St Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary - Press Releases Press Release Russian television program highlights SVS

On Sunday, December 22, the weekly Russian television show Progulki po Brodveyu ("Strolls down Broadway") will feature a segment about Orthodoxy in America that highlights St Vladimir's Seminary and the work of Fr Alexander Schmemann. The program is hosted by New York Times reporter Serge Schmemann, son of the late Fr Schmemann, and produced by creator Gary Chernyakhovsky.

Interviewed in the program are Dean John Erickson, Fr Paul Lazor, Fr Leonid Kishkovsky, Matushka Juliana Schmemann and others. The program also includes a visit to the Church of Our Lady of Kazan in Sea Cliff, New York.

The intent of the program, Serge Schmemann explains, was not to give a detailed history or to get into the politics of Orthodoxy in America, but to give Russian viewers a glimpse of how Orthodoxy has taken root in the New World, adopting American traditions and practices while remaining true to its heritage and faith.

"I lived for more than ten years in the Soviet Union and in Russia, and I believe it is critically important for Orthodox believers there to see that the Church need not remain frozen in the form it had before the Communist era, that it can take on new forms and a new openness without betraying any of its essence," Schmemann said. "I hope this brief visit to our Seminary and our Church will prove encouraging for the Russians."

Progulki po Brodveyu is shown on the Kultura ("Culture") channel on Sunday evenings, and enjoys great popularity among the Russian intelligentsia. Producer Chernyakhovsky was a well-known theater director, television producer and critic in Russia before he immigrated to the United States.