RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH OF ST. SERAPHIM OF SAROV
Sea Cliff, New York

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Interview of Fr. Serafim Gan
"We in Russia and Abroad" Magazine, Number 11, November 2006

Educating with a love for the Church and the earthly motherland

Priest Serafim Gan, rector of the St. Seraphim of Sarov parish in Sea Cliff (New York), personal secretary to His Eminence Metropolitan of North America and New York Laurus, and a member of the ROCOR committee for work with the youth, answers questions about Orthodox youth in the Church Abroad.

— Fr. Serafim, working with the youth has become one of the most important topics of the All-Diaspora Council, after the question of restoring communion with the Moscow Patriarchate. What prompted this, why is the youth attracting such attention to itself?

— I think that the youth deserves such attention because it is called to open up new paths for the spreading of the Gospel. Without the youth, we would remain stagnant in modern society instead of advancing. If we attract and unite the youth, especially those who burn with a love for God and a desire to serve the Church, then we will be capable of great deeds for the Church and Orthodoxy. In particular the Church Abroad, spread throughout the entire world, can fulfill this mission - to help spread Orthodoxy and its great heritage through all peoples.

— How does the youth come to faith and end up in the Church Abroad?

— We have a diverse youth. There are young people with Russian roots who were raised in the Russian Orthodox spirit, there are those who are of Russian origin but were not raised this way and came to the Church later. Some of them arrived from Russia as not being churchgoing, and here abroad they became churchgoing, finding in our churches a piece of their motherland on foreign soil. There are also local people, who came via different paths to Orthodoxy, who actively participate in Church life.

Our Church must work with youth that is raised differently. The task is interesting and at the same time very complicated. Additionally, this is how we can complete one of our missions - to transfer the heritage which we received from our Russian ancestors. They, leaving Russia, preserved outside of its borders the pre-revolutionary Rus' and its heritage, which many people were deprived of in our motherland. Before us is a unique task - to transfer the Russian Orthodox heritage to the whole world. This is what we are aspiring towards.

— According to your opinion, what are the basic problems of the youth in the Church Abroad? Is it necessary to counteract its assimilation into the local cultural strata? If so, why?

— Assimilation is one of the basic problems of our youth, as it threatens one's distancing from the Church. Orthodoxy and "Russianness" are preserved within the Church. Experience proves that without it, it is possible to preserve neither the faith, the language, nor the culture. If we have a young person who considers themself Russian, then that is most likely a churchgoing person who takes part in parish life. I was told how my grandfather, protopriest Rostislav Gan, a priest in Shanghai under St. John (Maximovich) and later in Harbin and Australia, always taught the youth "If you participate in Church life, for instance sing in the choir or serve in the altar, you will never lag behind in the Russian language nor will you leave from the Church"

Assimilation remains a big problem because we must live under the conditions of a non-Orthodox environment: a secular society which offers a different world view, and does so very artfully. Because of this, parents often have a hard time raising their children the "Russian way" and preventing the influence of a western secular upbringing.

— Could you specify what is this so called secular western upbringing, how does it differ from the Orthodox way, especially in America?

— In America and the west in general comfort and self-centeredness is preached. Drug abuse, alcoholism, and non-marital relations are very widespread. This is preached and permitted as something natural. It is very difficult to resist this influence because such a style of life and worldview is forcefully pushed onto us by our society. The Church has a hard time fighting against this.

— Father, you grew up in America (California), you know many people who were also born in the USA and raised in the American school system. There a non-religious view on life is taught, often with a secular, humanist approach. In America students are confronted with the issue of same sex marriages and other non-Orthodox approaches to life. How does an Orthodox person fight against this, what can one do not to feel alone? How does one come to know the truth of Orthodoxy, and not fall into the temptations of the surrounding people who grow up here?

— These temptations truly do swarm our youth. But if they have Russian Orthodox friends and Orthodox friends in general whom they socialize with, if they have kind, good leaders with whom they can openly share their problems and thoughts, then one can expect that they will preserve their faith and not walk away from the commandments of God. If a person doesn't have this possibility, then problems begin. I remember that I was disturbed by various temptations which I had to confront in school and society. But I tried to guide myself with the opinions of my parents and spiritual leaders which always directed me to the right path, engendering to me a love towards the Church, Orthodoxy, towards our motherland.

I think this is most important — that the youth have people who give an example of a kind life, an example of love, one who can speak to them in their language, understand them, answer their questions, and simply devote time to them. This is very important, because when we work with youth and socialize with them, we give them a seed from which a good fruit can emerge in the future. I consider communication to be most important. We shouldn't be afraid of our youth, and they shouldn't be afraid of us. Working with the youth, we will receive more joys than problems. If we will be devoting more time and energy to them then of course their world view will eventually become Orthodox, and at the same time we are combating the spirit of secularism in society.

— Russia also has problems similar to the ones you mentioned. Is there a big difference in where a person grows up? In the West, or in Russia, where its more difficult to reach a comfortable level of life?

— Godlessness was promoted in Russia, and because of that Orthodoxy and the Church is life critical for her. In this is Russia's salvation. With us, assimilation is tied to a falling away from the Church. If a Russian person becomes either an American, or a Frenchman, or an Australian, he usually falls away from the Church. Our culture is entirely saturated with the spirituality of holy Rus', Orthodoxy, and because of this we try to raise our youth in Russian schools that are led by our parishes, so that they would stay Orthodox. In Russia there is no such problem, because Russians stay Russian regardless of western influence. The most important is to teach the faith, to do an outreach to the people, to uncover for the youth the light of Orthodoxy. We here have a double assignment, to teach our youth not only Orthodoxy, but our culture — otherwise they do not stay in the Church, and they are consequently subjected to many troubles and misfortunes.

— If a young person is not churchgoing, who's fault is it? The parents, the priest, or the person who has a free will and decides to join the Church or not?

— I think regardless of the fact that parish schools exist and flourish, we don't reach out enough towards the people. We must speak more frequently to them in a language they can understand, specifically to expose them to Orthodoxy in a way that they can understand. I think, unfortunately, that we insufficiently explain the truth of our faith, the divine services. People come to the services and understand very little. This concerns the language of the service as well as the functions in the service. We have to explain everything, what are the vestments, why does a priest bless this way, why does he say these prayers, why is this and that done during the service. By my personal experience, although minimal, I can say this has an effect — people develop an interest. They begin asking more questions, begin to read more, and already stand in church with awareness.

We must always remember that the divine service is a spiritual school. It is given to us not only for prayer, but also has a great educational value. We are taught everything during the divine service: church history, the lives of saints, the Holy Tradition, the Holy Scriptures. All of this is learned by us in this "school of piety", as St. Tikhon of Zadonsk called the divine services. We need to explain more what is going on during the service, then this will keep the people in the Church and they will begin to see all the beauty, the spiritual richness of the Orthodox divine services.

—  I've personally met people that were not only members of the Orthodox Church but participated in youth organizations. Several of them grew up through our youth camps. Many of whom I've known stayed as participants, but there are also those who went on their own path into American society and became less religious or completely non religious. Where can we see the fault here — that there wasn't a positive example given? Why do we see people who went along this path and didn't remain a part it?

—  Perhaps there is no need to blame anyone. The most important thing is that the seed was planted. If they were in a Russian scout camp or a Russian Orthodox patriotic camp, in any one of the camps which existed abroad, then I think that the seed was planted and it will at some point bring fruit. Of course if there was any unpleasantness which they encountered in these camps, if there were some sins committed against them, this is an entirely different matter. But if people worked honestly, tried hard and with love to expose the youth to the truth of faith, spoke of the history and culture of Russia, then this will at some point bring forth fruit. I believe in this, and I've witnessed more than once how such people after many years returned to the Church.

— In the Orthodox Church of America there is an opinion which is not foreign to some parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad as well — if people cannot be preserved as Russian, then they can be preserved as Orthodox. It is possible to "Christify" in an Orthodox way American culture and thus solve the problem. What do you think about this opinion?

— In America there's a different problem. The children of the Orthodox Church of America are the descendants of those people who left Russia long before the revolution. I see that for them the most important thing is Orthodoxy, because it is impossible to resurrect the language and culture. But it is still necessary to expose them to their roots, to our culture. Our writers such as Dostoyevsky said the same things as the Holy Fathers did, only using secular language. Therefore I think that this also needs to be offered. When speaking of assimilation, I don't have in mind keeping our Church and youth in isolation.

We shouldn't be dissolving into our local surroundings but need to "reach out" to the locals and share the richness that we were given. All the founders of the Church Abroad said that it has several objectives. The first — to preserve Russia and Russian Orthodoxy outside the borders of the motherland. Second — to serve Russia and the Russian Church being in the West. This was particularly important when Russia was imprisoned by the atheists, and the Church Abroad spoke the truth about Russia, spoke of the people's sufferings, the sufferings of the martyrs. But there is also another mission — the spread of Orthodoxy. It is not a secret that Russian Orthodoxy is the most traditional. The Russian Church was able to preserve its piety, and because of this it has remained the most traditional Orthodox Church. Perhaps God has decided for us to stay abroad for the purpose of sharing traditional Orthodoxy with the whole world. At the same time I would not say that we are some sort of fanatics, we have a healthy, sober, traditional Orthodoxy. We always had a sober view of everything, and we were never afraid of contact with everyone, were not afraid of dialog with other Churches and always held to those principles which would not hurt the Orthodox teachings on faith.

— What did the All-Diaspora Council decide would be the foremost goals of the Church in working with the youth, and how does the council on the youth intend to carry them out?

— I'll speak concretely about what was decided in May. During the All-Diaspora Council there were several reports concerning the youth. As a result the Council of Bishops decided to create a committee devoted to working with the youth under the Bishop's Synod. Several priests and laity are a part of this committee, including myself, and we decided to begin with something small. Our main problem as I see it is that we have a lot of youth, but we are suffering from a lack of contact. Its time to unify our youth via communication and contact.

Through the blessing of the Synod that we already have, we intend to organize a pilgrimage next year to the Holy Land, specifically to the shrines of Jerusalem and Palestine, as well as the shrines and historical places of Egypt. We intend to attract to this pilgrimage representatives of the youth from all eparchies of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad from Europe, North and South America, and Australia. This is our first mission — to organize a pilgrimage. Its obvious that it will have a lot of participants, hopefully we'll have about two hundred young Orthodox people. The pilgrimage will give them an opportunity to socialize, to get to know each other. It is specifically on the base of this pilgrimage that we intend to build our work with the youth.

We want to hear from the youth itself what it wants to get from the Church, how it wants to serve it and what can we do in order to realize this. It is important for us to understand what we can undertake to truly bring into the Church that part of the youth which very rarely attends Church or is not tied to it, which had left, which doesn't participate in Church life. We want to find out what it is necessary to do to bring the good news, Orthodoxy, the Gospel to these young people, as to those who are already within the gates of the Church.

— What other projects are there outside of a pilgrimage to the Holy Land?

— We are aiming in the future, depending on how the first experiment goes, to organize a pilgrimage to Russia. I think it wouldn't be a bad idea to begin with the shrines of Moscow and the Golden Ring, and later we can conduct pilgrimages to other Russian lands. We plan to conduct such pilgrimages once or twice a year.

— There has to be some kind of financial support because such journeys are expensive. How does that issue stand?

— Thank God there are people who are ready to help the Church, especially in such kind deeds as the education of our youth, because for us this is a very difficult question. For us and for the people this is very important, consequently I think it will be not difficult to attract the support of our benefactors.

— At the last meeting of the Bishop's Synod the Act of Reinstatement of Communion was accepted. How will this affect the work with the youth of our diaspora, and naturally the collaboration with the Church in Russia?

—The Act of canonical unity is an act between our Church and the Moscow Patriarchate. In addition the Synod instructed our committee for discussions with the Moscow Patriarchate to meet with the Moscow committee for the purpose of agreeing upon the details of the festive singing of the Act and the order of entering communion of both halves of the Russian Church. It is assumed that the committees will meet at the end of October (the committee met on the 24th-26th of October in Keln — Ed.) and then in the beginning of December. From the 6th to 8th of December there will be another meeting of the Bishop's Synod where the materials of the committees will be analyzed and subsequent decisions will be made depending on what the committees have to offer.

I think that the approval of the Act by our Synod says that the reinstatement of communion is not far, and one can assume that this will already happen next year. I am almost certain that the reestablishment of canonical relations will open to us new paths of collaboration with the Church in Russia, because we will be able to offer her our experience of educating the youth, and we ourselves are ready to learn much from her. In general it would be very healthy to simply socialize with the youth. Our youth should socialize with the youth in Russia and have an opportunity to visit shrines and historical places, to actively participate in Church life, in the sacraments. I think that this opens a new page in the life of the Russian Church, it will only strengthen it, and naturally it will bolster our youth.

— What kind of difficulties can arise from the contact of Russian and diaspora youth?

— Of course the greatest difficulty is in the fact that the youth of the West was raised differently. This is the main problem and obstacle. But I think that this is a barrier that can be overcome via contact. The more people will have contact, the less barriers there will be. In particular, if they will be praying together, communing together, venerating Russian shrines together, and learning about each other more through such contact, there won't be any serious problems. But problems always exist in any good deed, because this is a spiritual law: there will always be temptation in good deeds.

— Sometimes we experience such difficulties: we were all raised in youth camps and Sunday schools in the Russian spirit. However when our young generation encounters the current situation in Russia many fall into a feeling despondency. Modern Russia is not by far the country that our parents would like to see, remembering old Russia and, perhaps, remembering it better than it was in reality.

—Russia always had its problems, but if a young person, a Russian Orthodox person, who was born and grew up abroad, and heard about the old Russia from his ancestors has loved it on that basis of what was heard and seen, then this person should be ready to accept modern Russia for what it is. This will express a real love for her. I have had many happy meetings with young people who were raised very differently from myself. Although I was born in America, then served in Australia and then again returned to America, I consider myself Russian, and we were raised in this spirit where for one English word we'd get a spanking. But nonetheless, having looked back, my brother, sister, and I are very grateful to our parents for such an upbringing.

In Russia one often meets people who were not raised in a Russian Orthodox spirit. You don't understand, simply don't understand, then you get despondent. But on the other end, you feel that they by their nature are Russian Orthodox and you see how their soul opens up when you begin talking to them.

How many times I was in Russia and remember how I ended up encountering people on the street. I was stopped by young people who asked me for advice or simply wanted to share their joys or sorrows. I remember one person who stopped me and said "I was just told that tomorrow they're sending me to Chechnya, what should I do?". I see that this person was not churchgoing, but he was most likely baptized, and I was happy that he specifically chose to speak to a priest. I suggested that he confess, commune, and go with God's protection to Chechnya. Many such meetings were in Russia, meetings with people who can't be called churchgoing but are searching for something, they have some inner desire towards God. This made me happy. There is a hope that Russia will arise and the Russian people will eventually come to the Church, especially the youth.

— I remember my own arrival to Russia in 1990, I was 14-15 years old then, it was still the USSR. I met many young people who were essentially religious, but there were also non-religious people who were beginning their path towards the Church. I thought, for instance, how come they don't read this prayer the way we do and do everything a bit differently? This began to irritate me at first. From the other end, they noticed that I was not exactly that person which they considered the ideal of the Russians abroad. I admit that I've experienced a serious western influence on my world view. Our young people don't always like to be introspective and see that they are not the ideal Russian Orthodox in exile, yet they don't wish to abandon their western influences.

—This is the first thing that I sensed when I visited Russia. Although I consider myself a Russian and love Russia with all my heart, in socializing with people in Russia I understood that I was raised in the West. However, on the other end, I don't think that it's so bad if a person understands this, and Russian people shouldn't be intimidated by this - this is normal, natural. But inside of us they must see first and foremost a Russian person, not an American or a European. For the most part we love Russia more than the countries in which we live. I recently understood that my historical motherland is Russia, but on the other end my motherland is the Russian emigration together with everything that it fought for and strived towards. This is very dear to me. I don't feel myself to be a western person, but at the same time I sometimes feel myself to be a foreigner in Russia. This happens because of the way your compatriots treat you, they sort of don't accept you.

It also turns out that in the West we are also not accepted as well. There's no place to set root. I think that most likely we are all children of the Russian emigration. That means we are called to serve Russia, being located in the West.

— In conclusion, what kind of people do you see the future of the Church Abroad in?

— In all those who consider themselves the children of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, because the Church Abroad — as I already said — has children that left Russia and built "Russia abroad". The Church Abroad also ministers to their children and grandchildren. The Church Abroad also ministers to the new émigrés, several of whom were churchgoing in Russia, the majority of which became churchgoing here. At the same time our Church ministers to "foreigners", if one could call them such, local people - Americans, Europeans, Australians - who became Orthodox. The future of the Church Abroad is in all these people. It is interesting that local people of non-Russian origin are in particular attracted to the Russian spirit of our Church, in other words the heritage that we received from the pre-revolutionary Russian Church. It is mandatory to minister to all of these people in an appropriate church like and pastor like way, then I am certain we will secure our future.

This interview was translated from a Russian original.


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