Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann

Fr. Schmemann Receives Honorary Degree

On November 8, at a solemn convocation held at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine on the occasion of the Sesquicentennial Jubilee of the General Theological Seminary in New York city, Father Alexander Schmemann was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Sacred Theology with the following citation: "An eminent scholar . . . who has made his learning available to the whole of the ecumenical world, and who, by his profound knowledge of sacramental and liturgical theology, has contributed to all the churches a new understanding of Christian worship and its place in our common life."

Among the other recipients of honorary degrees were Archbishop Iakovos, Bishop Wright of Pittsburgh, Dr. Eugene Carson Blake, General Secretary of the World Council of Churches, Dr. Franklin Clark Fry, president of the Lutheran Church in America, Msgr. Charles Moeller of Louvain, Professor Albert Outler and Roger Schutz, Prior of the Taize Community.

Metropolitan Ireney was represented at this ceremony by Fr. George Benigsen, dean of the Holy Protection Cathedral in New York.

Earlier a dispute had broken out over the omission of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., from the list. In a statement the Episcopal Society for Cultural and Racial Unity charged that Dr. King had been excluded from the sesquicentennial celebration because of his "controversial image."

The Orthodox Church, Vol. 3, No. 10, December, 1967, p. 1