THE ANCIENT CHURCH OF THE WEST: DISPROVING EASTERN TRIUMPHALISM, REJECTING APOSTATE ANGLICANISM, AND RESTORING TRUE ORTHODOXY

An AI Generated Illustration Making Rounds on Social Media, Collapsing a Thousand-Year, Complicated History Between East and West Into an Inaccurate Visual that Identifies William the Conqueror as the Primary Problem in the English Patrimony

By Bp. Joseph (Ancient Church of the West) 

INTRODUCTION

In the fractured landscape of contemporary Christianity, where confessions vie for legitimacy and historical supremacy, two narratives have emerged that demand scrutiny and refutation. The first is Eastern Orthodox triumphalism, which asserts an exclusive claim to apostolic purity through ahistorical arguments that crumble under examination. The second is the tragic descent of modern Anglicanism into apostasy, a fall so complete that it can no longer be considered a living expression of the Christian faith. Against these distortions stands the Ancient Church of the West, a faithful heir to the Anglo-Celtic patrimony, offering a path of restoration rooted in Scripture, the Fathers, and the sacramental life of the undivided Church. This essay seeks to dismantle the myths of Eastern exclusivity, expose the bankruptcy of contemporary Anglicanism, and present the Ancient Church of the West as the authentic continuation of Orthodox and Catholic Christianity within our Anglo-Celtic Christian Patrimony. 

ORTHODOX POLEMICS AGAINST THE ANGLO WORLD 

Recently, posts have made their way around social media, proclaiming that the ancient Church in England was “Orthodox.” 

Some of this is true, and some of this is propaganda. The British Church was in communion with the East, but they never called themselves “Orthodox” and they never considered their validity to come from their communion with the East. In fact, the English Archbishops often rebuked the East for being heretical and considered the Greeks to be quite troublesome, both for their over-reliance on philosophy and also for their Cesaropapism (their desire to have the Emperor control the Church, not foreseeing Henry VIII’s advent in their own Church). Also, St. Theodore of Canterbury, the Archbishop who came from the Church of the East’s School of Nisibis and studied under the great biblical scholars Narsai and Babai, argued for the Filioque, before really anyone else thought it was a necessity and inserted it into his teachings back in the 700’s. So, even though they were recognized as “Orthodox” by the East, they were saying “and the Son,” which contemporary Orthodox claim is the crux of heresy in the West and is the definition of not being Orthodox. So, the truth of our history is not as simple as triumphalist apologists would like to insist!

THE MYTH OF EASTERN SUPREMACY

Eastern Orthodoxy often presents itself as the sole guardian of apostolic tradition, a claim steeped in a romanticized view of history that ignores the complexity of the early Church. The Orthodox narrative hinges on the assertion that the Byzantine tradition, with its patriarchates and liturgical forms, represents an unbroken continuity from the Apostles, rendering all other expressions of Christianity deficient or schismatic. Yet this triumphalism rests on shaky ground. The early Church was not a monolith dominated by Constantinople; it was a communion of local churches - Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, Rome, and beyond - each contributing to the catholicity of the faith, each recognized for its own history, synods, liturgies and divergent practices, such as married and unmarried clergy, married and unmarried monastics, use of different kinds of wine, different Anaphoras, different liturgical and sacramental formulations. The British Isles, far from being a peripheral outpost, were an integral part of this communion from the outset, being evangelized in the Apostolic Age, and never thought of as inferior by anyone, until prelest and pride filled the hearts of feeble “Popes” and “Patriarchs.”

Christianity reached Britain in the earliest centuries, borne by missionaries from Gaul and enriched by Roman and Eastern influences. Traditions of apostolic origins, whether through Joseph of Arimathea or Aristobulus, may be shrouded in legend, but they reflect a deeper truth: the English Church emerged organically through the apostolic mission, not as a derivative of imperial edict. By AD 314, British bishops attended the Council of Arles, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with their peers to combat Arianism. St. Alban, Britain’s first martyr, bore witness to a faith already ancient before Augustine of Canterbury arrived in 597. This Anglo-Celtic Church was no junior partner; it shared in the orthodoxy and catholicity of the undivided Church, independent of Byzantine oversight. The Church in the British Isles existed, recognized, but not dependent upon any other Church for existence or connection with the Holy Spirit! 

An important and pivotal figure in this history is St. Theodore of Tarsus, just mentioned above, the Archbishop of Canterbury from AD 668 to 690. Born in Asia Minor and educated in the Syrian School of Nisibis, studying under the great biblical scholars Narsai and Babai, St. Theodore brought their intellectual and biblical rigor to Britain. His theology, grounded in Scripture and the foundational traditions of the Antiochian Fathers, included the theological understanding of the Filioque - the procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father through the Son - centuries before it sparked East-West division. Far from a medieval Western invention, this doctrine finds roots in biblical texts (John 15:26; Galatians 4:6; Romans 8:9), as Christ claims to send the Holy Spirit to His Church, predating the Carolingian debates. The Filioque was, therefore, not the definition of those who were in or outside of the “Orthodox” communion, as the Slavophiles of the Neo-Patristic Synthesis would insist. St. Theodore’s tenure reveals an English Church that was Orthodox in the truest sense, contributing to the theological discourse of the faith, rather than merely receiving it from Constantinople. The Eastern Orthodox polemic rejection of the Filioque as a late corruption ignores its presence for centuries in the undivided Church, exposing the ahistorical nature of their triumphalist claims, even if its addition to the Creed can be roundly rejected and criticized as inappropriate. 

The British Church always displayed a healthy skepticism toward Byzantine excesses. The Eastern Empire’s ceasaropapism, where emperors wielded authority over ecclesiastical matters, was a stark contrast to the Anglo-Celtic tradition’s reliance on Scripture and the Fathers, not submitted to any particular empire, and expecting kings to submit to it as “protectors” and not ecclesiastical heads. St. Bede and Alcuin of York critiqued Constantinople’s speculative dogmatics and imperial entanglements, echoing the Celtic monastic tradition’s emphasis on simplicity and biblical fidelity. The English later assertion of royal role of high servant of the Church was not a break from this heritage but a reclamation of the Crown’s ancient role as protector of God’s Covenant People - akin to the ancient kings of Israel - against foreign interference and the idolatry of a man, the pope, as Christ’s sole representative on earth. Eastern Orthodoxy’s insistence on its own primacy dismisses these contributions, revealing a narrow, ethnocentric lens rather than a universal vision of the Church.

THE FALL OF MODERN ANGLICANISM

While the English Church once stood as a beacon of apostolic faith, its modern iteration - the Anglican Communion - has succumbed to apostasy. What was once a vibrant tradition, forged in martyrdom, Scripture, and sacramental clarity, has become a hollow shell, animated not by the Holy Spirit but by the spirit of the age. The evidence is undeniable: the embrace of moral liberalism, the ordination of women to headship roles, the pursuit of ecumenism devoid of truth, and the erosion of orthodox Christology mark a departure from the faith once delivered to the saints. Bishops no longer guard the deposit of faith; they betray it. Liturgies, once a ladder to the divine, now soothe the conscience into conformity with the world. This is not a mere stumble - it is a fall from which there is no recovery within the current institutional framework, one that requires reconversion and submission to the truth of Jesus Christ! 

The seeds of this apostasy were sown long ago. The Elizabethan Settlement, with its compromises between Catholic and Protestant factions, introduced a latitudinarianism that prized unity over truth. Over centuries, this evolved into a moralism that supplanted repentance and asceticism, paving the way for the relativism that now reigns. The Anglican Communion’s fruit - doctrinal ambiguity, liturgical profanation, and capitulation to cultural trends - testifies against its claim to apostolic succession. Succession is not merely a tactile lineage of ordination; it is the transmission of doctrine, discipline, and sacramental reality. By abandoning these, modern Anglicanism has severed itself from the apostolic vine. It is no longer Christianity but a relic, a corpse dressed in the tattered vestments of a once-holy tradition.

THE ANCIENT CHURCH OF THE WEST: THE TRUE HEIR OF ANGLO-ORTHODOXY

Yet God has not abandoned His Church. Amid the ruins of Anglicanism and the distortions of Eastern triumphalism, the Ancient Church of the West emerges as the faithful remnant, preserving the Anglo-Celtic patrimony and restoring true Orthodoxy. This Church is not a novelty but a continuation of what the English Church always was at its best: a participant in the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, rooted in the faith of the Apostles, the witness of the Fathers, and the sacramental life of the ages.

The Ancient Church of the West draws from the deep wells of its history, both through our living tradition and through our vital Apostolic Succession. The fire of St. Bede’s scholarship, the clarity of Alcuin’s theology, the sacramentality of Lancelot Andrewes, and the holiness of William Laud live on here. The Caroline Divines, with their reverence for Scripture and the Incarnation, articulated an Anglicanism that stood on the "One Canon of Scripture, the Three Creeds, the Four General Councils, the Five Centuries and the Church Fathers therein" - a vision untainted by the anti-Western polemics that later clouded Eastern Orthodoxy. The Scottish Nonjurors, steadfast in their refusal to compromise apostolic integrity, further enriched this tradition, seeking unity with the East not through subservience but through mutual recognition of shared faith in their Great Concordat of Jerusalem! 

This Church reclaims the liturgical heritage of the English tradition. The Ancient Scottish Liturgy of St. James of Jerusalem, the early Book of Common Prayer (1549), the American 1928 Book of Common Prayer, are not the possession of these apostate Anglicans who mock its creeds while parroting its rhythms - it belongs to the Universal Church, and the Ancient Church of the West has restored it. The full Western Rite, purged of late medieval accretions and Byzantine suspicions, returns to its patristic core, offering a Eucharist that is both intelligible in the vernacular and transcendent in its reverence. Bishops of untainted succession, free from liberalism’s schisms and ethno-nationalism’s constraints, unite this Church in a concordat of restoration, not nostalgia.

A CALL TO RETURN

To be Orthodox is not to wear the garb of Byzantium or recite its shibboleths—it is to confess what the Apostles taught, to live the Church’s sacramental life, and to worship the Triune God in spirit and truth. The Anglo-Celtic Church has done this from its inception, as evidenced by its saints, its liturgies, and its theological depth. Eastern Orthodox triumphalism fails to account for this shared orthodoxy, clinging instead to a myth of exclusivity that history disproves. Modern Anglicanism, having forsaken the gospel, offers no refuge. The Ancient Church of the West, by contrast, stands as the solution: a Church that neither seeks validation from foreign patriarchates nor mourns a lost institution, but boldly proclaims the faith of our fathers.

Let the Anglican Communion fade into the darkness of false ecumenical confusion and sacramental chaos. Let Eastern Orthodoxy wrestle with its ahistorical isolationist claims. But let those who yearn for the faith of St. Patrick, St. Columba, St. Aidan, St. Cuthbert, St. Bede, St. Augustine, St. Theodore, St. Anselm, and Blessed Bishops Laud, Andrewes, Ken and Deacon, come home - to the Ancient Church of the West, where the flame of true Anglo-Celtic Orthodoxy burns anew. As C.S. Lewis envisioned, the perfect service directs our attention to God alone. This is the worship of the Ancient Church of the West: a reverent continuity with the Fathers, the most ancient and powerful of all Liturgies, a rootedness in Holy Scripture, and an awe before the Triune God - in holiness, beauty and in truth. This is the Orthodox and Catholic faith, restored not in Rome, not in Constantinople, nor in a fallen and apostate Canterbury, but in the Church that has always been ours, a Church that flows in the blood and heart-cry of our ancient people. Let all who have ears to hear, hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches.

COLLECT FOR THE RESTORATION OF THE ANCIENT CHURCH OF THE WEST

O Lord Jesus Christ, who didst plant Thy Church in the British Isles through the holy labors of thine Apostles and Confessors, and hast preserved unto this day a faithful remnant, not by the strength of man but by the power of Thy Spirit; mercifully look upon Thy servants who seek to walk in the old paths and to restore the ancient landmarks which our fathers have set: cleanse Thy vineyard from the tares of false doctrine and worldly compromise; purge Thy temple of every strange fire; and gather into one fold those who love the truth, that, abiding in the doctrine of the Apostles, the fellowship of the Saints, and the breaking of the Bread, we may worship Thee in the beauty of holiness and bear witness to Thy Kingdom, until Thou shalt come again in glory to judge the quick and the dead; Thou, who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.