The End Is Where We Start From, Spring/Summer 1999
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Spring/Summer 99 Page 2 The End is W h e re We St a rt Fro m Spring/Summer’99 THE END IS WHERE WE START FROM by Fr. John Shimchick What we call the beginning is often the end And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from. (T.S. Eliot, “Little Gidding,” Section V, Four Quartets) As we approach the end of this century and millennium, what Finally, we are happy to announce the launching of our new can we as Orthodox Christians learn from the past that might Diocesan Webpage: www.JacWell.org serve as the starting point for our engagement with the future? Can we identify useful decisions and patterns of behavior? Can Besides making available articles from current and back issues we acknowledge our mistakes? Have there been certain witnesses of Jacob’s Well, this site will allow us to present and regularly to the reality of the Christian Faith whose lives are worth exam- update a calendar of Diocesan Life. Information on how to do ining? What does it mean to be an Orthodox Christian at this that will be available on the webpage.❖ moment in history? These are some of the themes we wish to explore throughout the issues of Jacob’s Well produced during this year. C O N T E N T S Fr. Leonid Kishkovsky, in editorials written for The Orthodox Church newspaper, in his commencement address at St. Vladimir’s Seminary, and in a recent interview we are pleased to present, sug- Theme . 2-18 gests that the current time provides many opportunities for Orthodox responses and involvement. Fr. Alexander Garklavs Parish News . 19-25 writes about the critical dimensions of nationalism. Fr. Michael Special Features . 26-31 Meerson explores issues experienced by the new immigrants com- ing to America, particularly those in the latest Russian “wave.” Icons & Iconographers . 32-33 Matushka Deborah Belonick studies the subject of “women’s Liturgical Music. 34 issues” in the context of Orthodox Tradition and traditionalism. Media Review . 35 We will begin two new series of articles. Fr. Michael Plekon will examine images of holiness found throughout the twentieth Good & Faithful Servant . 36 century. The first installment features the first translation of Fr. Alexander Schmemann’s re m a rkable account of the “T h re e PUBLISHED WITH THE APPROVAL OF Metropolitans” who served a formative role in his experience of HIS EMINENCE, the Church. While his descriptions of Metropolitans Evlogy and THE MOST REV. Vladimir of Paris will no doubt be of interest, his presentation of PETER ARCHBISHOP Metropolitan Leonty is of particular value as we consider those OF who gave their lives on behalf of our Church in America. Fr. NEW YORK AND NEW JERSEY Schmemann observed that Metropolitan Leonty was “firmly upholding the whole Metropolia [the name of the OCA before EDITOR . FR. JOHN SHIMCHICK autocephaly] under his prayerful gaze.” The second series, writ- PUBLICATION OFFICE. 24 COLMAR ROAD ten by Fr. Joseph Woodill, will develop an Orthodox understand- CHERRY HILL, NJ 08002 ing of “Ethics.” 609-665-2491 FAX: 609-265-0864 We will review Diocesan and parish events: the 85th anniver- E-MAIL: [email protected] sary of St. John the Baptist Church, Spring Valley, NJ; a project WEBSITE: HTTP://WWW.JACWELL.ORG of Holy Trinity Church, Yonkers, NY which will benefit Russian ARTWORK . CAROL MORRIS orphans; the wonderful restoration of iconography taking place at St. Vladimir’s Church, Trenton, NJ; parish retreats, and activities MATERIAL PUBLISHED IN JACOB’S WELL IS SOLICITED FROM ITS READERS VOLUNTARILY, WITHOUT REMUNERATION OR ROYALTY PAYMENT.THE PUB- for youth and choirs. Fr. Stephen Siniari offers a new article in his LISHER AND THE STAFF OF JACOB’S WELL ASSUME NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR series, “Good and Faithful Servant.” THE CONTENT OF ARTICLES SUBMITTED ON THIS BASIS. MATERIAL HEREIN MAY BE REPRINTED WITH ACKNOWLEDGEMENT. Page 3 Spring/Summer’99 The End is W h e re We St a rt Fro m THE IMPLICATIONS OF THE PRESENT MOMENT FOR ORTHODOXY: An Interview with Fr. Leonid Kishkovsky [This interview between Fr. Leonid and Fr. John Shimchick (JW) took place on June 25, 1999.] JW: Your editorials in The Orthodox Church over the past are crises facing us that are spiritual, liturgical, canonical, and year and your commencement address at St. Vladimir’s Seminary these crises have a specific dimension in the so called, “diaspora” have featured positive words in describing the possibilities for context. When we try to be fully faithful to the Orthodox inher- Orthodoxy at this time in history. You have spoken about the itance, obviously there are two ways to go: One is very inward- opportunities for an Orthodox “response,” “contribution,” “civic looking and, in a sense, entering into a ghetto voluntarily. responsibility,” and “engagement with culture.” It would seem Another is to engage the civilization of the West and do it in a liv- that this century has probably been the first in which there has, in ing way.We have both of those responses occurring right now. fact, been any significant Orthodox engagement with Western culture. Would you, first of all, comment on what you would see JW: Are there certain things that we as Orthodox have to as some of the patterns and lessons we can learn from the offer at this time in history? Are there things that we have to say Orthodox engagement with Western culture to this point and that are not being heard, that are not being expressed by anyone what might be some of the possibilities for the future. else? Fr Leonid: When we speak of Orthodox engagement with the Fr. Leonid: My presentation at the Commencement was, I West in this century being more significant we probably mean, think, reaching toward an answer to that question. It seems to me the “diaspora.” I think that there is a longer-range perspective. that today’s Western civilization is very prone to thinking of itself For example, in some real ways obviously the Church of Russia as a world and universal civilization. And therefore, whatever it before the Communist Revolution of 1917 was, in a fashion, thinks, whatever it does, whatever it writes, whatever values it has engaged in an encounter with Western culture. And I think this are seen as universal, by definition. In reality, of course, even if encounter has even been recognized by the West. For example, no we look at its Christian dimension, the West very often in practi- one would speak about world literature without speaking about cal terms is simply ignorant of Eastern Christianity. So there is a Dostoevsky or Tolstoy. So there has been in that sense a pro- presumption that the West is equivalent to universality, but in found encounter which was aborted in the framework of the reality that universality is very much attenuated, it’s a very partial Communist Revolution, the persecution of the Church, the mar- and selective thing. ginalization of Christianity in Russia. And then the encounter of What we have to offer in the context of world Christianity is Russia with Communism was, in a certain sense, an encounter an insistence on the wholeness of the Tradition, the integrity of with the West, since the ideology of Marxism is rooted in Western the Christian Tradition in history - meaning both East and West. development - that’s very complicated, but bears consideration. In my presentation at St. Vladimir’s, I also pointed out that we What is new in the so-called “diaspora” is that Orthodox Orthodox have our own demons - religious and ethnic tribalisms churches and communities are living as minorities in Western - which drive us into our own particularisms, undermining our contexts. Therefore we have been drawn into the encounter with witness to Catholicity.To put it another way: America and the the West willy-nilly, simply as a matter-of-fact. But the respons- West are very much prone to the arrogance of power right now. I es to this fact are different. Some of the responses are self-isolat- do think that we also are prone to a kind of triumphalism as ing, with Orthodox communities withdrawing into themselves. Orthodox. We need, spiritually, to be very aware of that tempta- Ethnic and sometimes religious identity takes on the character of tion because arrogance and triumphalism are not the way of the self-preservation, and the necessary encounter with the West is Gospel. The integrity of the Tradition is meaningless if the neglected or forgotten. Other elements of the encounter have integrity of the Gospel is not fully kept. been expressed, manifested, and illustrated by such theologians Yet, in today’s Orthodox debates, any word of caution about and writers as Frs. Schmemann and Meyendorff and others. In triumphalism is heard by many as advocacy of relativism, as advo- Western Europe and America our encounter with the West is a cacy of “branch” theories of ecclesiology, as betrayal of the direct encounter, a daily and unavoidable conversation and Orthodox Tradition. But this is certainly not what I have in debate. It is, I believe, an imperative of our mission not to fear mind. Clearly, there is a way of witnessing to the fullness, the this encounter and debate. Our encounter with the West should integrity, the Catholicity of the Orthodox Church and not at all be a source of missionary energy and intellectual vigor for us. falling into relativism and other reductionisms or into arrogance. Now I think the jury is still out what will we be able to Our witness can be given in a way that has evangelical integrity.