Michael Plekon

lisabeth Behr-Sigel is one of the giants of Eastern Orthodox theology in our time. I had the privilege of knowing her, corresponding with her, and visiting with her both in Paris and here in the US. It was a great gift to be in her presence, especially once we were no longer only her guests but her friends as well. My wife and I shared a glass or two of port with her in her flat on Boulevard Foch in Épinay-sur-Seine, before taking some photographs-one of which now graces the cover of the English version of her biography. 1 In an action that deeply moved me, she grasped my arm as were leaving, pointed to the priest's cross that a monk friend made for her, and told me that we would always be Lutherans-I had been a pastor in the Lutheran Church before entering the priesthood in the Orthodox Church. After her death, I was given that cross by her family. As Elisabeth said, in an interview the year before her death, throughout her life she had never abandoned her Protestant sisters and brothers. 2 I would say that she never abandoned her Catholic, Jewish, and Muslim sisters and brothers, nor those of other traditions either. Her Paris apartment was filled with icons, but also with photographs. When we visited, I asked her about her wall of friends and she reminisced about them. What a gathering of witnesses to the faith they were! Scattered throughout her essays are profiles and tributes to them. She was formed by some of the most creative and bold visionaries of the faith in the twentieth century. She was close to the great priest and theologian Sergius Bulgakov, writing a commentary on his work when still completing her studies. Elisabeth had as her pastor and friend the mystic and spiritual master Lev Gillet. She would write a comprehensive biography of him and endure the ups and downs of his complex, sometimes troubled personality. She was a good friend of theologian Paul Evdokimov and, like him, devoted herself to ecumenical work. Nor was she afraid to criticize some of Evdokimov's theoretical and romantic ideas about the complementarity and particular charisms of women and men. Elisabeth knew and worked with now-Saint Maria Skobtsova and her house of hospitality team. She and her husband, along with a circle of friends, joined Mother Maria in hiding and evacuating some of those who were the targets of Nazi annihilation in France-Jewish neighbors and others as well. The pioneer historian and proponent of a "new hagiography," George Fedotov, was her teacher; his innovative, pioneering look at the lives of saints shaped her own vision of holiness in life. And there were still others who helped make Elisabeth's life and perspective what they were, like the great theologian Vladimir Lossky and his wife, and the Kovalesky brothers.

It appears that a new spirituality is dawning. It aspires not to leave the world to evil, but to let the spiritual element in the creature come forth. A person who loves and is totally detached, naked to the touch of the eternal, escapes the contrived conflict between the spiritual and the material. His love of God is humanized and becomes love for all creatures in God. "Everything is grace," Bernanos wrote, because God has descended into the human and carried it away to the abyss of the Trinity. The types of traditional holiness are characterized by the heroic style of the desert, the monastery. By taking a certain distance from the world, this holiness is stretched toward heaven, vertically, like the spire of a cathedral. Nowadays, the axis of holiness has moved, drawing nearer to the world. In all its appearances, its type is less striking, its achievement is hidden from the eyes of the world, but it is the result of a struggle that is no less real. Being faithful to the call of the Lord, in the conditions of this world, makes grace penetrate to its very root, where human life is lived.

Concentrating on three thinkers in particular often considered part of the Paris School of contemporary Orthodox theology-Sergius Bulgakov, Maria Skobtsova, and Paul Evdokimovthe author reviews their understanding and especially their concrete practices of the "liturgy after the liturgy," that is, their application of the social implications of the gospel for the poor, dispossessed, and the suffering, especially in Europe during the Holocaust and after World War II. With reference to numerous others, including

The émigré Russian priest and theologian Alexander Schmemann (1921-1983) spent most of his career as a faculty member and dean of St. Vladimir's Orthodox Seminary in Crestwood, New York, not far from New York City. For over 30 years, in lectures, teaching and numerous publications, he presented the distinctive vision of the Eastern Church, mostly unknown to Western Christians, in which the church's liturgy was the primary source not only of its theology but of all other aspects of its life. I offer an overview of his work, with analysis and criticism and an assessment of his continuing significance.

Based on my book of the same title, the article argues that community is one of the most ancient and accurate ways of defining church. The study is of the decline and shrinkage of the “local church” of the parish, with reflections on the drift from organized religion and with a range of examples of congregations which have resurrected themselves. This renewal has involved reinvention of mission, replanting the the community, repurposing buildings and property, among other activities. Given the Paschal mystery of death and resurrection, these congregations along with several important writers’ voices, point paths forward for communities of faith.

A look at the decline and shrinkage of congregations and parish closures and why, but a review of many efforts in parish resurrection, through replanting in the neighborhood, reimagining mission, sharing property with community services during the week, recomittment to the basics of church life.

The concept of "alternations," from the work of Alfred Schütz and Peter L. Berger, is used to interpret the many shifts and changes in the life of Thomas Merton. 'Alternation' means transformation in one's vision and understanding, of God, the world, others and especially of oneself and one's purpose in life. Merton himself seems to document such alternations at several crucial points in his life and these are examined to see what the changes entailed and why they occurred. Alternation is as much a spiritual transformation as it is psychological and social. However, alternation means changes all through one's thinking and existence. Merton's alternations, as those is other spiritual writers, offer us possibilities in our own pilgrimages.

En reflechissant sur la vie spirituelle a travers les differentes epoques, Paul Evdokimov a remarque que les aspects fondamentaux du monachisme etaient egalement les bases pour toutes les Eglises du monde. Ce qui est interiorise chez Evdokimov est la vie evangelique essentielle dont les elements sont synthetises par les trois voeux ou affirmation du sacerdoce baptismal. La vision de la vie spirituelle proposee par Evdokimov comporte la plenitude de l'Eglise. Cette plenitude a ete preservee et adaptee a travers les siecles; en outre, on a pu exterioriser cette plenitude dans chaque endroit

On December 13, the Orthodox Church in America (OCA) celebrates the feast of the first canonized Orthodox saint of North America, St. Herman (1756-1817), the missionary-monk of Spruce Island, Alaska. A counter-cultural, subversive figure if there ever was one, Herman planted the church among the Aleuts for over forty years by prayer, by service to the suffering and by his personal holiness. Herman gavea good witness through love for God and for his Aleut neighbor, even in the force of opposition from the Russian-American Trading company and without tangible help from his home monastery, Valaamo, or his mother church in Russia. A line from the few writings left behind is usually placed on his icon and summarizes his life and holiness: "...from this day forth, from this hour, from this minute, love God above all..."

Actually the revolution is much closer than we think . The last band of free thinkers (Feuerbach and all related to him) has attacked or tackled the matter far more clearly than formerly, for if you look more closely, you will see that they actually have taken upon themselves the task of ...

Over forty years ago Nicolas Zernov, himself a product of the religious revival of the Russian emigration, produced a still important overview of its personalities and accomplishments. He called it a renaissance, and this it truly was - a wave that rose and broke over several generations, bringing theological creativity of diverse kinds, liturgical renewal and a profound rediscovery of the Church and Christian life. Yet this renaissance was anything but a purely internal event, for it was expressed in the desire to be engaged with the culture and society of the time, and in the commitment to seek for unity in the Church. The Russians; discovery of so many other brothers and sisters in the Lord from the Western Churches was one of the main impulses for this ecumenical dimension. It has been customary to connect the work of the thinkers of this renewal with their enforced flight from the Russian revolution and their subsequent encounter with the Catholic and Protestant clergy and laity who welcomed them. However, this overlooks the reality that many were already producing a renewal of religious thought and churchly practice before the revolution. In the nineteenth century, thinkers such as Khomiakov, Metropolitan St Filaret (Drozhdov) of Moscow, Soloviev and Bukharev had begun to write about the conciliar or ;sobornal nature of the Church, to probe the meaning of God's presence in the world in the Incarnation - the humanity of God; ( Bogochelovechestvo ) and to argue for dialogue between the Church and modern culture.

‘Out with history,’ Kierkegaard wrote in an 1848 journal entry, ‘in with the situation of contemporaneity’, he continued. ‘This is the criterion: as I judge anything contemporaneously, so am I judged. All this chatter afterwards is an illusion.’ In this entry, as in many others, Kierkegaard put forward his own concept of ‘contemporaneity’, while simultaneously levelling criticism both at the historicist impulse in nineteenth-century philosophy and theology and his contemporaries in Copenhagen. In numerous other entries he condemns his intellectual colleagues for envying his genius, failing to respect his worth and for subjecting him to endless abuse.

In the path of the legendary Elisabeth Behr-Sigel, she has not asked about whether women can have a place in the church. Rather Frost has written and lectured knowing full well there are decisive statuses and roles for women in the body of Christ, even if some are denied or have been lost in time. She is among a number of women in the academy and professions who are expressing the ideas, vision and hopes of women in the Eastern Church. They are found in groups like the Orthodox Theological Society in America, the International Orthodox Theological Association, St. Phoebe Center, Axia Women among others. I am reminded a great deal of the clarity and the courage of Elisabeth Behr-Sigel, who I had the great privilege of knowing, as I moved through Maternal Body. There is a wonderful coherence as Frederick Frost draws upon the feasts of Mary and their hymns and scriptural texts, the prayers of the Eastern Church tradition for miscarriage, the churching or reception of mothers back into the community, and other prayers which are part of baptism. In these she finds the power of the maternal body of Mary bringing into being the body of her son, the word incarnate, Jesus the Christ. That God should become part of time, space and the human condition through a mother bearing and then giving birth to, feeding, nurturing and teaching a child-how wonderful a celebration of women in the plan of God for the world. The Hebrew Bible's great women-Sarah, Rebecca, Leah, Hannah, Deborah, Judith, Esther among others, were prophets and witnesses of the God, Hannah even leaving her song about God's working through her to be echoed in Mary's Magnificat. Frost writes expressive, beautiful accounts of Mary's maternity as herself a mother and wife. Several icons, of the annunciation, of Joachim and Anna embracing, of the visitation of Mary to Elizabeth, of the birth of Jesus and of the mother of God nursing her son are reproduced so that Frost's reflections on how icons present theology in shape and color can actually be viewed. Her use of conception, pregnancy, birthgiving, postpartum and breastfeeding Yet at the same time, the rise of misogyny and disdain for the human body, the body of woman in particular, as well as for sex, celibacy coming to have a higher purity and value-these perspectives became planted in the liturgical texts not only for churching but even for miscarriage. Frost reveals how the prayer women who have miscarried is the same as for abortion. These prayers ask forgiveness for the woman's sin and defilement in making a child, bearing and birthing, even losing a pregnancy. She notes how in the west these extreme views have disappeared as older texts are no longer used. In the Eastern churches, with their adherence to the received texts and abhorrence of any change, have not experience such rethinking and change. Though there are some new prayers and modifications approved here and there by a few bishops. The force of Frost's writing is evident throughout, but especially in the postpartum chapter. She does not look away from the physical consequences of pregnancy and giving birth, the alteration of her body, even her hair. She had triplets, so this particular pregnancy and birth and the time after and parenting were formidable. This radical personal honesty pervades the whole book as does a sense of the gift of God's becoming part of all that we are, do our world and ourselves, in particular, our bodies. I await more writing from Professor Frost. She is a gift to the church as she is to her family and friends.

The prayer of pirogi making and other food adventures: the communion of community Communion and community " Communion " within the context of prayer immediately suggests the sacrament at the heart of the church's liturgical life. Perhaps the single most noticeable change in the worship of Christian communities in the last century has been the restoration of the Eucharist—the Lord's Supper or Holy Communion-to the center of the liturgical life of Christians. This is a reality spreading across the churches, even to those of " low " liturgical backgrounds and within the " emergent church " movement. St. Lydia's " dinner church " in Brooklyn, an outreach to young adults, gathers around shared supper in which the Eucharist is set, complete with readings, homily, prayer and the breaking of the bread and sharing of the cup. Many emergent church communities have restored the Eucharist to their gatherings each Sunday.1 Mainline Protestant denominations, in their new worship books, have made the complete service of Word and Sacrament/communion the norm for the Lord's Day. While the Eucharistic restoration is far from universal, most pastors say they are aiming at it in their communities. While there remains enormous diversity in the style of celebration, from the use of ancient liturgical forms to very informal styles, two aspects of the Eucharist as prayer standout—that material food and drink are the heart of the action and that the action is decisively and powerfully communal. Now, this book was to be a look at uncommon, that is, non-traditional, informal prayer. Why the invocation of clearly the most liturgically central and formalized rite, that of the Eucharist? After all one speaks of " high mass, " the elaborate liturgy of the Eastern Orthodox, Catholic and Anglican churches, the vestments, icons, candles, incense and chant. The communion and community I want to speak of here are related to liturgy. They are, I will argue, not just outgrowths of parish liturgy but liturgy in themselves. Holy Communion implies community, really requires it, communion among those who pray, and celebrate the liturgy and share the bread and cup. Communion exists, further, in that they share life together, talk to each other, eat together, share. Here I will look at a parish activity of food production, the making of pirogi, but also several other parish communal activities, all of them connected with food, with a shared meal. Almost all of them could be seen as fund raising ventures. But each, as it turns out, is truly a liturgy, obviously connected to the liturgy that the parish celebrates upstairs from the hall where the work of food prep or sharing takes place. It is the same people who worship upstairs.