishop Robert Waggener converted to Orthodoxy, was Baptised, Chrismated, and subsequently Ordained Sub Deacon, Deacon and Priest by Bishop Basil (Essey). He was assigned to run a Western Rite parish of people who converted with him.
2007: Christminster ROCOR Western Rite Monastery moved from Providence RI to Hamilton, Ontario, having established a small Western Rite Mission to remain in Providence
2009: The Primate of ROCOR (Archbishop Hilarion) approved the Saint Eanswythe Mission in Bournemouth to be the first Western Rite mission in England, under his direct control.
----Anglican bishop Alastair Price converted to Orthodoxy (ROCOR).
2010: The Primate of ROCOR welcomed a number of non- Orthodox WR communities with their clergy into ROCOR Western Rite.
2011: The Hermitage of Saint George took possession of 48 acres of land in New Mexico for the construction of a monastery.
2014: Metropolitan Hilarion gives his formal blessing and instructions in writing to Fr Michael (Wood) for the establishment of Saint Bride Hermitage temporarily in Edinburgh and intending to move to the western isles of Scotland.
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----The Hermitage of St John the Divine in Syracuse, NY, formerly under the Western Orthodox-Old Calendarists Metropolitan John (LoBue), is received into ROCOR by His Eminence Metropolitan Hilarion at the Hermitage on the feast of the Entrance of our Holy Theotokos into the Temple (Dec 14 n.s.) and blessed to continue in the liturgical observance of the pre-schism/pre-Sarum Anglo-Roman Rite. Due to canonical issues & Father’s physical disability problems both Metropolitan Hilarion & Father Symeon agree that he is to be received as a Stavrophoremonk and then be robed in Great Schema upon His Eminence’s next visit.
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