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====France====
[[Image:Kovalesky-Maximovitch.jpg|right|thumb|250px|Bp. [[(Roman Catholic) Jean (Kovalesky) of Saint-Denis]] and St. [Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia Bishop [now Saint] John Maximovitch]] of Shanghai and San Francisco in 1964]]
In 1937, the [[Church of Russia]] received a small Uniat group under the former Liberal Catholic bishop, Louis-Charles (Irénée) Winnaert (1880-1937), dubbing them ''l'Eglise Orthodoxe Occidentale'' ("Western Orthodox Church"). The work of Winnaert was continued, though not without some occasional conflict, by [[Jean (Kovalesky) of Saint-Denis|Evgraph Kovalesky]] (1905-1970) and Lucien Chambault (later known as ''Pére Denis''), the latter of which oversaw a small Orthodox Benedictine community in the rue d'Alleray in Paris. Also associated with them was the former Benedictine monk, Archimandrite Alexis van der Mensbrugghe (1899-1980), who favorably viewed the restoration of the ancient Roman rite cleansed of medieval accretions and supplemented by Gallican and Byzantine interpolations. In 1948, he published his ''Liturgie Orthodoxe de Rite Occidental'' and in 1962 the ''Missel Orthodoxe Rite Occidental''.
After some years of canonical limbo, Kovalesky's group came under the [[Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia]] between 1959 and 1966, and Kovalesky himself was consecrated with the title of Bishop [[Jean (Kovalesky) of Saint-Denis|Jean de Saint-Denis]] in 1964. During this time, the Eglise Orthodoxe de France received considerable encouragement from St. [[John Maximovitch]] (who was ROCOR's representative in Western Europe at the time), and his death in 1966 was a serious blow to these French Orthodox Christians, who had had an influential and holy advocate in St. John.
Meanwhile, the Moscow Patriarchate's Western rite withered and came to an end, but jurisdiction became the Orthodox Church in America. Bishop Jean's church continued to thrive, though after St. John's death in 1966, they were again on canonical hiatus. Bishop Jean died in 1970, and then in 1972 the [[Church of Romania]] took the Eglise Orthodoxe de France under its [[omophorion]]. Gilles Bertrand-Hardy was consecrated as Bishop [[Germain (Bertrand-Hardy) of Saint-Denis|Germain de Saint-Denis]], and the restored Gallican rite became the regular liturgy used in the many small French Orthodox [[parish]]es established throughout France. The full splendor of that liturgy can be seen in the Cathedral of St. Irénée in Boulevard Auguste-Blanqui in Paris. In 1994, after a lengthy conflict with the Romanian Holy Synod regarding various canonical irregularities, the Eglise again found itself in canonical limbo, where it remains to this day. The Romanian patriarchate established a [[deanery]] under Bishop Germain's brother Archpriest Gregoire to minister to those parishes which chose to stay with Romania.
In the late 1990s, negotiations had been underway with the [[Church of Serbia]] for the Eglise to come under its jurisdiction, but NATO's bombing of Kosovo in 1999 abruptly ended those hopes, as France was then seen by the Serbians as complicit in its persecution by the West.
==Congregations==
The [[abbot]] who led this monastery, named [[Christminster (Providence, Rhode Island)|Christminster]] (or Christ the Savior Monastery), into "communion with ROCOR " '''THIS IS A LIE!''' once remarked to St. [[John Maximovitch]] that it was difficult to promote Western Rite Orthodoxy, whereupon the saint replied: "Never, never, never let anyone tell you that, in order to be Orthodox, you must also be eastern. The West was Orthodox for a thousand years, and her venerable liturgy is far older than any of her heresies."[http://members.cox.net/kelticnordic/history.htm]
The [[Orthodox Church of France]]—which is currently of ambiguous status with regard to world Orthodoxy, but at one time was cared for by St. [[John Maximovitch]] and later by the [[Church of Romania]]—also uses a Western Rite liturgy based on ancient Gallican liturgical materials.
The situation of Western Orthodox parishes has been compared by some with the analogous status of the autonomous [[Uniate]] churches under the [[Roman Catholic Church]]. For centuries, there have been hierarchical churches in [[full communion]] with and in subjection to the Vatican, but which the Pope allows to follow liturgical customs and rules like those of the [[Orthodox Church]], (e.g., they confirm newly baptized infants via [[chrismation]], they have married [[priest]]s, their churches have [[iconostasis|iconostases]], etc.). Additionally, as the Uniates share a common dogmatic requirement with Latin Rite Catholics, the Western Rite Orthodox share the same faith as their Byzantine Rite brethren.
However, unlike the [[Uniates]], Western Rite Orthodox congregations are not mainly the result of large-scale ecclesiastical political machinations and [[schism]] but rather of small-scale genuine conversion to Orthodoxy by individuals and congregations. In any event, the criticism of the Western Rite based on its similarity with the Uniates is IS Uniate and mainly guilt by association by means of a superficial similarity of form. Because the ideas are analogous, they must therefore both be wrong developments. Yet the more firmly established criticisms of Uniatism Uniats usually have nothing to do with ritethe Orthodox Church.
==See also==
