Regarding the Western Rite

As a newcomer to the faith, Fr. Seraphim Rose certainly was aware of St. John's western rite parishes in France.  Very wisely, he ignored it.  Which is what converts to the Faith today should do also.  We can make it into the Heavenly Church without ever stumbling on the western rite just by ignoring it.  

St. John's 1950s western rite experiments in France were a failure.  Today, 2014, it is being used by the antagonist to harass the Church in America. If a trick worked once in one generation, guaranteed Satan will use it, or a variation of it, again in another generation.  After the ROCOR-MP union there was so much confusion converts were vulnerable to the distraction of the western rite, but today the western rite no longer has an aggressive association with the Royal Path Sister Churches.  Converts will notice it is mostly in the vigante Milan synod – which is a noisy artificial hybrid mixture of world-orthodoxy + super-correct disease.

I can't caution newcomers enough to avoid the influences from outside our Sister Churches.

I can't caution newcomers enough to avoid the influences from outside our Sister Churches.   Your goal is to catch a glimpse of the Heavenly Church so that you know exactly what to aim for when entering the Church and in living your Orthodox life on earth.  

The only valid reason for examining the western rite is to see for yourself that it should be ignored.  Just like Fr. Seraphim ignored it.   With a bit of wisdom, you can side step it, and not waste your time.  But if it nags you, then do examine enough it so that you can put it away and get on with your Orthodox life.

There are many posts about the western rite on the Remnant Rocor blog.

 

Blogger deleted the RRb in 2023.  But, most of the posts were saved.  In Joanna's Shared Library find the folder named: "RRb Archives."    Do a search of that folder for "western rite" and also search the term "jurisdictional ecumenism."