Alexander Schmemann's Concept of the Mission of the Church

Authors

• Timo Vasko

Abstract

The introduction of the article briefly reviews the history of Orthodox missions in different continents in the light of the research of three Orthodox missiologists: Anastasios Yannoulatos, Valentin Kozhuharov, and Elias Voulgaris. The article focuses on Alexander Schmemann’s (1921-1983) concept of the mission of the Orthodox Church. Schmemann is one of the most significant Orthodox theologians of the twentieth century, who entered deeply into the foundational questions of mission of missiology and liturgy. His influence was as a researcher of the challenge that secularization poses to the Church; he reaches significant conclusions, which as such also ecumenically transcend the Christian denominations. In this article I analyzed Schmemann’s missiology from the following perspectives:

• the Orthodox missionary imperative in an ecumenical frame of reference;
• ecclesiology in challenging ecumenical conversation;
• Church as sacrament making mission possible;
• the two movements of the Eucharistic rite;
• the objects and goals of the Church’s mission; sacrament and symbol in missionary work;
• the sacrality of the world and secularization as a challenge to the Church’s mission;
• Christ as the more perfect epiphany;
• joy as a witness in the world;
• the time of mission;
• consonance with the Gospel;
• The Church’s missions as a connecting with the sacraments of the Church.

By ‘missionary imperative’ in the Orthodox tradition Schmemann means the relationship which exists between (on the one hand) mission and faith (on the other), and the entire spiritual “vision” of life and of Orthodoxy. Thus mission theology is comprehensible as the fruit of the Church’s total ”being” Schmemann finds an answer to missiological questions in Orthodox ecclesiology; more precisely, in the teaching and experience of the Church. According to Schmemann, the Church is “heaven on earth.” The Church is an eschatological reality, because its essential function is to manifest and actualize in the world the eschaton, the foundational reality of salvation and redemption. The Eucharist and Baptism occupy a central place in missiology. The task of liturgy is to unite the sacraments to the Church, the world, and the Reign of God: that is, to the ecclesiological, cosmic and eschatological content and dimension. Schmemann does not provide simple answers and directions regarding what the task is of a Christian as a  witness in the world. A witness must employ all his or her human skills. In realizing the task of missions, all depends on the Holy Spirit. In this case we are witnesses to the joy, peace and new life the Holy Spirit brings. A person comes to participate in all this in the Church, which is the sacrament of the Reign of God.