Eastern Rite Lutheran Congregations

[JM]

I found this little bit of history interesting.

"This was the setting for the emergence of a Lutheran movement among the Ukrainians of this region, in the 1920s. This movement was initially prompted by two key factors that were of compelling significance to those who eventually participated in the organization of what came to be called the Ukrainian Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession: 1) a desire to retain an Eastern Rite liturgy for worship, and not to be forced to use a rite and a language that was both culturally foreign and linguistically incomprehensible to the Byzantine-Slav inhabitants of Galicia; and 2) a rejection of arbitrary episcopal and papal authority – especially in matters pertaining to longstanding local and regional liturgical practice – which reflected a lack of respect for the conscience and faith needs of an entire people. In 1933, the Divine Liturgy of the Ukrainian Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession – a Lutheran order of service in the tradition of the Byzantine Rite – was published in Stanyslaviv (now the cityof Ivano-Frankivs’k in modern Ukraine). The publication and use of this service – as revised in accord with the evangelical principles of the Lutheran Reformation – was the most visible manifestation of the unique spirit and character of this new church body."

https://redeemerscottsdale.angelfire.com/pdf/WebberByzantineLutheranism.pdf

 

[tampasteve]

I read once that there was a congregation in Arizona that used the Eastern rite.

 

[JM]

Fascinating.

 

[LizaMarie]

Yes, I recently became aware of this a few years ago. It is fascinating.

 

[FireDragon76]

There are a few that exist in the ELCA that are eastern rite, congregations descended from immigrants. Most are small.

Ukraine had a fair number of Protestants historically, most of them Volga Germans that worshipped according to the western rite. My old Lutheran pastor was baptized in a Ukrainian Reformed church in rural New Jersey. It was actually common in that part of the world for Protestants to intermingle, especially if it was inconvenient to get to a particular church.

 

[RileyG]

Yeah, it was my understanding most of them were in Ukraine and broke from the Eastern Orthodox Church. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong. Fascinating subject regardless.

 

[FireDragon76]

Here is some information on Eastern Rite Lutheranism, from an Eastern Rite Lutheran pastor. Eastern Rite Lutheranism comes out of Ruthenian Catholicism (Ukrainian Catholics in fellowship with Rome), not Eastern Orthodoxy:

https://redeemerscottsdale.angelfire.com/pdf/WebberByzantineLutheranism.pdf

Galicia is in the western part of Ukraine, the part that was most heavily influenced by the Polish commonwealth. The OCA (Orthodox Church in America) is also descended from Ruthenian Catholics that migrated to the US from this area.

 

[PsaltiChrysostom]

One side note is that when the Ruthenians migrated to the US, the Latin Rite bishops refused to allow married priests to serve their congregations. As a result, a number of congregations broke ties with Rome and became officially Eastern Orthodox under the Greek Archdiocese as ACROD - American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese.

 

[RileyG]

Here is some information on Eastern Rite Lutheranism, from an Eastern Rite Lutheran pastor. Eastern Rite Lutheranism comes out of Ruthenian Catholicism (Ukrainian Catholics in fellowship with Rome), not Eastern Orthodoxy:

https://redeemerscottsdale.angelfire.com/pdf/WebberByzantineLutheranism.pdf

Galicia is in the western part of Ukraine, the part that was most heavily influenced by the Polish commonwealth. The OCA (Orthodox Church in America) is also descended from Ruthenian Catholics that migrated to the US from this area.

Thanks for the info!