St. Augustine of Hippo Orthodox Church
A Western Rite Parish of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America
Welcome Visitors & Inquirers
We welcome you as our Guest!
Whether you are new to Orthodox Christianity or are visiting from another Orthodox parish, we warmly welcome you to join with us, and we would be honored by your visit. A few notes to first time visitors:
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We won’t make a public spectacle of you or ask you to do anything uncomfortable.
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We lay no expectation on visitors of financial contribution to our parish’s ministries.
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We love kids! Our children worship together with us—they are not segregated out during our services. If your child gets a bit out of hand, please do not feel embarrassed to make a visit to the narthex until the child is ready to rejoin everyone else in worship.
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All of our services are held in English.
We are interested in greeting you following any of our services and to be of assistance in whatever way we can. Please join us for coffee hour after the Mass and introduce yourself to our pastor, Fr. Demetrios.
Holy Communion
We invite all Orthodox Christians who are duly prepared to receive Holy Communion. Amongst other things, proper preparation includes faithful fasting, recent confession, being at peace with others, and being on time to the divine services. If you are uncertain if you are blessed to receive communion, please wait until you have spoken with Fr. John Mangels.
If you are not prepared to receive you may come forward for a blessing and receive a piece of the Pan Benit, (blessed bread, not communion) in Christian charity and brotherly love.
About St. Augustine's Orthodox Church
Saint Augustine Orthodox Church is a parish of The Self-ruled Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America and The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East. We are a parish of the Diocese of Wichita and Mid-America.
1994 was the 200th anniversary of the Eastern Orthodox presence in North America. Orthodoxy entered through Alaska with the Russian mission there in 1794. Orthodox people with roots in Greece, the Balkans, Africa, and the Middle East have since added to the diversity of our continent and our country.
Immigrants from Syria and the Middle East began to organize Churches in 1895, and thereby the two thousand years of spiritual experience of The Antiochian Patriarchate has enriched the New World for more than one hundred years.
The Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East, together with the three other ancient Patriarchates (Constantinople, Alexandria, and Jerusalem); and the four modern Patriarchates (Russia, Serbia, Rumania, and Bulgaria); and the autocephalous Churches (of Cyprus, Greece, Georgia, Poland, and Albania); and the three autonomous Churches (Sinai, Czechoslovakia, and Finland)—with many dependent (daughter) bodies and missionary situations throughout the world—comprise what is known today as the "Eastern Orthodox Church" with an estimated 250 million adherents. All are united in faith and share the Apostolic experience and tradition of the past twenty centuries.
The Western Patriarchate (Rome) has been separated from world Orthodoxy since the tragic schism of 1054 A.D. The Roman Church and the Orthodox Churches have not been in communion with each other since that time.
Saint Augustine’s Parish of Denver is a "Western-Orthodox" parish, begun in 1978. The parish is comprised of individuals and families from many backgrounds. It was through the mission of the Western Rite Vicariate in the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese that the Orthodox Church first began her mission of “making America Orthodox” by reaching out to all people here—not just those from a particular ethnic background. It is through the Western Rite Vicariate within Orthodoxy that that Church remains faithful to the Lord’s command—the Great Commission to “Go forth and make disciples of all nations. . .” All services at Saint Augustine's are conducted according to the Gregorian-Latin Rite in the English and Latin languages.
The diversity of backgrounds at St. Augustine’s attests to the appeal of Orthodoxy at a time when many religious groups are viewed as accommodating and trendy. Many converts have sought out Orthodoxy in recent years, discovering its fidelity to scriptural and doctrinal foundations and its changeless expression of the historic Christian faith.
About Western Orthodoxy
For a thousand years the ancient Apostolic Sees were united. There were five geographical centers of religious activity and jurisdiction, Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, Rome and Constantinople. These Patriarchates were all self-governing but united in Faith - "the faith once delivered to the saints James. While forms of worship varied in the different patriarchates a common underlying form united them. Sometimes the Eucharistic Rites looked quite different and sometimes they were merely "usages" of the same Form.
In 1054 AD, there occurred a tragic rift in the One United Body of Christ - the Great Schism. Unfortunately, those Churches using the Western Forms of Worship were cut off from their brothers and sisters in the East. While there were authentic theological problems that caused this rupture, the errors were not liturgical.
In 1870, a group of English Catholics under the direction of the German Professor of Theology, John Overbeck, dismayed by the news of the Roman Pontiff having been declared "infallible" at the First Vatican Council, sought refuge under the protection of the Russian Orthodox Church. These faithful people approached the Holy Synod of Moscow to request the use of their familiar Western Liturgical Rites. The Holy Synod referred the matter to a group of Theologians and Liturgical Scholars in the various Theological Academies of Russia for an opinion. After a great deal of study and consultation with other Orthodox Churches, it was determined that the Rite with certain corrections (i.e. removal of the "filioque" clause from the Nicene Creed; removal of the references to the "thesarus meritorum sanctorum" (the treasury of merits of the saints) and the insertion of a specific "descending Epiclesis" - Invocation of the Holy Spirit - after the Words of Institution in the Canon) was perfectly acceptable as an Orthodox Liturgical expression.
There was no attempt at "Liturgical archeology". The then current Roman Rite, which had come down from Apostolic times with little change, with the above-mentioned adaptations was approved for use among Orthodox Christians of the West as an option to the adoption of exotic Byzantine forms of Worship.
In 1911, a group of English Old Catholics approached the Patriarchate of Antioch with a similar request and Metropolitan Gerasimos Messarrah of Beirut, in the name of the Patriarch of Antioch, received them.
In 1958, Metropolitan Antony Bashir of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of New York and all North America received several Western congregations into his archdiocese after consultation with Patriarch Alexandros, III of Antioch thus establishing the Western Rite Vicariate within his Archdiocese. This is the Jurisdiction to which St. Augustine's belongs.
Orthodox Catholics of the Western Rite accept the Theology and Faith of the entire Eastern Orthodox Church and are fully in Communion with all authentic Orthodox Christians. The only difference is found in the Liturgical Rites and devotions used within their parishes.
Metropolitan PHILIP Saliba, of blessed memory, has given his full and unequivocal support and patronage to the Western Rite Congregations under within his archdiocese. Orthodox of the Western Rite are treated as equals and function fully within the Archdiocesan and Diocesan structures.
Today, Orthodox Christians using the Western forms of Worship can be found in the USA, Canada, Western Europe and Australia and New Zealand.