Honoring Seraphim and Men
Jon Kennedy
July 1, 1997
When the Bolsheviks secured their grip on power in Russia and created the Soviet Union after the 1917 revolution, Russian Orthodoxy faced a seemingly impossible choice, and thus was split in its decision. Part of it became a church in exile, the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad (roca), for a time seeking refuge in Paris, in Shanghai, in New York, Sydney, Johannesburg, London, and San Francisco. The other part, the Russian Orthodox Church, attempted to accommodate the atheistic powers enough to do at least something for the millions of faithful in Communist bondage.
Inevitably, one side came to be characterized as pro-Communist or at least "soft on Communism," and the other as anti-Communist and hard-line conservative, even monarchist. Today, the Russian Orthodox Church in this country (roca) and the Orthodox Church in America (formerly the Russian Orthodox Church, in communion with the Moscow-based hierarchy) live in tension with one another, periodically discussing an ultimate reunion.
Meanwhile, two men—one born in San Diego in 1934 and raised a nominal Protestant, the other born a few months later, in January 1935 in Moscow to Jewish parents—have come to epitomize the two factions. Fr. Seraphim of roca is better-known in the West, where he long stood in staunch opposition to Russia's Communist regime.
And now, the heretofore little-known Eastern legacy of Alexander Men continues to gain attention. Appropriately for a church whose historic teachings emphasize the ultimate unity and sacredness of all things, the Orthodox Church today evidences a flexibility to move from adoration of a Seraphim to adoration of a Men.
Both Seraphim and Men were precocious as boys and possessed intellects that towered above their peers. ...
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