Hello dear friend,
I guess you are Orthodox, just like me :)
The One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, namely the Orthodox Church is also known (especially in the contemporary West) as the Eastern Orthodox Church. The Orthodox Church is called “Eastern” because it began as the eastern half of Christendom, the site of the former Byzantine Empire.
I can understand your confusion, especially if you live in a western country. Many people that used to plan to convert to Orthodoxy (and now are Orthodox Christians) asked me in the past “why do I have to be called Eastern Orthodox while I live in the West”? My answer was that so all the Orthodox jurisdictions (Greek, Antiochian, American-OCA, Russian, Carpatho-Russian, OCA, British, Serbian, Romanian, Bulgarian, Georgian, African, Korean, etc etc etc….) are called “Eastern Orthodox”, no matter where we live, because, that’s the name of the Church.
However, the characterism “Western Orthodox” may refer to Orthodox Christians that using traditional Western liturgies (Western Rite) and are in full communion with their Eastern Orthodox brethen. Currently, there are Western Rite parishes within the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR) and the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America.
So, you can be called “Western Orthodox” only if in your parish celebrate Western forms of liturgy. Otherwise, you are an Eastern Orthodox, or just an Orthodox Christian.
I hope I gave a good reply to you and I didn’t misunderstood anything. If you feel my answer is not good enough, feel free to contact me again to make some corrections!
God bless you!
