Fr. Alexander Schmemann

• ABOUT:
  • Fr. Victor Sokolov's Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann Homepage:

  • Fr. Alexander Garklavs: Fr. Alexander Schmemann: a Recollection, (1999). Jacob's Well, (1998-9/Fall-Winter). --- Jacob's Well
  • Fr. Thomas Hopko: Fr. Alexander Schmemann -- No Longer Merely an Echo, (1984). The Orthodox Church, (1984/12) 3. --- Schmemann.Org
  • Fr. Thomas Hopko: Two "Nos" and One "Yes", (1984). St. Vlad. Theol. Qtly. (28/1) 45. Based on the teaching of Fr. Schmemann. "No" to secularism, "no" to religiosity, "yes" to the Church of Christ. --- Schmemann.Org
  • Fr. Alexis Vinogradov: Singing in the Right Key -- Fr. Alexander Schmemann, (1996). Jacob's Well (1996/Fall). Emphasis is on Fr. Alexander's teaching that (in Fr. Alexis' paraphrase) "man's eternal life in God cannot be fully grasped by clinical formulas and definitions." --- Jacob's Well

• PEOPLE:
  • Family: Serge Schmemann;
  • Teachers: Fr. Cyprian Kern; Metro. Evlogy; Metro. Vladimir;
  • Students: Fr. Robert Arida;

• WORKS:
  • NOTE: Many short pieces not listed below can be found at the homepage already mentioned.

  • Last Public Prayer of Fr. Alexander, (1983). The Orthodox Church (20/2)[1984]: 1 --- Schmemann.Org

  • What is Important and What is Not, (1949). Holy Trinity Cathedral LIFE, (1/6) [1994]. On the value of seeking the truth, even if this leads to controversy and disunity. --- Schmemann.Org
  • The Church is Hierarchical, (1959). SVS Quart. (3/4):36. Defending this position against the lawyer Ralph Arkush, who felt that hierarchy implicitly disenfranchises the laity and is incompatible with sobornost. --- Schmemann.Org
  • The Parish in the Church, (1959). Condemns as heretical the ideas, widespread in XX Century America, that parishes operate as independent corporations apart from their bishop and that priests are mere employees of the parish council. --- Schmemann.Org
  • Ecclesiological Notes, (1967). SVS Quart. (11):35. A sophisticated discussion of the cosmic and sacramental character of the Church. --- Schmemann.Org
  • Between Utopia and Escape, (1981). The modern world's two great tendencies -- utopian optimism and the pessimist's urge to "drop out" -- are heresies, distorting the Christian view of the world as created good, fallen, and redeemed. "It is for us, Christians, to reconstruct this unique faith, in which there are no illusions ... Our faith is not based on anything except on these two fundamental revelations: God so loved the world, and: The fallen world has been secretly, mysteriously redeemed." --- Schmemann.Org
  • Women and the Priesthood, (1982). A very brief comment, expressing the view that the controversy in heterodox denominations over ordination of women is largely the result of importing a worldly mentality into the church and assuming that exclusion from the clergy means exclusion from power. --- Schmemann.Org
  • Forgiveness, (1983). Sermon for Forgiveness Sunday, a sort of précis of the book Great Lent with interesting reflections on the subject of time. --- Schmemann.Org
  • Children and Church: On Sunday, children belong in church -- and at the Liturgy, not in Church School, which should be at another time. --- Schmemann.Org

• On Historical and Contemporary Persons:
  • Byzantium, Iconoclasm and the Monks, (1959). SVS Quart. (3/3): 18. Also refutes the idea that the Eastern Empire was caesaropapist. --- Schmemann.Org
  • In Memoriam -- Archimandrite Cyprian Kern, (1960). SVS Quart. (4/1): 50. Brief obituary. --- Schmemann.org
  • In Memoriam - Bishop Cassian (Bezobrazov), (1965). SVS Quart. (9/1): 3. Brief obituary. --- Schmemann.Org
  • In Memoriam -- Lev Aleksandrovich Zander, (1965). SVS Quart. (9/1): 40. Brief obituary. --- Schmemann.org
  • Three Metropolitans, (1969). Recollections of Leonty of America, Evlogy of Paris, and Vladimir of Paris. --- Schmemann.Org
  • Metropolitan Leonty, (1975). From Orthodox America, 1794-1976, edited by Constance J. Tarasar and John H. Erikson (SVS, 1975). --- Schmemann.Org
  • In Memoriam - Vladimir Lossky: --- Schmemann.Org

• On Liturgical Theology:
  • Theology and Eucharist: --- Schmemann.Org
  • On the Question of Liturgical Practices: A famous and somewhat controversial 1973 letter about rubrics and the theological/historical reasons behind them. --- Jacob's Well
  • Clergy and Laity in the Orthodox Church: --- Schmemann.Org
  • Some Reflections on Confession: --- Schmemann.Org
  • Confession and Communion: --- Schmemann.Org
  • Fast and Liturgy: --- Schmemann.Org
  • Returning the World to God: On liturgical time. --- Creationism.Org
  • The Entrance of the Mother of God into the Temple: --- HTC
  • The Services of Christmas in the Orthodox Church: --- Schmemann.Org
  • Forgiveness Sunday: --- Schmemann.Org
  • The Liturgical Structure of Lent: --- Schmemann.Org
  • Sunday of Orthodoxy: --- Schmemann.Org
  • Saturday of Lazarus: --- Schmemann.Org
  • This is the Blessed Sabbath: On Holy Saturday matins. --- Schmemann.Org
  • Great and Holy Saturday: --- Schmemann.Org
  • Easter in the Liturgical Year: --- Schmemann.Org
  • Christ is Risen! --- Schmemann.Org

• On American Orthodoxy:
  • Problems of Orthodoxy in America: --- Jacob's Well
  • Episcopatus Unus Est: Written at the founding of SCOBA. --- Schmemann.Org
  • The Seventh Meeting of SCOBA: ---Schmemann.Org
  • Unless the Lord Builds the House...: On SVS. --- Schmemann.Org

• On Ecumenism
  • Notes on Evanston: Meaning the 1954 Evanston Assembly of the WCC. --- Schmemann.Org
  • The Orthodox Church, the World Council of Churches and Rome, (1959). St. Vladimir.s Seminary Quarterly, (3/Fall): 45-46. Very tied to events of 1959. --- Schmemann.org
  • Reply to the "Sorrowful Epistle": Meaning one of the epistles of Metropolitan Philaret of ROCOR. (On the same webpage is an attempted rebuttal from Fr. Michael Azkoul.) --- Orthodox Info

• On the Western Rite (which he accepted in principle, but did not favour in practice):
  • The Western Rite: --- Schmemann.Org
  • Some Reflections upon Dr. A. Sopko's "A Case Study": --- Schmemann.Org
  • Notes and Comments on the Western Rite: --- HTC