WHY WE EXIST: THE IMPORTANT VISION AND MISSION OF THE ANCIENT CHURCH OF THE WEST

The Ecclesiastical Flag of the Ancient Church of the West

By Bp. Joseph (Ancient Church of the West) 

INTRODUCTION 

The Ancient Church of the West exists because the world has forgotten its first love. We live in an age of fragmented Christianity, of institutions that mistake their own survival for the Gospel that alone gives life. We exist to remember. We exist to recover. We exist to preserve the Apostolic faith as it was handed down before empire, before division, before innovation. We are not another new movement or a modern novelty. We are a living witness to the faith once delivered to the saints, restored and planted afresh in our day.

DIFFERENT FROM THE REST

Unlike many churches that define themselves by cultural identity, national borders, or ecclesiastical politics, the Ancient Church of the West is not bound by ethnicity or empire. We are Anglo-Celtic in patrimony and Ancient Antiochene in memory, yet universal in heart and mission. We gather what was scattered: the witness of the Apostolic Fathers, the hymns of Ephrem the Syrian, the homilies of Chrysostom, the poetry of the Celtic monks, the liturgies of Sts. James, Mari and Addai, and the Western rites sanctified by centuries of faithful prayer.

We are different because we do not cling to the exclusivist triumphalism of Byzantium, nor to the juridical absolutism of Rome, nor to the theological reductions of Protestantism. We are the Church that remembers the first millennium whole and complete, full of reality and nuance, and not as a propaganda power project: before schisms hardened and before cultures mistook themselves for the Kingdom of God.

NECESSARY IN OUR TIME

We are necessary because the world is dying of spiritual famine. People long for beauty, depth, holiness, and truth, but are too often given shallow entertainment, cultural Christianity, or ideological slogans in place of living waters. The Ancient Church of the West restores the fullness of Scripture at the center of worship: five Psalms before the Liturgy, long Old Testament lessons, and cycles that bring the faithful through the entirety of the Bible, not in fragments but in fullness. We are necessary because we do not believe faith is merely private, but know that it is communal, liturgical, sacramental, and transformative.

We are necessary because East and West both need a bridge, a Church that remembers when they were one. We are necessary because Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas need a Gospel not chained to national pride or foreign importation, but one that honors their culture while remaining true to the apostolic deposit. We are a Church, with all of our sins that we are constantly repenting over and working through, that is free of ethnophylitism and accreted pharisaical pride. 

SPECIAL IN OUR WITNESS

What makes us special is not novelty but fidelity. We are guardians of a patrimony that stretches from the deserts of Mesopotamia to the green isles of the Celts, from the catacombs of Rome to the mountains of Armenia, from the first synagogues that heard the Gospel to the Saxon and Norse lands baptized in its light. We treasure the witness of the saints, not as distant relics, but as living members of our family. Our theology unites the mystical vision of the East with the clarity of the West. Our liturgy is both ancient and accessible, poetic and Scriptural, transcendent and pastoral.

We are special because we preserve the fullness of Christian life: sacramental grace, married clergy, monastic witness, daily prayer, fasting and feasts, iconography, and the communion of saints, which are all woven into a life of holiness that heals both soul and society. In our Church, truth is not reduced to slogans; it is sung, prayed, painted, preached, and lived. We are a creative, aesthetic, beautiful Church. 

WORTHWHILE TO JOIN AND PRESERVE

The Ancient Church of the West is not an optional curiosity started for the advantage or vanity of a wannabe clergy class: it is a vital lifeline for our times, in direct continuity and in the authority of the Ancient Church. To join us is to step into a living tradition that has carried the Gospel across continents and centuries. To preserve us is to preserve a vision of Christianity that is neither captive to empire nor lost in individualism, but rooted in the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic faith.

We are worthwhile because we teach the whole counsel of God. Our preaching is thorough, full of ancient commentary, and avoiding personal opinions and stories that would magnify our perspective above what is ought to be. We are worthwhile because we equip families, strengthen marriages, raise children in the faith, and renew communities with sacramental life. We are worthwhile because we remember the missionary spirit of the Apostles, carrying the Gospel not only to our own people but to all nations, without fear, without compromise, and without partiality.

We are here because God has preserved us for this hour, established us in the Succession of the Apostles, given us a unique and powerful opportunity to establish and build our congregations, and has given us excellent people, deacons, presbyters and overseers. The Ancient Church of the West exists so that the original Gospel for a lost and dying world might be proclaimed again in its fullness, with faithfulness, beauty, and power.

COLLECT

Grant, O Lord, that the Ancient Church of the West, being ever mindful of the faith once delivered unto the saints, may be preserved from error, division, and decay; that we, being nourished by thy holy Word and Sacraments, may show forth the light of Christ in every land and tongue, gathering into one the scattered children of God; and that, keeping the witness of the Apostles and Fathers, we may serve thee in holiness and truth, unto the salvation of souls and the glory of thy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.