Western Rite
Welcome to the Western Rite Vicariate, a part of the Self-Ruled Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese in America. Effective May 18, 2012, by appointment of His Eminence Metropolitan Philip, His Grace Bishop John serves as the only Auxiliary Bishop to oversee the Western Rite Vicariate. Assisting His Grace is the V. Rev. Edward Hughes, Vicar General of the Western Rite Vicariate. The Vicariate includes more than 20 churches and missions located throughout the United States.
Find a Western Rite parish near you
Contact His Grace Bishop John via email at frjpa@aol.com.
Contact V. Rev. Edward Hughes via email at WRVicarGeneral@gmail.com.
Memory Eternal! + Fr. Donald David Wallace Lloyd
Father Donald David Lloyd, 1912-2010At 12:20 a.m. on Sunday, October 17th, word was received that the eldest brother in the Diocese of Wichita, Father Donald David Wallace Lloyd, D.D., reposed at the age of ninety-seven.
The casket with Father Donald David will arrive at St. Mark Church in Denver, CO on Thursday, October 21st at 5:00 p.m., where he will lie in state until after the Requiem Mass which will be served at 7:00 p.m. He will then be taken to the St. Laurence Center in Tallahassee Creek, CO where, upon arrival, a brief low Mass of Requiem will be served followed by interment in the specially-prepared sepulchre just west of the Basilica of St Laurence. Then, this Saturday, October 23rd, the final Requiem Mass will be served at the Center at 11:00 a.m.. Condolences may be sent c/o Father John Connely (john.connely@gmail.com) of St. Mark Church in Denver.
Fr. John Connelly writes:
Following his Chrismation and Ordination, Father Donald David Wallace Lloyd, D.D. told me very sincerely that never in his life had he felt so uplifted, blessed, (he used a vocabulary to explain this that I cannot entirely remember), and that his joy was beyond anything of merely earthly happiness. He was delivered from all the sorrow of 93 years (the age at which he received into Holy Orthodoxy) and then continued his earthly life as the most powerful intercessor that I have ever known. If your retired Priests want to see Paradise, let them follow this example. Father Donald was given names for prayer in restaurants and everywhere we traveled. He normally rose at 5.00 o'clock so to complete his Morning Prayers by 8:00 o'clock given his lists of living and departed souls.
Father John
Bishop Basil writes:
2010 Western Rite Vicariate Conference + August 2-4, Washington, D.C.
The biennial conference of the Western Rite Vicariate will be held Monday, August 2 through Wednesday, August 4 in Washington D.C.
Evangelism will be the focus of this year’s conference. Presentations will be offered on making the Orthodox Faith known to the unchurched, the reception of new parishes (“provisional missions”) and on-going instruction within the parish.
Mass will be celebrated daily, together with Vespers and Lauds (or Morning Prayer). A complete schedule of the conference will be available by May 15.
The Right Reverend THOMAS (Joseph), Bishop of the Antiochian Archdiocese of North America, serving in the Diocese of Charleston, Oakland and the Mid-Atlantic, will attend the conference representing The Most Reverend Metropolitan PHILIP (Saliba), Archbishop of New York and Metropolitan of All North America.
Clergy and laity from Western Rite parishes, and those interested in the Western Rite, are cordially invited. Please register using the registration form which is attached.
The Western Rite Vicariate Conference is hosted by St. Gregory the Great in Washington DC and co-hosted by St. John the Baptist in Lewistown MD, Holy Trinity in Lynchburg VA and St. Patrick in Warrenton VA.
Should further information be desired, please contact:
Fr. John W. Fenton
Assistant to the Vicar General of the Western Rite
313.282.6153
frfenton@holyincarnation.org
Living the Christian Faith in the Orthodox Western Tradition
Friday, Nov. 13, 2009 & Saturday, Nov. 14, 2009
All Saints of North America Orthodox Church
2550 Schuetz Road
Maryland Heights, MO 63043
(314) 994-0220 • www.allsaints-stl.org
Using an informal and informative format, Fr. John Winfrey and Fr. John Fenton will lead four structured discussions on how the Christian Faith is lived in the Orthodox Western Tradition.
St. John the Baptist Mission Profiled in the Frederick News-Post
One man’s spiritual journey ends with a congregation’s conversion
Lewistown is now home to Maryland’s first Western Rite Orthodox church
by Ron Cassie of The Frederick News-Post
Last weekend, at a service at St. Basil the Great Orthodox Church in Poquoson, Va., Bishop Thomas Joseph ordained James K. Hamrick into the holy priesthood of the Western Rite Orthodox Church.
It was a moment Hamrick’s congregation in Lewistown has been waiting for since early spring. On April 10, his small flock at the former Charismatic Episcopal Lamb of God Church converted en masse to the Antiochian Orthodox faith, which includes both Western Rite and Eastern Orthodox churches.
At Hamrick’s urging, the 40-member congregation, which worships in a church built in 1883 by Methodists, was officially accepted as an Orthodox mission in March. After preparation, members went through the sacramental rite of chrismation into the Antiochian Orthodox faith. Further highlighting their transformation, the congregation adopted a new name: St. John the Baptist Orthodox Church.
This weekend, Hamrick will lead an Orthodox Sunday Mass for the first time at the church, marking the final step for the 45-year-old priest and his congregation as Maryland’s first Western Rite Orthodox church.
“For the people who have endured a rather long and difficult journey, this doesn’t mark the end, but a fresh new beginning,” Hamrick said. “We’re excited about what God is doing — about being pioneers and evangelists, about bringing Holy Orthodoxy which is the faith of the Apostles and the ancient Church to the people of Frederick County living in the 21st century.”
Fr. James Hamrick Ordained to Priesthood
Maryland’s First Western Rite Orthodox Church Emerges
On Sunday, August 23, 2009, Bishop THOMAS (Joseph) ordained James K. Hamrick to the Holy Priesthood in the Orthodox Church, Antiochian Christian Archdiocese. The ordination ceremony was conducted during the Hierarchical Divine Liturgy at Saint Basil the Great Orthodox Church in Poquoson, Virginia (near Newport News). The host priest and pastor of the church, Father Gregory MacGregor, was one of Hamrick’s three priest sponsors. Father MacGregor had introduced Hamrick to Holy Orthodoxy three years earlier during a family vacation to Williamsburg, VA. At that time Hamrick was a priest in the Charismatic Episcopal Church and had just planted a new mission in Lewistown, Maryland named Lamb of God Church—all of this after having previously served as a United Methodist pastor for six years in the Harpers Ferry, WV area.
Hamrick’s other two priest sponsors for his ordination were present and included Father Patrick Cardine, pastor of St. Patrick Orthodox Church in Warrenton, VA; and Father Nicholas Alford, pastor of St. Gregory the Great Orthodox Church in Washington, DC, both of whom were also the catechists for Hamrick’s congregation when they made a decision to become Orthodox last year.
