Western Orthodox Liturgy (High Mass)

The Western Rite is a liturgical tradition within the Orthodox Church. Western Rite Orthodox Christians hold the full Orthodox faith in common with their brethren of the Byzantine Rite but celebrate Western forms of liturgy. Liturgical diversity, both between and within the East and West, was common before the Great Schism, yet not as diverse as like in today's time. At present, all of the bishops who care for such parishes are themselves followers of the Byzantine Rite.

By far the largest group of Western Orthodox parishes is represented by the Western Rite Vicariate of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America. Other Antiochian Western Rite parishes exist in the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia and New Zealand. The Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR) also has a small number of Western Rite parishes in addition to three monasteries: one located in Canada, one in Tasmania, and one in Florida. Missions and parishes of the ROCOR Western Rite use either the Rite of St. Gregory in one of varying uses (Sarum, Christminster, Mount Royal, or Overbeck), the Gallican Rite, or "The English Liturgy," an English Use service based upon the Sarum Use but which adapts a few elements of the 1549 Book of Common Prayer. Christminster Monastery in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, is a Western Orthodox Benedictine monastery, which celebrates the Liturgy of St. Gregory. St. Petroc Monastery in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, celebrates the Sarum Use. St. Petroc has a number of dependencies that follow its liturgical usage, as found in the Saint Colman Prayer Book.

Dom Augustine (Whitfield), the abbot of the Monastery of Mount Royal from 1963 until retirement, once remarked to St. John Maximovitch that it was difficult to promote Western Rite Orthodoxy, whereupon the saint replied: "Never, never, never let anyone tell you that, in order to be Orthodox, you must also be eastern. The West was Orthodox for a thousand years, and her venerable liturgy is far older than any of her heresies."

In 2008, Metropolitan Hilarion of ROCOR blessed Hieromonk David (Pierce) to assist Dom Augustine Whitfield "in the continuation of the work of Mt. Royal" at Hieromonk David's monastery, Holyrood, in Florida. Hieromonk David utilizes the ordinary compiled by Mount Royal monastery, and is preparing for publication of the books of the Mount Royal use.

In late 2008, Metropolitan Hilarion received a hieromonk of the Milan Synod, Father Aidan (Keller), and blessed the publication of a new edition of his seminal work, Old Sarum Rite Missal for his personal prayers, while he serves a Byzantine parish in ROCOR. His liturgy had previously been blessed by the Western Archdiocese of the Milan Synod.

Western rite communities can also be found which are not or, are no longer, in communion with the mainstream Orthodox Church.

The Orthodox Church of France was once cared for by St. John Maximovitch and later by the Church of Romania—also uses a Western Rite liturgy based on ancient Gallican liturgical materials, with some Byzantine supplements. The Orthodox Church of France currently functions as an independent body, and is not in communion with the mainstream Orthodox Church.

In addition, the Holy Synod of Milan, an Old Calendarist Synod (and therefore not in communion with the mainstream Orthodox Church), has a number of communities (under the central direction of the monastery and Archdiocesan center, the Abbey of the Holy Name) which worship according to Western rites, including its own version of the Sarum Use. This recension is different from the version of the Sarum Rite used within ROCOR before 2008.

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