December 13, 2023 marks the 40th anniversary of the repose of Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann, best known as Dean and Professor at Saint Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary in New York and as a prolific author and inspired speaker. Those facets of his activity are amply covered elsewhere. A less well studied sphere of Father Alexander’s work was his influence on the administration of the Church, particularly in his leadership role at the All-American Councils, which are according to the present Statute of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA) “the highest legislative and administrative authority within the Church” (Article III, Section 1). Father Alexander participated in 12 councils: 5 All-American Sobors before the OCA’s autocephaly in 1970, and 7 Councils after autocephaly was granted.
When Father Alexander arrived in America in 1951, there was not yet a mandated periodicity of the Councils. They were convoked whenever a crucial issue arose requiring action by the church-wide body. Thus, in 1950, less than a year before Father Alexander’s arrival, the 8th All-American Sobor was convened to elect a new Primate, voting for Metropolitan Leonty (Turkevich).
A comprehensive Statute to define the Church’s structure at all levels and to establish such norms as periodicity of regular Councils had been, in fact, needed for a long time. This was the major issue undertaken by the 9th Sobor convened in 1955. Father Alexander was a member of the Pre-Sobor Committee that was charged with drafting the Statute. He became one of the main architects of the Statute as it developed through its many iterations over the following two decades. One of the most contentious issues that needed regulation in the Statute concerned structure and leadership within the parish and the authority of the bishop. Responding to those who were contesting the Statute’s provisions on parishes, in preparation for the next Sobor in 1959, Father Alexander wrote an article about the importance of the Statute adopted at the 9th Sobor, placing its regulations firmly in an ecclesiological context rather than a strictly administrative one.
“...The canons of the Orthodox Church as well as the Statute of 1955 define very precisely the means by which the Bishop exercises his authority; but to single out any one sphere of parish life and to claim that this sphere lies outside the competence and the jurisdiction of the Church’s authorities is to contradict the very idea of the Church as expressed in the words of Saint Ignatius the God Bearer: ‘in the Church nothing is done without the Bishop.’”
www.schmemann.org/byhim/parish.html.
In accordance with the quadrennial periodicity of Sobors established by the 1955 Statute, the 10th Sobor convened in 1959, making a few amendments to the Statute and issuing resolutions on mostly routine matters. While Father Alexander was involved in the council’s proceedings, he was also an interpreter during the sessions, which took place bilingually in English and Russian. After the conclusion of this Sobor, Father Alexander reflected on its deliberations in a written response to arguments by the Church’s chief jurisconsult (attorney) and others who were arguing for a Church structure that was not hierarchal, but rather what they termed “sobornal” meaning conciliar, but which, in fact, conflated conciliarity with notions of democracy and made false distinctions between spiritual and secular concerns in church governance. Father Alexander clarifies that the Church is both hierarchal and conciliar:
“The authority to decide whether this or that decision of the Sobor is in agreement with Tradition remains with the Hierarchy and it is in this sense that the Sobor is hierarchal. The Sobor is thus the expression of the common concern for the Church of all her members and the expression also of her hierarchal structure, and this is what “sobornost” and “sobornal” mean in Orthodoxy.”
www.schmemann.org/byhim/churchhierarchal.html
At the 11th Sobor in 1963, Father Alexander was elected as the Council’s clergy vice-chairman and, as such, skillfully guided its deliberations, which centered on amending the Statute to strengthen the rector’s position as presiding officer in parish decision-making processes and to expand the Metropolitan Council to include diocesan representatives. Father Alexander was also elected as an at-large member of the Metropolitan Council. While attendees have reported that the imminent approach of the Church’s autocephaly was palpable, any formal discussion of this eventuality was deemed premature.
The repose of Metropolitan Leonty in May 1965 resulted in the convocation of the extraordinary 12th Sobor expressly for the election of a new Primate. In preparation for the election Father Alexander wrote an article titled “The Sobor: Test of our Maturity” in which he indicated the significance and essence of the coming council:
“...our Sobor will be a test: a test of our maturity, a test of our unity, a test of our existence as a Church and not as a loose and sometimes anarchical combination of local selfish and private interests. ... The Sobor will elect our new Metropolitan. This is not a mere ‘administrative business.’ This is an act of the highest significance.”
At the 13th Sobor in 1967, the Church’s bishops indicated that they would not allow the delegates to vote on a proposal to change the Church’s name to “Orthodox Church in America”, but an informal straw vote was overwhelmingly in favor of the name change. Just before the Council, Father Alexander had advocated for this name change, stressing that the Church is, indeed, ready to be “American” and that this Americanization will be fully realized with the uniting of all Orthodox in North America into a single Church body. Father Alexander was also a member of a three-person ad hoc Canonical Commission that drafted a new Statute article defining the administrative functioning of the parish and parish membership, which, after years of sometimes polarizing debate at the three previous Councils, under Father Alexander’s leadership, was unanimously adopted. It was once again Father Alexander’s leadership that guided the assembly to consensus in a dignified fashion.
Events of historic proportions necessitated the convocation of another All-American Council in the fall of 1970. Negotiations, where Father Alexander was a leading participant and proponent, resulted in the granting of autocephaly to the OCA by the Russian Church in April 1970. In October, the 14th Sobor/1st All-American Council took place in order to ratify this action by approving the name change to “Orthodox Church in America”. As clergy vice-chairman, Father Alexander skillfully moderated the sometimes contentious discussion. The Council also issued a Message to All Orthodox Christians in America, inviting all to organic unity, a text that Father Alexander likely drafted.
Exactly a year later in October 1971, the 2nd All-American Council took place in order to adopt a new Statute. Father Alexander was again vice-chairman skillfully guiding deliberations that were peaceful in tenor in contrast to the often adversarial tensions of Statutes discussions in the past. The dynamic between clergy and laity existing in the 1950s had changed. The Council periodicity was now mandated to be biennial.
The next four All-American Councils in 1973, 1975, 1977 and 1980, at which Father Alexander continued to play a guiding role as clergy vice-chairman, dealt with routine matters, except for the election in 1977 of Metropolitan Theodosius, the first American-born Primate. The evolution in the proceedings of the Councils and Father Alexander’s view of their importance can be seen in his journal entries and other reflections at that time. He constantly marveled at the spirit pervading the Councils of the 1970s, in contrast to the 1950s, when few attended the morning liturgies and even fewer communed.
In 1975, at the 4th All-American Council, when he felt his continuing role in church administration would be ineffectual, Father Alexander withdrew his name from consideration for reelection to the Metropolitan Council, as he notes in his published journals:
“I decided to withdraw from church administration because I am convinced about the dead end where all administrative bodies are locked, in a total lack of confidence and trust. I do not want to be either a patch or a rubber stamp on this tragic discrepancy between the administrative powers and the people.”
With this, his role as a member of the Metropolitan Council concluded, but Father Alexander continued to serve as vice-chairman at the All-American Councils through 1980.
At the 7th Council in August 1983, Father Alexander, already gravely ill, was able to attend only the opening session, at which he was named the honorary vice-chairman of the Council and delivered brief farewell remarks. Metropolitan Theodosius thanked Father Alexander for his tireless labors in leading many Councils in fruitful deliberations. At the banquet after Father Alexander had already left the Council, Metropolitan Theodosius said:
”...We all owe a personal debt of gratitude to Father Alexander Schmemann. The contribution made by Father Alexander to the organic transformation and eucharistic renewal in our Church cannot be measured. The only true measure of what he means to us is our love for him, a love which itself cannot be measured. I want him to know, and I am sure that he does know, that we are in deep communion with him ... through love, through prayer, through the eucharist.”
On returning home from one of the Councils, Father Alexander wrote in his journal:
“I feel like I am coming down from a mountain, so strong was the feeling of a Presence at the Sobor. The Church – as much as we are given to see it and experience its presence in this world. Wonderful liturgies every morning, with hundreds of communicants. The transfiguration of the lay people (remembering the Sobors in the Fifties), a feeling of the fundamental strength of life. ... I cannot describe the details, but the active presence of the Holy Spirit was evident ... The wisdom of the Church, of the protective, rather than prophetic function of bishops; wisdom of acceptance by the Church. Really – a living experience of the Church.”
Indeed, Father Alexander experienced all of life as sacrament, including councils wrestling with practical matters and working through contentious issues.
For Father Alexander, the All-American Councils were clearly holy, miraculously transformative events. For those of us who attended those councils, we remember how Father Alexander transformed the tenor and the discussion by his very presence.
To mark the occasion of the 40th anniversary of Father Alexander’s repose, His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon will be travelling to Saint Tikhon’s Orthodox Theological Seminary where, on Wednesday, December 13, he will serve a Panikhida at Father Alexander’s grave.
His Beatitude’s full schedule at Saint Tikhon’s will be as follows:
Tuesday, December 12
4:30 PM All-Night Vigil for the Feast of Saint Herman of Alaska
Wednesday, December 13
8:00 AM Hierarchical Divine Liturgy with ordination of Deacon Caleb Lewis to the Holy Priesthood
11:30 AM Panikhida for Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann for the 40th anniversary of his repose (graveside, weather permitting).
May Father Alexander’s memory be eternal!