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Orthodox Church of France

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{{westernrite}}
The '''Orthodox Church of France''' (''l'Eglise Orthodoxe de France'' or ''l'Eglise Orthodoxe Catholique de France'', a.k.a. ''l'ECOF'') is an autonomous diocese of [[Western Rite]] parishes in France formed under the auspices of [[Vladimir Lossky]] and [[Jean-Nectaire (Kovalevsky) of Saint-Denis|Evgraph Kovalevsky]] and [[Vladimir Lossky]] in the 1930s and 1940s.
==History==
In 1937, the [[Church of Russia]] received a small 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-Nectaire (Kovalevsky) of Saint-Denis|Evgraph Kovalevsky]] (1905-1970) and [[Denis (Chambault)|Lucien Chambault]], the latter of which oversaw a small Orthodox Benedictine community in the rue d'Alleray in Paris (as Pére Denis). 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 1946, the Eglise Orthodoxe de France (Orthodox Church of France) was developed by Kovalevsky specifically with the intention to restore the ancient [[Gallican Rite|Gallican usagerite]] of , which came to be known as the pre-[[Charlemagne|Carolingian]] Roman rite, basing his work on the letters of Divine Liturgy according to St. [[Germanus of Paris|Germanus]], a 6th century [[bishop]] of Paris. After the French Church broke with Moscow to preserve the Western character of its liturgy, Fr. Archimandrite Alexis remained with the [[Church of Russia]] and was consecrated to the episcopacy in 1960, continuing his Western Rite work under the auspices of the Moscow Patriarchate.
[[Image:Kovalevsky-Maximovitch.jpg|right|thumb|250px|Bp. [[Jean-Nectaire (Kovalevsky) of Saint-Denis]] and St. [[John Maximovitch]] in 1964]]After some years of isolation, Kovalevsky's group came under the [[Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia]] between 1959 and 1966, and Kovalevsky himself was consecrated with the title of Bishop [[Jean-Nectaire (Kovalevsky) of Saint-Denis|Jean-Nectaire 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 enjoyed an influential and holy advocate in St. John.
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