On Dec. 21, 2009, Fr. Michael wrote:
"We have now celebrated the Western Rite on two successive Sundays in the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Dormition at Chiswick in London. The Cathedral has a Lower Church (the original) and an Upper Church - which has just been finished. They have given us the Lower Church to use for Western Rite. So we celebrate our Western Rite in the Lower Church at the same time as they celebrate the Eastern Rite in the Upper Church..."
Here is a picture of the lower church as arranged for a modern Western rite service:
Describing the services being celebrated in London, Fr. Michael continued:
"Given that this is Advent and we are doing Mattins, the Great Litany and the Divine Liturgy as a continuous service, we end up only slightly ahead of them - so we all have lunch together in the church hall afterwards."
Matins, in the pre-Protestant form of W. rite, requires two hours to complete (an hour and a half, if managed extremely expeditiously). The Great Litany is a Protestant service. From these indications, it is surmised that the services being offered in the Russian Orthodox cathedral of London, are of the Protestant Rite.
May God bless the Western rite mission in England, and its faithful people. And, if it is pleasing to God, may the Western rite services which once prevailed in that land, when that land was Orthodox, also find some place there--through the prayers of all Saints of Britain and Ireland.
