OUR HISTORY 

The House of Piety was established in 2023 as a missional and evangelical society within the broader Anglican, Catholic, and Orthodox traditions, to breathe new life and empowerment to lay Christians.

 

Since our founding, we have offered unparalleled discipleship, training, and spiritual guidance to Christians of all denominations, seeking to help all members of the Body of Christ towards Holiness in this very life. 

 

The 'Lay' Problem 

 

The founder of House of Piety, Rev. Photius Valentine, was disenchanted with the state of lay participation in many liturgical and 'high-church' denominations. Lay members languished in destitution, confusion, and suffering, while many clerics enjoyed luxury, fine education, and unparalleled ease. It seemed that only the priests of such churches were capable of authentic spirituality, while laymen were busied with daily labors and the drudgery of ordinary life.

 

Anglican Orthodoxy in the Church of England was always sacramental and episcopal, yet often lacked a robust laity. The clerical class has always dominated the Church of England, and this has never been truly reconciled, without either destroying the priesthood altogether, or extinguishing lay participation in the Church entirely. The same can be said for the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches.

 

In contrast, the purely protestant evangelical churches often lacked the rigor and sacramental life of the liturgical churches, thereby robbing the people of true spirituality and empowerment, for a merely intellectual 'bookish religion'. 

 

Even more concerning was the increase in political polarization in the Anglican Communion, and the departure of the Church of England from biblical orthodoxy, along with a similar trend among the Methodist and Lutheran Churches. Today, the three major protestant denominations are hopelessly divided, with liberal innovations bringing ruin to all. 

 

The solution too, could not simply be a 'return to Rome' or a 'voyage to the East' to convert to Roman Catholicism or Eastern Orthodoxy, since this would require a full rejection of the beauty of the Anglican and Reformed heritage. Needless to say, the Anglican Church was in the very beginning, both Catholic and Orthodox, with a culture and patrimony perfect for the Anglo-Saxon peoples. 

 

The Solution

 

Thus, the House of Piety saw it necessary to fix such clerical abuses with a reinvigoration of pietist, evangelical, and charismatic currents of the Reformation, so that the high liturgical churches would no longer be bereft of lay participation. They also believed it important to focus on the Gospel of Holiness and Piety, so as to counteract the vacuous liberalism of the modern churches, and to offer an authentic spiritual path of rigor and discipline to fill the void of classical 'parish life'. It is often the case that political polarization arises from sheer boredom and lack of structure.  

 

Thus, the House of Piety draws not only on the ancient heritage of the Anglican, Catholic, and Orthodox tradition, but also from the best of Methodism, Wesleyanism, Lutheran Pietism, Quakerism, Moravianism, and Holiness Pentecostalism. We believe that the best thought of the Reformation - as embodied in the Holiness Movement - is not contradictory to the ancient Catholic and Orthodox faith. 

 

Homely Beginnings

 

Rev. Valentine began the House of Piety through small gatherings in urban apartments of laity, bringing the sacraments to those in need, particularly to the elderly and sick. Soon, many had asked for greater spiritual direction, and a more robust meeting structure was developed. 

 

As it was in the early church, the House of Piety believes in a 'grassroots' approach to ministry, which is face-to-face in small groups, often in the domestic setting. While larger Church buildings are not rejected, the House of Piety maintains its missional and evangelical purpose to a higher degree without. 

 

Rev. Valentine offered the sacraments freely to all baptized Christians regardless of sect. Today, the House of Piety is truly ecumenical and does not engage in chauvanistic, exclucivistic, or cult-like membership practices, as do many churches today. 

 

Our Founder

 

The Orthodox Priest,  Rev. Photius Valentine, was baptized and confirmed in the Episcopal Church of the United States at a time when the Church of England was rife with political and social controversies. In many ways, it was more of a social club for an anglophile elite than a true Church. Disatisfied, he left and converted to Roman Catholicism. 

 

As a Roman Catholic, he found solace in the traditional teachings of the Church, yet was disappointed in the abysmal status of the laity. Both before and after the alleged 'liberalizing' reforms of Vatican II, lay Catholics were disenfranchized and neglected by the clerical class. Lay Catholicism appeared to consist mostly of performative Sunday worship, which was a spectacle led by a priest merely for the people to watch 'in awe'. Other than watching the beautiful liturgy of the Holy Mass, there was little empowerment or participation for a layman. Rev. Valentine sought ordination within the Roman Church, but could not reconcile his calling with the artificially mandated clerical celibacy. 

 

Rev. Valentine eventually pursued Old Catholicism and other independent sacramental jurisdictions, only to find similar abuses. He then joined the Anglican Free Communion International and was ordained a deacon, only to find liberalism to be a continued foe. 

 

In 2023, Rev. Valentine became an Orthodox Priest with the Holy Orthodox Patriarchate of Nations, and began to practice the Anglican Rite within the Orthodox Tradition. Since the late 1930's under Saint Tikhon of Moscow, the Eastern Orthodox Churches have permitted the Anglican Rite of the Church of England as a valid liturgical expression, thereby giving a home to Traditional Orthodox Anglicans within the broader Orthodox church. 

 

Rev. Valentine currently serves as an Orthodox priest in this jurisdicition, and is the Abbot General of the Order of the Precious Blood, an ecumenical contemplative community. He recieved his seminary education at Asbury Theological Seminary, one of America's foremost Methodist divinity schools.