The Western Rite
The ancient usages of the undivided Church in the West - the Western Rite - are today celebrated in a number of Orthodox jurisdictions. The Western Rite was lost to the Church following the separation of the Church of Rome from the Church in the 11th century. However since the early 20th century, various forms of the Western Rite have been available to facilitate the "coming home" of those in the West. We are indebted in particular to the Moscow Patriarchate for facilitating the re-introduction of the Western Rite in the early 20th century. The Patriarchate of Antioch sanctioned the use of the Western Rite in the mid-20th century.

The Western Rite has been available to Orthodox Christians in New Zealand since the 1970's and is most frequently used by the missions in Ashley and Wellington. To many older Western Christians, the services will be familiar as they are very like the forms used in the Anglican Communion (English Missal) and the Roman Catholic Church (Tridentine Mass) prior to the reforms of the 1960's.

   For many years Fr Jack Witbrock has laboured to perfect his translations of the Western Rite from Latin into "Prayer Book" English. He is currently working to generate electronic versions of the  translations. The work is being published on this website as it is completed.



New Zealand Western Rite texts            - files ready for downloading
The Orthodox Western Rite                              -paper written by Fr Jack and presented by Fr Ian at the Symposium at Wollongong. 24 4 07
More on the Western Rite and its varieties     - Fr Jack
North American Western Rite website    - a treasury of information on the Western Rite