Father Schmenann’s Legacy: Leadership is Influence

by Albert S. Rossi, PhD

Thirty-four years ago I converted to Orthodoxy at the St. Vladimir’s Seminary Chapel. Alive, thriving and larger-than-life, Fr. Alexander Schmemann was an authentic leader. Leadership is influence and he had a life-altering influence on many, many persons, far and near.

I think, among his many contributions, is the distilled legacy of his transformative influence upon the persons who came in contact with him, personally or through his talks and books. He changed people. Particularly, he transformed so many young seminarians into priests who carried the Lord’s message, the message he articulated to multitudes. Multitudes.

And he influenced so many outside the Orthodox Church. I recall listening to an audio tape of Thomas Merton’s last conference to his novices at the Roman Catholic Trappist Monastery where he was leaving as Novice Master to live in a Hermitage on the property. I am always fascinated by the last words of someone, the summation of what they want to leave as their own legacy. Merton said that he had a box with a book for each novice and he asked each of them to read the book, twice. I recall pausing the tape and wondering what book Merton would hold in such high regard. Who in Roman Catholicism or anywhere could be the author of the treasure Merton wanted to leave behind? He didn’t leave one of his own many books. No. The book he gave to the Roman Catholic Trappist novices was Fr. Schmemann’s book, For the Life of the World.

That little anecdote holds a lifetime of meaning for me. How could one calculate the influence of such a moment? Who could find the metric to measure the lasting impact upon each novice and all whom they would influence? How many more such intimate and compelling narratives are hidden in the history of Fr. Schmemann’s lasting influence on those who are trying to live For the Life of the World?

Thirty years is an all-too-short amount of time to try to discern Fr. Schmemann’s legacy. I think we are just beginning to appreciate how Christ used him to transform so many of us. I, for one, am eternally grateful for all he did to my spirit.