Three articles published in 2025 on the Western Rite within the Orthodox Church offer interesting insights and raise important questions for any reader interested in these topics. Here is a brief overview of the articles by Theodore Franceschi, Father Nicholas Alford and Gabriel Augustine Galeano, along with links to access them.
“Why Has the Western Rite Not Been Widely Adopted in the Orthodox West?”
The ROCOR Studies website published an article by Theodore Franceschi under the title “Why Has the Western Rite Not Been Widely Adopted in the Orthodox West?” The article originates from a paper submitted in May 2024 for the Deaconate Preparation Programme at the Pastoral School of Chicago and Mid-America Diocese of ROCOR, taught by Protodeacon Andrei Psarev. The article addresses the persistent question of why the Western Rite, despite its theological legitimacy and historical precedent within Orthodoxy, has not spread more widely in the predominantly Western countries where Orthodoxy now exists as a minority faith. It offers analysis drawing on the history of the Western Rite experiment within ROCOR and the Antiochian Archdiocese, including administrative difficulties, theological controversies, and sociological factors.
“Ad fontes: A Western Rite Survey”
This important survey article by Fr. Nicholas Alford traces the documentary history of the Western Rite within the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America, from its 19th-century antecedents to its current internal controversies. The author argues that a series of liturgical changes introduced after 2009 have deviated from the Orthodox consensus that had governed the Vicariate since its foundation, moving it towards the Vicariate toward pre-Vatican II Roman Catholicism rather than toward authentic Orthodox Western practice. Fr. Nicholas urges the bishops to provide the doctrinal “guardrails” that internal governance has failed to supply, so that the Western Rite can fulfill its original dual purpose of offering a liturgical home to Western converts and bearing witness to the catholicity of Orthodoxy.
URL: https://www.stgregoryoc.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Ad-fontes-a-WR-survey-Alford-2025-2.pdf
“Dom Denis Chambault of Paris: A Life and Western Rite Legacy”
OrthoChristian.com published an article by Gabriel Augustine Galeano titled “Dom Denis Chambault of Paris: A Life and Western Rite Legacy.” Dom Denis (Lucien) Chambault (1899–1965) was a pioneer figure in Western Rite Orthodoxy in France, ordained under the Russian Church (Moscow Patriarchate) as superior of the d’Alleray Priory in Paris and was renowned for his healing abilities. His approach to the Western Rite differed from that of Evgraph Kovalevsky in that he favoured minimal adaptation of the Roman rite rather than a reconstructed Gallican one. This disagreement has resonated throughout the subsequent history of the movement.