In Dayton, TN, we are a Western-Rite parish under the omophorion of His Eminence, Metropolitan HILARION, of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR). Our patronal feast is Oct. 15/28—Our Lady of Walsingham, the Theotokos and Ever-virgin Mary. This feast commemorates a vision circa 1061 of the Blessed Virgin Mary by Lady Richeldis, a noble woman in Walsingham, England, who was instructed by the Theotokos to build a house on her land which would represent the house in Nazareth where the Christ child was raised. A spring on the property was found to have healing powers and, before long, pilgrims began coming to pray at the “Holy House” and partake of the healing water. Walsingham, “England’s Nazareth,” was the most visited pilgrimage site in England during the Middle Ages after Canterbury. After being destroyed by Henry VIII in the 16th century, the Walsingham Shrine was restored in the early 19th century. It now includes an Orthodox chapel and the feast has been approved for Orthodox devotion by our bishop. Here in Dayton, we are blessed with an ikon shrine of Our Lady and a holy well on the property of our future cemetery chapel. We are a Western-Rite Orthodox, parish—thoroughly Orthodox—Western in our worship rite and Eastern in our theology. While we share the faith of all Orthodox Christians around the world, as a Western-Rite congregation we are blessed by our bishop to use the ancient forms of both Western worship and Eastern worship. All services are in English (occasionally with some Spanish when pastorally warranted). Traditional Roman Catholics, Anglo-Catholics, Episcopalians and Lutherans will find our worship services to be familiar. If you do not have a church home, we invite you to worship with us. The Western-Rite of the Orthodox Church is a concerted effort by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia to respond pastorally to the numerous requests of Western Christians to re-establish the Western Church as it existed prior to the Great Schism (ca. 1054). It is an outreach to people who have grown up in countries that have been populated by Protestant and Roman Catholic communities by offering the fullness of The Orthodox Faith as it existed prior to the Great Schism. Mary’s W-R Orthodox Church is a mission church in the Western-Rite Churches of The Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR). Our patronal saint is the Blessed Ever-Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Walsingham. Patronal feasts: Annunciation—March 25/7 and Our Lady of Walsingham—Oct. 15/28, (Old-style calendar). We are currently a mission-church with temporary quarters at 889 Walker Rd, Dayton, TN (on Dayton Mountain just off Highway 30 West near the Rhea-Bledsoe County line)—best to call ahead before visiting. Call: 423 775-0509, or, click here for a map to the church. We welcome you to Come and see this ancient expression of The Faith once delivered to the saints—a Faith and practice that you can depend on being the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow: The fullness of the Orthodox Christian Faith.
