WELCOME TO OUR CHURCH

 

The Ancient Church of the West's Seal Consists of a Crowned Celtic Cross, Commemorating Christ as King, Our Celtic Inheritance, and Our British Patrimony; the Holy Trinity and the Claddagh Ring, Commemorating Our Shared Life with the Holy Trinity; and also the Descent of the Holy Spirit into Our Hearts, Showing the Transformative Holiness and Purity that is Central to the Christian Faith. The Cross is Flanked with Thistles, the National Emblem of Scotland, Reminding Us of our Apostolic Succession, and also Shamrocks, Reminding Us of the Legacy of Sts. Patrick, Brigid, Alban, Aidan, Brendan, Kentigern, Ceowulf, Wulfstan, and Dunstan.

Dear Friends, 

Welcome to the Ancient Church of the West. We are glad to see you here, as a seeker of true catholicity and orthodoxy, or as an Orthodox brother curious about what Westerners are doing within the canonical confines of the Ancient Church, we hope that you find the clarity that you need about us, so that you can walk closer to God and the people around you in holiness and purity. 

As you can see, we are the proud inheritors of two rich traditions: the Anglican Tradition, which encompasses the theological and liturgical heritage of our English Patrimony as expressed by the Caroline Divines, the Non-Jurors, and the High Church Anglicans of old. This tradition, preserved through the Chambers Lineage, was regularized by the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, with roots in the United States tracing back to St. Tikhon of Moscow, strengthened by consecrations from St. John Maximovitch, and canonically reinstated in its fullness by Metropolitan ++Hryhorij (Ohijchuk). Our jurisdiction embodies the “hybrid vigor” of this heritage, fully committed to doctrinal orthodoxy, canonical regularity, and the Ancient Western Rite, while maintaining a strong emphasis on preaching, scriptural exposition, and missions - qualities often overlooked within a Byzantine context.

We are fully at home in the West, committed to the survival of Western Christendom, and inspired with a vision of Byzantine openness and theological diversity based in the days before the Egyptian Captivity of the Eastern Orthodox Tradition under Turkish occupation and Russian oligarchy. In the twilight of Constantinople, many influential theologians and monastics relied upon reaction, bitterness and a desire to destroy the West to provide a rallying point for the Eastern Christian commoners, which then manifested in an increasing and uncharacteristic harshness and desire for toxic control, which is still one of the defining attributes of Orthodox prelacy today. It is our goal to correct this tendency towards ethnophylitism, self-appreciation, lack of transparency, unaccountable episcopal behavior, and anti-Westernism that currently defines Orthodoxy, and become a Church that can function like it originally did, reconverting our contemporary empire to Christ without relying on the crutch of a bygone age, or the hardening and reactionary attitudes of a “Chosen People” in exile. 

Our goal is to revive the Western expression of Holy Orthodoxy, without servility, fear or inferiority, as brothers and equals, and not a bowing and scrapping inferiors, apologizing for our own past successes and the great history of fidelity and theological strength that is the root of Western civilization. For this reason, while deriving our orders from Holy Orthodoxy, and seeking to maintain filial communion with all canonical Orthodox Churches, we are not under any of the Eastern Patriarchates. As the ancient Churches, we have our own Archbishop, made so by the Eastern Archbishops of old in an irrevocable trust, and passed down without breaks or irregularity to us. To submit to an Eastern Patriarch would deny both the equality of all bishops, an ancient canonical principle that upholds Orthodox canon law, and would also undermine our cause of establishing a fully Western Church. We are not slaves, but free. We are not crypto-heretics to be undermined, despised or controlled, bilked as a tax-base for old world prelacies. The East is built upon a culture of courtesanship and slavish manners, but, rather than hold this against our brothers, we call them back to the original simplicity, equality and manliness of our Early Christian and Greco-Roman forebears, and insist upon the equality of Western Orthodoxy. 

Our vision is to bridge between the world of Conservative Anglicanism and the Eastern Orthodox world, providing a structure that is comprehensible to both, and useful for increasing, sustaining and uniting these expressions of Apostolic Tradition, eventually resulting in the regularization and full canonical acknowledgment of the Western Orthodox Church by the Eastern Churches. The road is a long and arduous one, probably being a process of many decades, but our goals will be realized by God’s grace as the world continues to spiral into increasingly anti-Christian directions. 

We pray that you will be blessed and inspired to enter our unique and important Church, or to follow the Teachings of Christ more deeply within Orthodoxy, and that our jurisdiction will help you love and serve Our Lord in better fullness as an expression of that Christian calling. 

In Christ, 

Bishop Joseph Boyd

Ancient Church of the West