An ‘American Church’

Eastern Orthodoxy, throughout its entire history, has been :he religion of the people. With its liturgy using the vernacular, with its particular ability to assume the various cultures where it developed, with leaders who often assumed :he responsibility for entire nations, Orthodoxy became inseparable from national consciousness itself. This is true for :he Greeks, who like to identify Orthodoxy and Hellenism, for the Russians with their irrational messianism of "holy Russia," for the Serbs, who see no difference between pravoslavie and svetosavlje (the inheritance of St Sava).

The strength of these various forms of religious nationalism is tremendous: the Communists themselves are unable to deracinate it. This strength comes from the fact that Christianity has become rooted in society, in the family traditions, in the general world-view of entire nations: all this is an extraordinary achievement of an authentically Christian spirit, which assumes and transforms the whole of human life, and not only - as in our modern secularized civilization - an isolated corner of man's life. This wholeness of Christian life is what the great saints of the past have succeeded to build: the Greek Fathers of the Church, St Sergius in Russia, St Sava in Serbia.

But something quite new happened later, especially in the nineteenth century: the balance between religion and culture was lost. Instead of sanctifying their national life by submitting it to the higher ideals of the One Church - as the Greek Fathers, and St Sergius, and St Sava had done - the Orthodox began to use the Church as a tool for the perpetuation of their national, political or cultural interests. They began to think of themselves as "Greek Orthodox," "Russian Orthodox" or "Serbian Orthodox," as if these were separate religious "denominations." Hence our disastrous state of division here in America, where God brought us all together.

St Paul had to face a similar situation in Corinth, where Christians of Jewish background and Christians of pagan background had created separate communities. He wrote to them: "I appeal to you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree and that there be no divisions among you . .. "What I mean is that each one of you says, I belong to Paul, or I belong to Apollos, or I belong to Christ. Is Christ divided? "Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?" (I Cor 1:10-13).

There is - in the One Orthodox Church - one Baptism, one Eucharistic Liturgy, one Priesthood, one Faith. And of course, there are many different people, whose identity - personal, national, cultural - is perfectly legitimate, but only as long as this identity does not divide the Church.

Today, fortunately, we envisage again our future in terms of Orthodox unity. This unity existed - administratively and canonically - before 1921, when all Orthodox of various national backgrounds were united in one single canonical Church of America. No one ever said that their national identity was suffering then in any way.

In restoring that unity again today, we will not create a new "denomination," called "American Orthodox," but we will all be one in the "Orthodox Church of America." This Church will undoubtedly preserve, wherever necessary, various liturgical languages and traditions, with all desirable guarantees on the diocesan or parochial levels, and it will, of course, welcome Americans, who do not desire to identify themselves by any other national adjectives. The canons of the Church actually ignore "national" churches: they only require that in each area the essential Oneness of the Church be visibly realized, so that our confession of faith in the Creed - "I believe in One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church" - may not sound like empty words.

No one requires from us to cease to be what we are. Diversity is not precluded by oneness. The future therefore is in an "Orthodox Church of America," where there will be room for Russians, Greeks, Serbians, Ukrainians, Arabs, Albanians and . . . Americans!

From: Vision of Unity by John Meyendorff, St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, Crestwood, NY 1987