 Considering the history of hostility towards the Western Rite among the eastern churches and the repeated difficulties that this had caused, the clergy and laity who had separated from the , along with a number of other clergy and laity, gathered to form the Orthodox Church of the Gauls and elected Father Michel Mendez as bishop.Mendez took the religious name Gregory and was consecrated on 16 December 2006 by two bishops of the French Orthodox Church, namely Bishop Vigile (Valentin Morales) of Paris (formerly of the Old Calendar Church of Greece) and Bishop Martin (Laplaud); as well as Bishop Maël (de Brescia) and Bishop Marc (Jean-Claude Scheerens), both of the Celtic Orthodox Church.Of the groups that left the Orthodox Church of France, the is the only one which has retained its Western Orthodox heritage and original mission.