It has been said that the Church is East and West, but in fact the Church is simply the Church, Christ's Holy Body. Within it is a wealth of diversity that spans time and the globe. The Divine Liturgies celebrated by such western saints as Ambrose, Irenaeus, Jerome, Patrick, and Gregory were Orthodox. That rich heritage belongs to the Orthodox Faith.

The purpose of St. John the Wonderworker is to provide a home in the Orthodox Church for western people of non-Byzantine cultural and religious backgrounds. We also witness the Catholicity of the Orthodox Church to our Byzantine (Eastern) Rite Brethren.