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Antiochian WRO growth
- Thread starter Agabus
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scamandrius
Merarches
I don't know where to find the statistics for such things, but I know someone who works on the Archdiocesan web site and maybe he can point me to something (stay tuned).
My experience is that (and I made this note on another thread) western rite churches tend to close almost as soon as they are open. We have a WRO church here in town and the fact that they are still open surprises me. They are losing members to the other Eastern Rite jurisdictions and can't keep the ones that they have. They were recently hit by a loss of a very faithful deacon and the departure of a very gifted cantor so the music in the parish has gone down hill. And, as ridiculous as that can come off, that is very important for a lot of people. There is one parish in the Western RIte vicariate which has been touted as the "model" for other WRO churches: ST. Benedict down in Texas (where there are several other WRO churches too).
My experience is that (and I made this note on another thread) western rite churches tend to close almost as soon as they are open. We have a WRO church here in town and the fact that they are still open surprises me. They are losing members to the other Eastern Rite jurisdictions and can't keep the ones that they have. They were recently hit by a loss of a very faithful deacon and the departure of a very gifted cantor so the music in the parish has gone down hill. And, as ridiculous as that can come off, that is very important for a lot of people. There is one parish in the Western RIte vicariate which has been touted as the "model" for other WRO churches: ST. Benedict down in Texas (where there are several other WRO churches too).
Agabus
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There's a former WR parish I travel near occasionally that is now closed but changed over to ER before shuttering. The move didn't make sense to me, since it was a mass conversion parish coming from a western-patrimony tradition and the city at that time already had three ER parishes. But that was under a different bishop and the priest is not longer an active clergyman, so who knows?scamandrius said:
Iconodule
Hoplitarches
Founding a new WRO parish from scratch (as opposed to a mass conversion of an existing parish) is bound to be really, really difficult. Such a parish is highly unlikely to have much money or a very beautiful building; people who are generally attracted to traditional Western liturgical churches will be more likely to go Anglican or trad Catholic if these options are in range, as they are more likely to be firmly established. That leaves you with those who are specifically looking for Western Rite Orthodoxy, a tiny niche within a niche.
I have a little anecdote which doesn't necessarily prove anything, but since we're dealing with such a small pond, maybe it's worth sharing. My hometown has an annual festival centered around a famous monster movie filmed there, and all the local organizations put out tents for people to learn about them. The local continuing Anglican church (in the Diocese of Christ the King) had a booth and I approached the guys there. I told them I go to the local Orthodox church and one of them started talking about WRO, about which he was very knowledgeable- he had a copy of the missal put out by the AWRV and other material related to the Western Rite. But he was happy where he was, and felt that Western Rite Orthodoxy was a ghetto within Orthodoxy that was unlikely to ever get much respect or support. He specifically mentioned the Byzantine paraclesis inserted into the Mass as a sign that the Orthodox basically distrusted the Western tradition. I told him I felt the same way but, as an obscure layman, no one is ever likely to care what I think.
But other than that, like most (all?) continuing Anglicans, he regarded us as brothers and a real church, and had a lot of respect for our tradition. Now, I'm not saying we can completely reciprocate that feeling- the historical and doctrinal problems of Anglicanism are big- but I think with just a little more respect toward them and their tradition, it would not be hard to bring them to Orthodoxy.
I have a little anecdote which doesn't necessarily prove anything, but since we're dealing with such a small pond, maybe it's worth sharing. My hometown has an annual festival centered around a famous monster movie filmed there, and all the local organizations put out tents for people to learn about them. The local continuing Anglican church (in the Diocese of Christ the King) had a booth and I approached the guys there. I told them I go to the local Orthodox church and one of them started talking about WRO, about which he was very knowledgeable- he had a copy of the missal put out by the AWRV and other material related to the Western Rite. But he was happy where he was, and felt that Western Rite Orthodoxy was a ghetto within Orthodoxy that was unlikely to ever get much respect or support. He specifically mentioned the Byzantine paraclesis inserted into the Mass as a sign that the Orthodox basically distrusted the Western tradition. I told him I felt the same way but, as an obscure layman, no one is ever likely to care what I think.
But other than that, like most (all?) continuing Anglicans, he regarded us as brothers and a real church, and had a lot of respect for our tradition. Now, I'm not saying we can completely reciprocate that feeling- the historical and doctrinal problems of Anglicanism are big- but I think with just a little more respect toward them and their tradition, it would not be hard to bring them to Orthodoxy.
