Building Up the Body of Christ: An AGAIN Interview with His Grace BASIL (Essey), Bishop of Wichita and Mid-America

Published by AGAIN, Vol. 27 No. 2, 2005

On December 15, 2004, His Grace BASIL was enthroned as Bishop of Wichita and the Diocese of Mid-America. Bishop BASIL shepherds this newly established diocese, which is comprised of forty-five congregations in Kansas, Nebraska, western Iowa, South Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, western Louisiana, and Oklahoma. He also temporarily oversees the nine congregations of the Mississippi Valley Deanery of the Diocese of Miami and the Southeast. AGAIN spoke with Bishop BASIL in February, 2005.

AGAIN: Your Grace, we seem to be in the midst of a time of great significance for the development of the Church in America. The people of this land—both those who are Orthodox and those who are not—are coping with great turmoil in the world and great changes in how they live their lives, and seem increasingly open to the message of the Gospel. At the same time, the Orthodox Church seems increasingly able to heal and feed the spiritually sick and hungry among us. What is your vision and hope for the future, as the Church develops her service in this country? What challenges are confronting the Church, and how do you believe we should prepare for them and face them?

Bishop BASIL: What is necessary—and it cannot remain just a hope, a dream, or a prayer but needs to, and in fact will, come about—is that there be a united Church in this country. This will come about either by a conscious effort on our part, or by God trimming the branches of His Vine. After He trims away the dead wood, what remains will be the Church, pure and undefiled.

As I said, this unity is inevitable. It is, of course, preferable that we make a conscious effort in working for this, and that those within the Church who use her for “trimmable” reasons—that is, for purposes other than proclaiming the Gospel for the salvation of souls—would convert their hearts and minds so that together we can build up Holy Orthodoxy here in this country. God will not tolerate forever our using the Church for purposes other than that for which she was established. He has been patient with us for a long time, and of course, the limit of His patience in this matter is up to Him, but we know that eventually He will take up His shears and trim His vine. Then all that will remain will be the Church. Again, this can come about in only one of two ways—either by a conscious effort on our part, or by God Himself doing it. That is step number one.

Secondly, then, when we are the Church we will have the mission field open to us. We already possess everything we need to evangelize. Holy Orthodoxy does not need glitzy tactics. She is the pillar and ground of truth, the incarnation of the Gospel, the vessel of grace and the abode of the Holy Spirit. All that she lacks in this country is our unity so that she is perceived to be that which she is.

Let me explain. I believe America meets Holy Orthodoxy donned in an irrelevant costume. That’s because we ourselves have dressed her either in camouflage—which results in America not seeing her at all—or in ethnic costumes, which makes Orthodoxy appear as an exotic foreigner. Invisible or marginalized—that’s what we have made of Holy Orthodoxy in America. God forgive us. We need to strip ourselves of every costume and put on Christ alone, as the Scriptures describe: “As many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”

America’s perception of us is what counts when we speak of evangelization. We need to quit asking ourselves, “What can we do to bring America to Orthodoxy?” and we need to start asking America that same question.

Orthodoxy has been called “America’s best-kept secret.” In a sense, I thank God that she is. I thank God because, by and large, we are not ready to be seen by America. We don’t have our house in order yet. But our house will be put in order—either by us or by the Master of the house Himself.

AGAIN: This interview will reach our readers during Great Lent, and will be accompanied by articles on the tools of spiritual discipline—prayer, watchfulness, icons, Scripture—which the Church has provided for us. How can Orthodox Christians best seize the opportunities for growing closer to our Lord during this season?

The Great Fast comes to us as a precious gift. We must not be presumptuous about it, saying, “We can ignore the Fast this year because we will have another next year.” This could be our very last Fast, and for many of us it will indeed be the last. Therefore we ought to take full advantage of it, and do it joyfully. As we take our first step across the threshold of the Great Fast, on the eve of Pure Monday, do we not chant, “Let us begin the Fast with joy”?

During the Fast we are called to return home—returning to God. And that’s a joyful thing! But the way home is narrow, and that means we cannot take excess baggage. For goodness sake, even to get on an airplane and go anywhere these days we are limited not only in the number of bags, but the weight of those bags. Likewise, on the way back home to God, we cannot take along excess baggage—our sinful thoughts, words, and deeds. This applies to us both individually and corporately—as individuals, families, congregations, dioceses, jurisdictions, and as Orthodox in America. At all of these levels, we need to ask, “What is the excess baggage we have been carrying that keeps us from God?” And we should not try to make deals with God, saying, “Please let me take this.” It does not work with the airlines, it is not going to work with God.

Of what must we divest ourselves? We must be honest with ourselves as individuals—and, thank God, the whole atmosphere of the Great Fast is conducive to that. Whenever we want to see ourselves for what we are and make a change, we have to create the right atmosphere. If we’re alcoholic, and we know that alcohol is dangerous for us, we get rid of the alcohol from our homes and we quit hanging out with people who drink and going to places where alcohol is served. This is applicable also to our spiritual life. The Church creates an atmosphere for us during the Fast, where we are not struggling alone. For most people, it is easier to go on a diet with other people. It is easier to go to the gym with a group. And for many of us it is easier to return to God when others are also doing it. The Fast is made for that. God forbid that we waste one second of this time, let alone one hour or one day or one week of the Fast.

As I said, for some of us this will be our last opportunity to observe the Great Fast. And there are some of us who will sing, “Let us begin the Fast with joy,” who will be gone from this world before we sing “Christ is risen.” The point is that we begin the journey. We will all get to Pascha, either in this Jerusalem or in the heavenly Jerusalem. “Let us begin the Fast with joy.”

AGAIN: One of the spiritual disciplines of Orthodoxy which many of our readers deeply admire is the path of monasticism. You are a monastic yourself. What are your thoughts on the role of monasticism in America today?

When Patriarch Elias IV of Antioch visited this country in 1977, I was a young layman, and I did an interview with him for the WORD magazine. He was very pleased with what he saw of Orthodoxy in the New World. But he said we lacked one important thing that would be a sure sign that we were a mature local church, and not just an outpost of a foreign church in America. That “sure sign” was flourishing monastic communities. We had a few in 1977—St. Tikhon’s Monastery in South Canaan, Pennsylvania, for example, is celebrating the centenary of its establishment this year. But at that time monasteries were rather marginal to the life of the Church at large. They were very influential within their own particular local dioceses, but in the Church at large monasticism was rather marginal—and, in some places, totally unknown. That is certainly not true today.

Patriarch Elias said that monastics—monks and nuns—are witnesses of the Kingdom of God among us. They are radical evangelicals. They take the word of the Gospel literally. They leave father and mother and land, and they become fools for Christ. They live lives that the world just does not understand. They live the spirit of the Great Fast year round. Each moment of every day, monastics look at themselves and, with the help and guidance and prayers and discipline of their spiritual father or spiritual mother, they are divested of their excess baggage.

Monasticism is a blessing for the Church here. But it is a blessing that causes tension—and it ought to do so. Why? Because the Gospel itself causes tension in this world.

AGAIN: Your leadership is particularly admired by the shepherds you oversee, the clergy of your diocese. We repeatedly hear from those priests and deacons that their work today seems to increasingly include the pastoring and healing of people who are coping with deep spiritual brokenness—for example, the damage done by divorce, various forms of addiction, and mental illness. How do you believe our Orthodox clergy can best work to address this need?

There are several things we—myself included—must do. Foremost, we must know our limitations. By way of analogy, think of children. If a little child falls down and scrapes his knee, all you have to do is pick him up, kiss his knee, and hold him. After a few moments he will be running around and playing again, having forgotten all about the hurt. But if that child gets run over by a car, you could hug him and kiss him all day long, and that will not fix his broken bones. Likewise, we need to know our limits in helping our spiritual children. Do they have but a scraped knee, or is it something much more serious? If it’s something much more serious, we get them a specialist. So number one, we must know our limitations.

Number two, we should not trust in ourselves to say the right thing. Before we say or do anything else, we ought to offer that person to God, and ourselves to God that we might be His instrument. We are not working out of worldly wisdom, which can be foolishness. We must make ourselves like Balaam’s ass, if you will, saying to God, “Just use me for this person.” We need to remember that there is no greater love than that we lay down our life. We must always be seen as shepherds. Not as people who have been through the same problems. Those who come to us don’t want to know that. They call us father. They want their fathers to be perfect. St. John Chrysostom speaks about this, when he counsels the priest. They think you’re an angel. Don’t be foolish enough to think yourself that you are. You know you’re a terrible sinner, perhaps even worse than the person that comes to you. But to that person that expects that you’re an angel, you owe it to them to act like an angel. That’s what they want and that’s what they deserve. And after all, that’s what we were ordained to do. To love them. To lay down our lives for our children if we have to. Even for the black sheep in our flock.

Number three. Priests ought to love one another. St. Cyprian of Carthage said that the love of the priests one for another is the cement that binds the Church together. This is the fraternity, the brotherhood of the priesthood. I am not a priest by myself. First and foremost, I share in Christ’s priesthood. But I am not unique among mankind. I share in Christ’s priesthood with many men. There’s a fraternity among the clergy which is the strength of the Church.

AGAIN: Are there any final thoughts you’d like to share with our readers?

Love your priest. You can’t give them any greater gift. Pray for your priest, and his family—the priest’s wife and children. They make it possible for the rest of the congregation to have a priest. They sacrifice a husband, a father, so that everyone else in the parish can have a priest. He’s there in times of joy and times of sadness, not just because he desires to be, but because he has a wife and children who are doing without him. People should be appreciative of the priest and his family. This doesn’t mean they must agree with him on everything. As human beings, we can have differences of opinion. But we can’t differ in the fact that this man has been called by God Himself to be a priest. They are all called by God, and ordained by God. Respect them, love them, honor them, pray for them.

Yes, thank you, and send to us your sons to be priests, and your children—sons and daughters both—to be monastics. Raise pious families. Nurture fear and love of God at home, so that we can do what the Church has been called to do. The harvest is white. If today we did get our act together, if today we did put on Christ as our only garment, how many laborers would Holy Orthodoxy need here in America and from where would they come? We need to raise up pious men and women to be servants of the Church, in lay ministry as well as in ordained ministry, in monasticism as well as in marriage. That’s what our people can do. That’s what our people must do so that together we will be co-workers in building up the Body of Christ—Holy Orthodoxy—to the glory of the All-Holy Trinity and the salvation of souls.



Volume 7 Number 17 - Tuesday, April 26th, 2005	A Publication of the ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN LAITY