Orthodox Church of the Gauls

The Orthodox Church of the Gauls (OCG) (French: Église Orthodoxe des Gaules or ÉOG) is a self-governing Orthodox church comprising two dioceses. It was formed in 2006 with a mission to return the Orthodox Christian faith to people of western lands, particularly through the use of restored forms of ancient Gallican worship. The OCG is part of the Western Orthodox Church, and its primate is Bishop Gregory (Mendez), the bishop of Arles and the abbot of the Monastery of St Michael and St Martin near Luzé, in the Touraine region of France.

Beliefs

The OCG maintains traditional Orthodox beliefs and practice, and affirms the doctrinal teachings of the seven great councils. While affirming the theological statements of the latter four councils, the OCG rejects the application to the Oriental Orthodox Churches of those councils' condemnations of monophysitism.^[1] Therefore, the OCG recognises both Oriental Orthodox Churches and Eastern Orthodox Churches as sister churches.

History

The Orthodox Church of the Gauls has its origins in the Orthodox Church of France (OCF), and sees its purpose as a continuation of the original mission of that church when it was established in 1936 by the Russian Orthodox Church, namely to restore the Orthodox Christian faith to the peoples of western lands. The separation took place in 1997, when the following communities left the OCF:

• The monastic community of Saint Michel and Saint Martin, which follows the Rule of Saint Benedict.
• The Bethany Community - a lay community for hesychastic spirituality, led at the time by Father Alphonse and Rachel Goettmann at Gorze.^[2]

After these communities separated from the OCF, the French Coptic Orthodox Church (FCOC) agreed to receive them into full communion in 2000.^[3]

These two communities constituted one of three groups of parishes that left the Orthodox Church of France at about the same time, all citing irregularities in that church. The two other groups were admitted into the local dioceses of the Romanian Orthodox Church and the Serbian Orthodox Church, respectively, on condition that they adopt the Byzantine Rite in their worship. They were initially granted permission to use their Western Liturgy a limited number of times each year. Today, however, these parishes worship according to the Byzantine Rite.

The two communities that were received into the French Coptic Orthodox Church (FCOC) were initially encouraged to use their existing Gallican Mass and the Daily Office (Hours) of the ancient Western Church. This use of ancient western forms of worship, music, and spirituality was in keeping with Article 1 of Charter of the FCOC, which states that the mission of the church is to restore Orthodox faith to the French population. This was enshrined in the protocols for their reception and signed by Abba Marcos El Amba Bichoi, then Coptic Orthodox Metropolitan of Toulon and all France.

However, in 2005, Abba Marcos issued statements rescinding permission for the use of the western liturgies, making the claim that their use had never been authorised. Having been afforded no opportunity to appeal against this decision, the affected clergy petitioned Pope Shenouda III of Alexandria in February 2006 for an audience to discuss the matter further. When they had not received a response by June of the same year, it became clear that remaining with the FCOC would mean abandoning their Western Orthodox liturgical and spiritual heritage. Therefore, the clergy resigned from the FCOC, taking their communities with them.^[4]

After a brief period of independence, the clergy and laity who had separated from the FCOC, along with a number of other clergy and laity, formed the Orthodox Church of the Gauls, and elected Father Michel Mendez as bishop. Mendez took the religious name Gregory and was consecrated on 16th December 2006 by two bishops of the French Orthodox Church, namely Bishop Vigile (Valentin Morales) of Paris (formerly of the Old Calendar Church of Greece) and Bishop Martin (Laplaud); as well as Bishop Maël (de Brescia) and Bishop Marc (Jean-Claude Scheerens), both of the Celtic Orthodox Church. Of the groups that left the Orthodox Church of France, the OCG is the only one which has retained its Western Orthodox heritage and original mission.

In the years since then, through organic expansion and the founding of new communities, the church has grown numerically, and today comprises a number of parishes, missions, and monastic communities in France, Switzerland, Belgium, Cameroon, Poland, and Catalonia.^[5] In addition, there are a number of laity and clergy in minor orders in the United Kingdom who are members of the OCG.

In August 2018, the clergy of the Priestly Fraternity of Ss Cyril and Methodius, along with their congregations, were received by Bishop Gregory and established by his decree as the Polish Exarchate of the OCG, with Bishop Gorazd-Stanislaus Sawickiego as its Exarch.^[6]

Worship

The OCG is primarily a Western Rite church, whose worship is supplemented with some eastern sources. Clergy wear western vestments and the primary eucharistic rite of the church is the Divine Liturgy of St Germanus of Paris, being a 20th century reconstruction of the Gallican rite Mass. The Polish Exarchate worships according to the Latin Rite.

After the formation of the Orthodox Church of France in 1936, the priest Jean-Nectaire (Kovalevsky), later Saint John of Saint-Denis, set about restoring the Gallican rite for use by the French Church. The principal documents he used that had been unavailable to his predecessors in restoring the Gallican Mass were two letters ascribed to Saint Germanus of Paris (496-576) that describe the liturgy in sixth-century Paris. Kovalevsky drew on the writings of numerous Gallican saints of the same era that provide information on Gallican liturgical practice, as well as extant missals, sacramentaries, lectionaries, and antiphonaries of related rites. The restored liturgy has gone through several editions and, in the face of criticism, was declared an authentic representation of Gallican tradition by a commission chaired by Archbishop John Maximovitch, (later Saint John of Shanghai and San Francisco), in its official report of 1961. It has been approved for use in the Russian Orthodox Church, the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, the Romanian Orthodox Church, and the Serbian Orthodox Church, in addition to being the standard form of the mass used in the Orthodox Church of France, the French Orthodox Church, and the Orthodox Church of the Gauls.

The music generally used in the restored Gallican rite Mass and other services is largely the composition of Maxim Kovalevsky (1903-1988), a deacon in the Russian Orthodox Church and the brother of Bishop Jean-Nectaire. Much of his music for the propers and ordinary of the mass and divine office is a hybrid of classical western plainsong melodies, often harmonised, with some of the ordinary being variants on traditional Russian and Greek chants, adapted according to Kovalevsky's trademark style. Other pieces are entirely his own composition, including such examples as the ancient hymns, Gloria in Excelsis Deo and Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence, as well as an a cappella arrangement of the popular Christmas carol, Il Est Né, le Divin Enfant. Bishop Gregory (Mendez) studied under Maxim Kovalesky and is himself an accomplished composer of liturgical music, some of which is used in the worship of the OCG.

The West Syriac Rite is also in use in the OCG, solely in the Barcelona parish, where it is used in Spanish translation, and where music and vestments proper to that rite are adopted.

Relations with other churches

The OCG is in full communion with the French Orthodox Church and the Celtic Orthodox Church since 2007 through the Western Orthodox Church, whose bishops meet regularly to strengthen their bonds of unity, and are committed to a common way of life, including recognition of each other's saints, liturgical rites, and customs, as well as the free interchangeability of clergy.

Since April 2009, the OCG is in full communion with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in America.^{[7][lower-alpha 1]}

While not formally recognised by these larger Orthodox communions, the OCG considers itself to be in a communion of faith with the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches, and there have been occasions of concelebration between OCG clergy and Oriental Orthodox clergy.

Notes

References

This article incorporates text from Orthodox Church of the Gauls at OrthodoxWiki which is licensed under the CC-BY-SA and GFDL.

External links

• Official website (in French) (In French with some English pages)
• Facebook page
• Manifesto of the Orthodox Church of the Gauls
• The Divine Liturgy of St Germanus of Paris
• Communion des Églises orthodoxes occidentales (in French)
• The Ukrainian Orthodox Church in America
• St Melangell's Orthodox Church An English-speaking community of the OCG, currently in formation.