Adventures in the Unseen: My Adventures in Africa
Adventures in the Unseen: The Silent Witness
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He
lives a few blocks away from the Church of the Holy Trinity and the Annunciation
in Oxford, where he and Bishop Kallistos (Ware) of Diokleia serve together
in a church that is home to two parishes, one belonging to the Patriarchate
of Moscow and the other to the Patriarchate of Constantinople. As Bishop
of Sergievo he helps to administer the Russian Orthodox Diocese of Sourozh,
headed by Metropolitan Anthony (Bloom). It was there at his residence
that we shared lunch with Bishop Basil Osborne, learning about his life
and the life of the Orthodox Church in England.
Like many before him who have made England their permanent home,
Bishop Basil is actually a transplanted American. He, was born in Alexandria,
Egypt in 1938, where his father and grandmother had also been born. One
of his earliest memories is of the ten-week journey to the US in 1941
on an Egyptian steamer with his mother and sister. His father had attempted
to go to the US earlier, in 1940, but the Germans were destroying all
shipping, so when his ship was stopped by a German U-boat all the passengers
were transported back to Europe and the ship was torpedoed. His father,
being of Czech background, was sent to Germany where he spent the rest
of the war. He is now 91 years old and still lives in Buffalo, NY where
the family eventually settled.
His parents were Protestant, but often like those who have no particular
church allegiance, it seemed that moving from one community one also meant
moving to a different church. The one he remembered best was the Presbyterian
church which he attended during high school, ages 13 to 16, though he
eventually dropped out of church life altogether until he went to college.
There he met an Orthodox priest, Fr. Michael Gelsinger who had a small
parish (the Church of the Theophany), and was professor of classics at
the University of Buffalo where he was doing undergraduate work in classics.
He took his course in New Testament Greek, which he taught at his home,
wearing his cassock, surrounded by icons. Fr. Michael was a very good
teacher and an interesting man, and so he started going to the Orthodox
Church and was eventually Chrismated there. Of course the first question
anyone gets in church is "Can you sing?" so he was in the choir
for several years until his undergraduate studies were completed.
A break occurred in those studies when he served in the army and
was sent to Europe. That's where he met Rachel whom he married in 1962.
Moving back to Buffalo, he finished his undergraduate degree and then
continued with a Ph.D. in Classics at the University of Cincinnati. He
was interested in liturgical poetry and in 1966 came to Oxford to study
for a year with Constantine Tripanis, the Professor of Byzantine Greek
at Oxford who was working on Romanos. This enabled him to be involved
in the life of the Russian parish and to meet Metropolitan Anthony (Bloom),
who ordained him a deacon in 1969. He was able to complete the research
while living in Oxford and spending four summers with the University of
Cincinnati on archeological digs in Greece.
His oldest son, Jacob (Jake) was born in 1970. He and Rachel were
planning to return to the US to look for work and so they had bought only
one way tickets. But a few days before leaving England, and with no clear
prospect of housing or work, they changed their minds and decided to buy
return tickets. They wanted to remain with Metropolitan Anthony and serve
the church in England. He called Metropolitan Anthony and told him that
they would be going to the US for the summer but were returning to England
without any place to go. A few weeks later, while they were already in
the US, he called to say that there was a place available for them. He
had arranged for them to live and work at St. Simeon's house, a boarding
school for Orthodox boys at Ampleforth College (a Roman Catholic private
school) that had been set up with a grant from the Vatican as an ecumenical
gesture, under the direction of Fr. Vladimir (now Bishop Basil) Rodzianko,
whose assistant he would become. They stayed in a caravan with a coal
stove for heat, then moved to a dilapidated forester's cottage.
In 1973, their life took another turn. The Oxford parish petitioned
Metropolitan Anthony to have him ordained as their priest, and the Metropolitan
then asked if he was willing. It was a difficult decision, but they decided
to accept. A few days later they received a phone call from the University
of Cincinnati. A member of the Classics department had just died: would
he return and take a position there? He decided that he would not and
was ordained in 1973 on the feast of the Protection.
Today in Oxford there is a single church building and a single
schedule of shared services for the Russian and Greek communities, but
there are two communities, two parish councils and two diocesan bishops
[Metropolitan Anthony and Archbishop Gregorios]. But originally the parish
was part of the Russian Diocese of Sourozh. Monthly Greek services had
begun in 1966 with the arrival of then Fr. Kallistos, but it was not until
1972 that the relationship between the Greek and Russian communities was
formalized. Both care for the church building, but the property is actually
owned by St. Gregory and St. Macrina House and granted in perpetuity to
the Orthodox Community in Oxford. Neither community has equity in the
building. In this way the joint character of the parish is safe-guarded.
The Russian parish provided housing and a stipend of 35 pounds
a month, with the promise that they would give more as they were able.
And indeed, over a period of ten years they did just that, so that he
was able to gradually do the pastoral work full-time and cut back completely
on the other part-time work that he needed to do to support his family:
editing, Greek translations, and a lot of gardening.
In 1975 Rachel became ill with cancer. At the time his sons Jake
were 5 and Michael 3 -- a daughter Mary would be born the following year.
Rachel, after continued suffering, died in 1990. He was consecrated a
bishop in 1993.
What about the life of the Orthodox churches in England? They,
in fact, have a fairly recent history with most of them being formed after
the Second World War. Before that there was a very small Russian community
and a few Greek communities in London and at ports around England. But
there was a lot of growth in the 50's and 60's especially with the influx
of Cypriots. Eighty-five per cent of the Orthodox in England are probably
Cypriot Greek in origin. Then there are Russians, Romanians, Georgians,
Bulgarians, Antiochians, Copts, Ethiopians and others.
The Diocese of Sourozh has understood its mission in several ways.
First, it has recognized the need to deal with the Russian community,
and secondly, to see that the Orthodox Church develops a place in England
in its own right, not simply as an ethnic community. It has been noted
by many that when Metropolitan Antony speaks to non-Orthodox he does not
begin by talking about Orthodoxy--he talks instead about the Gospel and
lets them decide if that has anything to do with Orthodoxy. He insists
that mission be gradual. And he is willing to run risks with small parishes.
Admittedly, this can sometimes have the appearance of no one "doing
anything" about mission. But Bishop Basil feels that, "We're
growing as fast as we can -- any faster would be hard to assimilate."
He says that he is generally opposed to mass conversions: "We deal
with people one by one, partly because of the need to assimilate them
and maintain continuity. But we can afford to take risks, we don't have
to be right all the time. In business if you're right 51% of the time
you're doing all right. And mission does not simply depend on our activity.
God's involvement is much more than what we're doing as individuals."
What about the formation and life of the clergy? He felt that,
first, "it was important in knowing simply how to do the services
in a way that's Orthodox." This is especially important given that
most of their clergy, like most of their people generally, come from non-Orthodox
backgrounds. And knowing how to deal with people who have not grown up
in the Church is essential. "But," he added, "this is not
a question of rubrics: it's being there in the right way, relaxed, at
home. This is hard to pin down, especially for converts." The second
concern is the relationship between priest and parish. "It is so
easy to impart a clericalism," he remarked, "’this is my parish
and we'll do it this way,’ instead of doing it together. It takes time
to learn how to do this. The main task of the priest is enabling the community
to pray together. But there is also the need for the priest to listen
to others in his parish." He observed that in his case, there were
many wise voices in the Oxford parish: the Zernovs (Nicholas and Militsa),
the Obolenskys (Dimitri) and others. Thirdly, there is need for the priest's
own conversion. [Note: It should be stated that in the Diocese of Sourozh,
candidates for ordination normally come from within the parish they have
been serving as laymen for some years. They are ordained to serve this
same community as deacons and priests after a period of guidance by the
bishop and fellowship with other diocesan clergy. There is no seminary
in England, though some candidates have had formal theological education
at Orthodox seminaries else where, at university and/or through Anglican
clergy training programs at some point. Almost all have full-time work
besides their parish ministry.]
Finally, what can be done when priests become discouraged? Here
Bishop Basil’s reply rings true for all clergy, no matter where we live.
"Priests often become discouraged. Especially in small parishes,
such as we have here, the priests may take the whole burden of the parish
upon themselves. And there are parishes which are quite happy to let someone
bear the whole burden alone. This is wrong and can be disastrous both
for the priest and for the parish. Most of our priests have other full-time
work and this can be overwhelming. It's okay when you’re young--30 or
40--but by the time you're 55 it's hard to keep going. The strain can
be unbearable. There's a need to spread the burden of parish life. But
priests, too, need to have a greater willingness to let the community
carry part of the load. Finally, we need to feel that the presbytery is
a college, where we bear one another's burdens. No one ought to feel that
they are alone."
Bishop Basil is one of us. But in him, we Orthodox in America can
recognize not simply one of our own countrymen, but also a sensitive,
intelligent, and articulate hierarch who seeks both to present the Orthodox
Faith in ways that meet the pastoral needs of his flock and the spiritual
hunger of those in his adopted country which he has made his own.
Bishop
Basil is the editor of Sourozh, published quarterly by the Russian
Patriarchial Diocese of Sourozh.
Several
collections of his sermons, as well as the works of other Orthodox writers
living in England are available
·
Bishop Basil of Sergievo,
The Light of Christ: Sermons for the Great Fast (enlarged 2nd edition)
paperbound, 98 pp., $7.95 ($9.50 including postage)
Explores the value of Lent as an opportunity to return to God,
how the fast is observed at a personal level and where it should lead.
Taking us through the texts appointed for the Lenten cycle, including
the preceding weeks, these concise yet profound sermons point to their
deeper spiritual relevance for each of us today. Highly valued for Lenten
study groups and as year-round spiritual reading.
·
Bishop Basil of Sergievo,
Speaking of the Kingdom: The Coming of the Eighth Day
paperbound, 87pp., $7.95 ($9.50 including postage)
In 21 sermons through the Church year, Bishop Basil takes familiar
Gospel passages and draws from them fresh insights into the mysteries
of the Eighth Day, the Kingdom of Heaven which Christ speaks. Sermons
include "Freedom in the Kingdom," "The Sabbath and the
Eighth Day," "Preaching the Gospel to All Creation," "The
Sabbath and the Eighth Day," "Preaching the Gospel to All Creation,"
"To Forgive is to Receive." A valuable resource for preaching
and a treasure-house for Orthodox and non-Orthodox Christians in their
meditation on the Gospels.
·
Fr. Sergei Hackel, The
Orthodox Church (Revised and updated edition)
paperbound, 64pp. $6.95 ($8.50 including postage)
Ideal introduction to the Orthodox Church, describing its history,
beliefs, and worship, with index and suggestions for further reading.
Extensively illustrated with black and white photographs of contemporary
church life around the world. Since its original publication in 1971,
this introductory study has enjoyed a reputation for its clarity, authority,
and insight. Particularly useful for initial inquirers, for missions,
and for those wanting to learn about various Christian traditions. For
teenagers and adults.
·
Bishop Kallistos of Diokleia,
The Seed of the Church: The Universal Vocation of Martyrdom
paperbound, 24 pp., $3.95 ($5.00 including postage)
"What is it that changes suffering from a destructive
force, that transforms a violent death into an act of martyrdom?"
In this study, well-known Orthodox theologian and writer Bishop Kallistos
(Timothy Ware) explains how martyrdom is to be interpreted in the Christian
tradition, unfolding to the reader how it applies to each member of the
Church in our "everyday" lives.
·
Militza Zernov, In My
Father’s House: Freedom and Discipline in Orthodox Worship
22 pp., $4.00 including postage
These
books are available from:
St.
Stephen’s Press
P.O. Box 467
Mount Tabor, NJ 07878
+1.201.627.0234 -- please mention that your read about them on the
OCA Website
Fr. John Jillians
is a priest of the Diocese of New York and New Jersey, Orthodox Church
in America, and is currently on study leave in England.
Fr.
John Shimchick is the pastor of Church
of the Holy Cross, Medford, NJ
and editor of Jacob's Well, the Newspaper of the Diocese of New
York and New Jersey, Orthodox Church in America.
From Jacob's
Well
Newspaper of the Diocese of New York and New Jersey
Orthodox Church in America
Winter 1997
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