left: Bishop Jerome. right: Priest Irenaios Watson
Please pray for Fr. Irenaios, that having toiled with fidelity in the vineyard of Christ's Holy Church, he may receive the high reward of his calling at the eternal Throne of God.
Axios!
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Axios! New Priest Ordained for W. Rite
Ad multos annos! Many Years to the newly-ordained priest Irenaios Watson. Father was ordained at St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church in Millville, NJ, on Dec. 5, 2010. Father will serve in the Western rite portion of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia.
left: Bishop Jerome. right: Priest Irenaios Watson
Please pray for Fr. Irenaios, that having toiled with fidelity in the vineyard of Christ's Holy Church, he may receive the high reward of his calling at the eternal Throne of God.
Axios!
left: Bishop Jerome. right: Priest Irenaios Watson
Please pray for Fr. Irenaios, that having toiled with fidelity in the vineyard of Christ's Holy Church, he may receive the high reward of his calling at the eternal Throne of God.
Axios!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
10 comments:
Apparently Fr. Irenaios was ordained in a Byzantine way. I've understanded that HG bishop Jerome is well acquainted with Roman rite so I wonder why he wasn't ordained in a Roman way. Or is Fr. Irenaios going to serve in some bi-ritual parish?
Why is he vested as an Easterner?
The ordination was done during the Liturgy in an E. rite church. I would like to see the old Western rite pontifical services used for various occasions, and this could include ordinations of clergy. Of course, no one has ever published an approved W. rite pontifical, so no official book could be used.
All Antiochian Western Rite Vicariate clergy are ordained in the Eastern rite, and I suppose that the ROCOR procedure was the same.
No harm in ordaining someone in the Eastern rite, to serve in the Western rite, unless there is some kind of phyletism involved.
The original understanding of the western rite as approved by the Russians in the 1870's was that priests, other than converting Roman Catholics, who in those days were accepted as priests, would be ordained in the eastern rite, but VESTED in western vestments. Roman priests, received in the traditional Russian method, would simply be vested at the altar, but once again in western rite vestments. The decrees also stated that in concelebrated services, western-rite clergy would vest in western vestments; needless to say, none of these traditions has been followed...neither by Antioch or it seems the Russians.
I would caution against reading too much into a photograph.
It could also be that there were no Western rite vestments available on that occasion. Or it may have simply been a one-off circumstance. Barring some sort of expressed decision on such matters, second-guessing based on one situation or photograph may yield inaccurate results.
For example, I know that when I served Western rite in the Florida monastery, we had a lack of accoutrements for that rite, and so had to use what was to hand, borrowing some things from an Episcopalian priest in the region. Obviously that set no precedent, was not ideal, and really means nothing except that I hadn't bought my own vestments at that point. Now I have some beautiful Western vestments and accoutrements to use, and... problem solved.
It is my understanding that at least some of the future ordinations will be in western vestments but using the eastern rite. Even that might be modified to the "core" being eastern and other elements western. I do not know how that could look. Our bishops are open to moving on this a bit.
I understand the western vestments will be used for at least some ordinations in the future. The problem is that an ordination must be done at a liturgy. Our bishops are open to moving forward in this direction.
I recently read on the ROCOR Western rite site from England that baroque style vestments are forbidden (personally I fail to see how vestment styles are really all that important; once again, too bad that the Orthodox are not more concerned about their pro-abortionist Ecumenical Patriarch...no one has yet proven that he as rejected his earlier support); yet this new priest is vested in Russian baroque style high backs. Are we to understand that in the ROCOR baroque is good if it is Russian or Ukrainian, and bad if it is Italian?
No particular vestment styles are actually forbidden across the Western rite of the ROCOR. However, a priest may choose what not to wear in his own parish.
Once again, regarding the Ecumenical Patriarch, he has made nothing but anti-abortion statements since becoming Patriarch. That's right, not a single pro-abortion statement such as disgraced him prior to becoming Patriarch. This is just cause for much cheer and comfort to faithful Orthodox Christian people, that there was a change in direction regarding that topic of essential Christian morality! Glory to God!
Dear Fr Aidan,
I am very happy to hear of the Patriarch's change of mind on this issue (Could you please send me a link to his more recent pronouncements? What I have been able to find are very, very clever neither ye nor nay comments that sound very much like the ambiguity one associates with Anglican theological articles of religion). I am happy to hear that Baroque WR vestments are not forbidden in the ROCOR, but this is one of the problems that I have with the ROCR wr; it seems, and I have mentioned this before, that everyone simply seems to be making it up as they go along. One "authority" forbids vestments of a certain cut, whilst another "authority" declares there are no such strictures on their use. One will demand that the wr remain liturgical correct, whilst another celebrates the wr so heavily Russified that it is unrecognizable as anything western at all. And on it goes...
Post a Comment