Priest hopes to start Orthodox church in area
Father Andrew Winters was ordained in the Western Rite Orthodox Christian Church in March.
By: MELISSA HALL, Winston-Salem Journal
Journal , Winston-Salem Journal
24/4/2012
Starting a new church is not easy, but with patience and love, it can happen, says Father Andrew Winters, a priest with the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia. He is trying to bring one of the oldest forms of Christianity — the Western Rite Orthodox Christian Church — to the Triad.
He is holding information sessions to explain the St. Cyril of Alexandria Western Rite Mission to anyone who is interested in learning more. One will be tonight.
Winters, 62, was ordained in the Russian Church in March. In addition to his church work, he is continuing his full-time job as a funeral director and embalmer at Vogler and Sons Funeral Home.
“We are reaching out to people who are looking,” Winters said. “We don’t want to take people away from a church.”
Winters said that Western Rite might appeal to people who have left the Episcopal or the Roman Catholic churches because of changes they have undergone over the years.
“We can offer them a liturgy they are familiar with,” he said.
Winters, who received his Master’s of Divinity from the Holy Resurrection Orthodox Seminary, was ordained in a ceremony March 23 and 24 in New York.
According to information from ROCOR, the United States has about 50 Western Rite congregations. North Carolina has two Russian Orthodox churches, one in Mebane and another in Charlotte.
Aleksandr Andreev, the choir director of the Holy Trinity Orthodox Church in Mebane, said his church was started in 1992 by a small group of laypeople. He said the church got its first priest last year. About 30 people come to services each week.
“We’re making progress,” Andreev said.
Western Rite Orthodox is similar to Greek Orthodox. For example, they both use the same icons and use the Julian calendar to calculate when Easter will fall. That calendar is a reform of the Roman calendar introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 B.C., meant to represent the solar year. The Julian calendar has been largely replaced by the Gregorian calendar.
“The difference between Greek and Russian Orthodox is language,” Winters said.
To explain what St. Cyril is all about and answer questions about Western Rite Orthodox, Winters is holding information sessions at Vogler and Sons Funeral Home on Reynolda Road.
A permanent meeting place has not been selected, but Winters said other clergy have volunteered their churches’ space, and the meetings might also take place at the funeral home.
Winters held his first information session April 10. One woman stopped by to find out if Western Orthodox was the same type church her mother and grandmother had attended in New York many years ago. It was, Winters told her. Although Winters was disappointed that no one else came, he was not discouraged.
“All I can do is keep trying,” he said.
mhall@wsjournal.com
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