About the Name Occidental

  In a Church that has its origins in Palestine in the East; in a Church popularly known as the Eastern Orthodox Church; in a Church which jealously guards her Eastern heritage in her liturgy, in her spirituality and in her doctrine, one might wonder what a Newsletter in this Church is doing calling itself by a name literally meaning, Westerner.
  Since the Newsletter itself originates from the Western Region of the Western Rite Vicariate, and since the Occidental will attempt to publish the progress of Western Orthodoxy in America, it seemed appropriate to name it thus. The Occidental, as the official Western States Deanery Newsletter, respects deeply the Eastern traditions with which it is associated, and at the same time wished to chronicle the Spirit's renewal of Orthodoxy within a Western cultural setting. This is especially noteworthy, as the Occidental heritage is only now being restored to Orthodoxy after 900 years.
  May the All-Holy Trinity be glorified in the restoration of Western Orthodox Christianity here in America.