Who Are the Western Orthodox?

We are Orthodox Christians. We confess the ancient Faith in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit – that same Faith that was handed down from the Holy Apostles, set forth in the Creed, lived by the saints and fathers of the Church, expressed in the Holy and Ecumenical Councils, and even today brings many to salvation in Jesus Christ.

Living in the British Isles, we claim as our own the spiritual legacy of the first-millennium Church of the West, which was one family, one faith, with the universal Orthodox-Catholic Church founded by Jesus Christ, the Church whose spiritual and liturgical tradition would have been close to the hearts of the first-millennium saints of these islands who worked out their salvation here: Saints Hilda of Whitby, Etheldreda of Ely, Werburga of Chester, and all the holy abbesses; Saints Columcille (Columba), Aidan, Cuthbert, and all the sainted monks of Iona, Bardsey, and Lindisfarne; the missionary bishops St Chad of Lichfield and St Cedd of Lastingham; Saints Constantine of Govan, Dyfan of Wales, Alban of Verularium, and all the holy martys whose blood hallowed this soil, our own St Melangell of Powys, and countless others.

We believe that it is fitting and right that people who are seeking the authentic Apostolic Faith and life in the Saviour Jesus Christ should not have to abandon their rich, western, spiritual heritage in favour of Greek, Russian, Syrian, and other forms of prayer and worship.  The western prayers, hymns, liturgies, Gregorian chants, patterns of fasting, and domestic spiritual customs that nourished the daily lives of prayer of the Christians in the British Isles and Western Europe of old have their origins in the Orthodox Church, and have begun to find their place there once more, once again united to and serving as expressions of the fullness of the Apostolic Tradition. It is these customs that form the framework of our parish life, while certain prayers, practices, and melodies have been borrowed from the wider family of the Orthodox Church.

Thus our Orthodox life in Christ is expressed in our western spirituality, culture, and heritage. This includes primarily the rite by which we pray to God and receive the sacraments, but it does not – it must not – stop there. It also includes the way we evangelise; the way we organise ourselves and administer our daily affairs as a church, as families, and as indviduals; the honouring of our western saints and veneration of their holy relics and the holy sites associated with them; the celebration of our western history and lore; the way we relate to each other and to others, not as a majority church with state support and political influence, but as humble and poor followers of Christ, of no import on the political stage but a mighty spiritual force; the way we move in harmony with the changing of the seasons, the planting of crops and the reaping of the harvest; the making and eating of soul cakes, simnel cakes, and mince pies; the way we embrace and reclaim Pancake Day, lenten ashes, hot cross buns, and Easter eggs – customs and observances that are ingrained in our western culture and have links to the Orthodox seeds planted here in ancient times, which never completely died, and which can germinate still.

The cultivation of these seeds in our land, planted by the right hand of God, is what it is to be Western Orthodox, and we can only pray that, by the mercy of God and at the intercession of the saints of these islands, we may be made worthy to tend this crop, that it may grow and flourish.