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Below is a brief history of the Fraternity. Feel free to
contact us anytime if you would like more information. Prior
to November of 2002, Fathers Anthony, Stephen and Joseph were with
the American Diocese of the Church of France under their Vicar
Bishop. After having been abandoned by their Bishop for a period of
one year, they decided to form into The Holy Orthodox Catholic and
Apostolic Church of America and sought the episcopacy for oversight
as they petitioned to enter a canonical Orthodox Church.
On February 2nd of 2003, Father Anthony was ordained a Bishop by
Metropolitan Nicholas (Lambrou), Archbishop John (Schneyder) and
Bishop James (Johnson) in the Cathedral of the Holy Protection of
the Mother of God. Metropolitan Nicholas was from the Ukrainian
Orthodox Church, and both Archbishop John and Bishop James were from
the Orthodox American Church.
On August 19th 2003, in the Cathedral Church of the Protection of
the Mother of God in New York City, Bishop Anthony was elevated to
Metropolitan Archbishop of New York by Archbishop Constantine Spryou,
Archbishop John and Metropolitan James. As a new Metropolitan, His
Eminence, Archbishop Anthony, was appointed to oversee Western Rite
parishes.
The Archdiocese envisioned itself continuing to produce holy and
faithful Priests who will spread Holy Orthodoxy by both word and
example using the
Ancient Orthodox Western Rite. It is also our mission to do all
that we can to support efforts for unity within Holy Orthodoxy. In
order to accomplish this mission, we are doing a number of things;
1) pressing for a better educated clergy, 2) contacting other
Western Rite clergy to create a forum to spiritually unite and work
together for the common good and 3) working to make quality
Liturgical materials available.
Still, throughout the years there was no response from the
petitions. In about 2006 a Fr. Daniil Sosoyev of the Moscow
Patriarchate began communicating with then Archbishop Anthony,
inviting him to communicate with the Patriarch. Abp Anthony sent all
of the documentation requested of him to then Metropolitan Kyril who
later became Patriarch through Fr Daniil. When Metropolitan Kyril
became Patriarch, Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) became the person
to whom Fr Daniil spoke on our behalf. Our petition was to establish
an Orthodox Western Rite Diocese with a Western Rite Bishop under
Moscow. We were told that Moscow was open to that.
Suddenly calamity struck. Father Daniil was murdered by a Muslim.
All seemed to stop. Archbishop Anthony continued to work for
building up of Western Rite and praying with his priests. He had
been praying a Novena to St John Maximovitch continuously for a few
years and placed the Archdiocese in the hands of the Mother of God.
In December of 2009, Dom Augustine Whitfield, onetime Abbot of Mt
Royal, passed to his eternal reward. In August of 2010 Dom James of
Christminster who has been Abp Anthony’s friend and mentor suggested
that now might be a good time to petition Metropolitan Hilarion (Kapral)
to enter The Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia. The Archbishop
fasted and prayed for three days then wrote the letter.
On the Feast of the Nativity of the Mother of God (Gregorian) the
response was written by Metropolitan Hilarion stating the criteria
for entering the Russian Church: The Synod of Bishops of the ROCOR
would not be receptive at the present time to a separate Western
Rite diocese with its own bishop. The Revised Julian Calendar would
not be acceptable in parishes of the ROCOR. The ordinations of all
would be closely examined and re-ordination may be required. The
Metropolitan stated his commitment to the missionary ideal of
providing services in the rite most familiar to the people of the
West following the example of St John of Shanghai and San Francisco.
What Father Daniil could not do in his life, he accomplished
after death.
Both Bishop Michael and Archbishop Anthony, agreed to bow their
heads before the Holy Synod for the sake of the unity of the Church
and the furtherance of Canonical Orthodox Western Rite. The clergy,
moved by the humility and great sacrifice of their arch-pastor, each
offered to follow his leadership. Archbishop Anthony would later
comment that the Holy Spirit was touching each person in that call
that night and molding us into one will in Christ.
This news was relayed to the Metropolitan who characterized it as
encouraging. The Archbishop had invited the Metropolitan to meet
with all of the clergy at our annual Conference and Retreat in
October. Metropolitan Hilarion responded that both he and Vladyka
Jerome would visit. We were overjoyed!
On October 13th the two hierarchs joined us for the Mid-day
office followed by lunch. They sat with Archbishop Anthony and
Bishop Michael. The issue of continuing to use our liturgy, which
was of importance to our clergy in ROCOR was discussed and the
Metropolitan assured us that would not be a problem. This was again
reiterated when he met all the clergy. He suggested that both our
bishops would be made Archimandrites so that we could continue to
wear the miter and carry a wood crosier. He also stated that ROCOR
cannot decide who its new bishops are without submitting the names
to Moscow for concurrence.
Furthermore it was decided that all of our clergy would come into
ROCOR by ordination. So they simply showed humility and accepted the
decision for the good and unity of the Church.
Later in the afternoon, Metropolitan Hilarion and Vladyka Jerome
met with all of the clergy in a frank and respectful discussion. The
concerns of all of the clergy were addressed, the future of our
bishops was of great importance to all of the clergy as we each had
come to know, love, and trust as well as respect them, especially as
the Archbishop was leading us into ROCOR at a great personal
sacrifice. Again the issue of the Liturgy was brought up and again
the Metropolitan assured everyone that they respected a variety of
usage and our Liturgy was blessed for use. The clergy also requested
that we be permitted to continue with Holy Resurrection Orthodox
Seminary and the annual Conference/Retreat (which we would then open
to all Western Rite clergy) as well as the weekly conference call
for Compline on Thursday nights. All of this was agreed upon and the
Metropolitan commended us for our diligence in continuing education
as well as the practice of securing criminal background checks for
candidates for Holy Orders. He also said that Archbishop
(Archimandrite) Anthony would become the Vicar General/Dean for
Western Rite. We were all of one mind. We had an agreement to which
all involved subscribed. We thanked Metropolitan Hilarion and
Vladyka Jerome and asked the Metropolitan for his blessing. All of
us were filled with joy and gave thanks to God.
The Fraternity Today
To keep some informal identity we subsequently requested of the
Metropolitan that we use The Fraternity of Saint Gregory as a way of
identifying ourselves and keeping the collegiality and support
system we have enjoyed these many years.
However, today the Fraternity of Saint Gregory also includes
priests who have been in ROCOR before us and some who joined since
our entrance into ROCOR and who enjoy with us that sense of
collegiality and shared vision.
What then are the purposes of the Fraternity?
We believe that the Western Rites, which were already a thousand
years old when Russia was converted to Orthodoxy, are grace-filled
celebrations of the Liturgy. They are apostolic in origin, equal in
purpose to, though different in expression from the Eastern
Liturgies.
We believe that the Orthodox West held four major rites (Roman,
Gallican, Ambrosian, and Mozarabic) and each contained a similar
essential structure. The Roman Rite has many local variants (which
include those that now have taken shape in the Orthodox Western
Rite!) The Fraternity of St Gregory respects the rich variety of
current use and its members refrain from criticizing each other’s
Liturgies.
We believe that Orthodoxy is the answer to the continuing
fragmentation of the Christian Communities of the West and their
loss of the moral standards from the time of the apostles.
We believe that our mission is to continue to plant churches in
the midst of every community to address the spiritual hunger and
need of human beings, especially the unchurched.
Though it is not necessary to be in the Fraternity of St Gregory
to be in the Western Rite of ROCOR, it is our hope that the mutual
encouragement and fraternity offered to our members especially
sustains us as we found and grow churches. Our weekly Nationwide
Compline Conference Call keeps us in touch with each other and gives
us an opportunity to pray together for one another’s needs, our
bishops and the Church. |
