“Truly Orthodox and American” by Archpriest Leonid Kishkovsky

“The Orthodox Church”

Volume 43, Numbers 1/2

January/February 2007

Father Alexander Schmemann, writing some 30 years ago about Orthodoxy in
America, observed that our task is to be “truly Orthodox and truly
American.”

At the end of last year, I participated in a candid and wide-ranging
conversation on the subject on the state of Orthodoxy in America. One of
the other participants made the observation that the emphasis on being truly
American may be the priority for those who see the immigrant story as their
family point of entry into America, while for those who have family
histories deeply rooted in the American past and in the origins of America,
and came to Orthodoxy as converts, the emphasis is on being truly Orthodox.

At either end of this equation, it is possible to use this theme as a mutual
“put down,” as a way of feeling superior to the other and questioning the
motives of the other. The dialogue last year was not like this at all. It
seemed to me that it opened a useful conversation, and invited reflection.

At the end of the 18th century, Orthodoxy comes to North America through the
missionary work of Orthodox monks from Russia. Towards the end of the 19th
century and in the first half of the 20th century, conditions in Eastern
Europe and the Middle East bring many Orthodox people to the New World. In
the 20th century, many Americans unconnected to the Orthodox cultures and
immigrant stories find the true faith in the Orthodox witness to the Gospel
and become members of the Orthodox Church. In all of these dimensions of
Orthodox experience, America and Orthodoxy encounter one another in a living
and mutually challenging way.

Father Alexander’s formulation—“truly Orthodox and truly American”
—invites us to go beyond polarity and division. In his vision, to be
Orthodox and to be American is simply to be faithful to the Christian
mission as given to us by Jesus Christ through the apostles. Orthodoxy and
America are not in contradiction to one another. Orthodoxy is not nostalgia
about “another time” and “another place.” America challenges Orthodoxy to
come out of self-isolation and its tendency to self absorption and to
fulfill its calling to bear witness to the Gospel in every culture, to be
present here and now. Finally, to be truly Orthodox and truly American is
to be free to challenge America and its powerful and often self-absorbed
culture.

The challenge to be truly Orthodox and truly American is not addressed
primarily—and certainly not only—to the individual member of the
Orthodox Church. Our concern is about the vision and mission and
orientation of the Church herself. Is the life of the Church both faithful
and dynamic in the effort to be truly Orthodox and truly American? Or is
Orthodoxy for us a self-evident, self enclosed, private spiritual world
which we enter from time to time as a refuge from the pressures of America?
Is America a self-evident culture and set of values determining our “real”
day-to-day life and not requiring any reflection on our part in reference to
the values of the Gospel and the truths of our Faith?

While giving priority to the vision, mission, and orientation of the Church,
each one of us has a responsibility personally to live up to the Church’s
vocation and calling. Thus, when the influence and impact of our personal
stories adds up to an emphasis either on being “truly Orthodox” or on being
“truly American,” we are called to be open to correction. In a profound
way, the vision and mission of the Church becomes the vision and mission to
which we are faithful.