Opening of the Alexander Men Conference 2004

From AlexanderMen

This from the Alexander Men Conference in New York 2004. See also Reflections on Father Men by Dean John Erickson of St Vladimir's. Here, Dean Mackey speaks at the opening of the conference and relates the vision of A.B. Simpson founder of the college to that of Fr Men.

Friends, it is a privilege to stand before you today at this conference built around the life of a most distinguished man – Father Alexander Men [1935-1990]. I was introduced to the life of Father Men by Bishop Seraphim almost two years ago through the gift of a book. Immediately I was taken with the breadth of the spirituality of this contemporary Christian martyr. He, like Bishop Seraphim, and many of the other Russian Orthodox people I encounter are so very broad compared to the stereotypical “Orthodox” person. I was once again corrected – and pleasingly so. It is good for an Anglican [and Anglicans are generally known for their elitist know-it-all posture] to learn something new and to be stretched beyond his stereotypical model as well. And so an intrigue with Father Men began. When the idea of this conference was broached by Bishop Seraphim, I was most ready to accept and to welcome you to Nyack College in New York City - but more on this in a few moments.

I was captivated following my own reading of and contemplation on the life of Father Men, to encounter the statement by Herb and Maureen Klassen, “Convergences between Anabaptism and Russian Orthodoxy may be found in the life and teaching of this Russian Christian leader.” Here the reason for this speaker’s own resonance with Father Men was defined. Though today an Anglican, I was raised in the Methodist tradition and subsequently served two decades within an Anabaptist movement. Today you are gathered at Nyack College – an institution historically reflecting the same Anabaptism focus. Father Men would be comfortable here with many of the foci of this place.

Nyack College was founded in 1882 not many blocks from where we meet today. It is historically regarded as the first Bible institute in North America, though this distinction if often overshadowed by the more famous Moody Bible Institute in Chicago which was founded soon after. But Nyack was the first. As the Missionary Training Institute, it was the ecumenical brain child of Dr. Albert B. Simpson, recently resigned pastor of the Thirteenth Street Presbyterian Church in Manhattan. Simpson had a passion to see each person have a personal encounter with the risen, ascended Lord Jesus Christ. This drove everything he did and impacted the entire world beginning with the City of New York. From a strong denominational separation into a recognition of Christian believers in all traditions, Simpson soon gathered around him people who were Roman Catholic, Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopalian, and only God knows from where else. It was an enthusiastic band of ready disciples. Simpson had self-diagnosed the Church and made necessary corrections. This is at the heart of what I see in Father Men as well.

Father Thomas Hopko writes in Speaking the Truth in Love, “some of the strongest anti-ecumenical voices in Easter European orthodox churches are recent converts to Orthodoxy. My impression is that converts generally tend to be hyper-critical of the non-Orthodox and hardly critical of Orthodoxy in any way because of their gratitude in finding the Orthodox Church. Those raised Orthodox, on the other hand, with no less gratitude for being Orthodox than converts, are often more ready and able to recognize and criticize Orthodoxy’s institutional weaknesses and failures, even feeling a certain duty to do so, while affirming, rejoicing in, and at times, even being envious of the good things of God that exist outside the Orthodox Church.” This is a reflection of Father Alexander Men’s approach to his Church and the work of God as a whole. In About Christ and the Church, Father Men writes, “the fullness of the Church is manifest in brotherly unity, in that which existed from the beginning.” Further in the same work, Father Men aptly infers, “In the New Testament we find the words, ‘there must be differences among you.’ What does this mean? This means that Christianity is one in spirit, one at its root, one in its theandric, mystical foundation, but on other levels, human, intellectual, social – diverse.” Here is Orthodox Alexander Men echoing the Evangelical A. B. Simpson. It is this-precisely that brings us to this place today. It is this wideness and broadness which so endears the life and theology of Alexander Men to me and to so many.

Father Hopko in his chapter “Orthodoxy and Ecumenism” sums up the opportunity of Ecumenism, of Father Men’s theandric, mystical foundation, this way: “Ecumenism…provides opportunities for Orthodox to meet good people who are not in their Orthodox Churches. The Orthodox can come to know that Protestants and Catholics and members of the Oriental Orthodox Churches, for all the errors and mistakes of their respective churches, can be real disciples of Jesus Christ. They can see this for example, in their genuine praising of Christ, their devoted Christian scholarship, their acts of mercy for the poort, their care for the needy, and their service to suffering people (including Orthodox people) in Christ’s name.” This emphasis maintains the integrity of one’s tradition while at the same time not impugning the integrity of another Christian tradition. Errors and weaknesses notwithstanding.

Father Men championed just such a Christianity. Given to the need of each person to encounter personally the living Christ; stressing the integrity of the disciplined Christian life; and eschewing the Modern worlds damnable individualism and celebrating and requiring the communal nature of Christian living all show Father Men as a friend, at heart, to the evangelical (or the Anabaptist as the Klassens say). As an historian of A. B. Simpson and the evangelical movement in New York City of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, I would affirm this is the place of the founder of this Institution as well. I am convinced that Simpson and Men would find each other deeply in agreement.

Finally, it is the Christological incomprehensibility that captivates me when reading and studying Father Men. Here too, he would have found a soul mate in Simpson. That Christ is the prime and defining focus of our faith and that this Christ, though knowable is ineffable, infinite, and eternal, is readily seen in Father Men’s words, “The personality of Christ remains unexhausted; it supercedes all conventional measures. This is precisely the reason that each epoch and each person can find in Him something new and pertinent to them.” Simpson’s poetic application of this would go this way:

My first encounters with Orthodox believers came when I first visited the Holy Lands some two and a half decades ago. Then a personal encounter with the Drs. Dana and Sue Talley in the mid-1990s renewed my sense of relationship with these persons in Christ. Today, the Talleys are colleagues, and through them I have met and fellowshipped with Bishop Seraphim. He, in turn, introduced me to the life and work of Father Men. So here is a boy raised in the Methodist tradition, now a licensed worker of the Christian & Missionary Alliance which owns Nyack College; and an Anglican priest celebrating the ecumenical life and work of a contemporary martyr, Father Alexander Men.

Ultimately there is a tenor here, not a definition – an ethos, not a mandate. Christ in the midst – Christ who has done all that needs to be done for those who cannot do for themselves. Christus pro nobis always precedes Christus in nobis since God’s act of forgiveness rests entirely on the divine act of atonement propter Christum.

So in the name of Christ, welcome to Nyack College. On behalf of Dr. David E. Schroeder, President and Dr. David. F. Turk, Vice President for Academic Affairs, make this a place of your own for these hours. Feel at home. I must acknowledge Ms Hannah Guada, my Administrative Assistant who has ably worked with Bishop Seraphim to see that all is cared for here. She is your logistics contact through tomorrow. And though we must pay for our lunches each day, today and tomorrow, it is our honor as Nyack College to offer you the dinner this evening as our gift.

In Christ, let us continue in the spirit of the teaching and life of Father Alexander Men – may we be challenged – may we grow. Amen.