Frank Gavin 343

Unexpected and long-awaited news came from distant America: Frank Gavin had died. For a long time there had been alarming news about his health, but somehow the idea that death was truly at his bedside was not reconciled - this strong man in the prime of his life, only 47 years old. The Lord was pleased at the appointed hour, known to Him alone, to call His faithful servant to Himself. Every death leaves an empty space and tears out a piece of the heart from loved ones. But this death will echo with a heavy groan in many, many hearts, for this man was deliberately characterized by the highest gift of God: to love and to be loved in return. The most stunning and bright feature of his attitude towards people was his selfless benevolence and tireless benevolence, the gift of friendly love: this is how his look, smile, voice, himself are remembered... In this kindness and purity of his heart there was something childish - something about which it is said that if you are not like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of God. How many friends he must have left, indebted to him, supported by him, delighted and consoled. The writer of these lines was given the opportunity to experience this friendship and loyalty, to experience his help in difficult times. Like a knight, he rushed to defend Christian freedom and the dignity of thought from darkness and violence, and, like a true friend, he knew how to somehow merge and identify himself with the cause of another. How few have this gift and how few know how to appreciate it! During my days in New York, the General Theological Seminary and Gavin's apartment became like a home for me in a huge foreign city. In his person we had an invariable intercessor on Russian affairs in America. His tireless work in organizing assistance to the Russian Theological Institute in Paris will not be forgotten in our hearts. Prof. Gavin had an exceptional significance, of course, primarily in the life of his native Church - which a foreigner is not called upon to judge, but it was also significant in the Christian ecumenical movement, in which I met him for 10 years and invariably felt his special closeness to me. As an Anglo-Catholic, he approached Orthodoxy to such an extent (while maintaining all the strength and health of his Episcopal Church) that I felt him as if he were a brother in the priesthood, as if already in church unity; it was a kind of personal union before the external union of Churches, which happens in individual cases of church friendship. In the Continuation Committee of the Lausanne Conference (1927–1937), as well as during the Edinburgh Conference (1937), I had invaluable support from him on the most burning and difficult issue of the veneration of the Mother of God, and how it was especially dear to me to learn that he was buried in the Church of the Mother of God (where I once had the chance to preach in honor of the Most Pure One). It is believed that the Most Holy Virgin, who, according to the belief of the Church, gives special help to those departing from this world, has overshadowed Her devotee with Her Protection... The name of Prof. Gavin, as a theologian, was revered in his homeland and in Europe. 344 His monograph on Greek theology (recently republished) is the only one of its kind. His various theological studies 345 are an example of the scientific method. His lectures were informative and brilliant. His position as Secretary of the American Episcopal Church's Commission on External Relations naturally gave him a prominent place in interconfessional relations (he most recently participated in a delegation of English theologians on their trip to Romania). Finally, his thought and heart were also open to social issues, and he maintained the difficult-to-achieve and relatively rare balance between Christianity and sociality, which is usually so easily disturbed. It is impossible to exhaust and list all these deeds that now follow him into eternity, but above all of them rises the gracious and wise image of his personality - an ecumenical Christian of the Episcopal confession: “Therefore everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). With a feeling of deep tenderness and heartfelt gratitude, I bow my knees at my early grave and pray to the Lord of strength that He will rest His servant in the villages of the righteous. Published by “The Path”... No. 56. May-June 1938. P.63–65 – Note. edit Prof. Gavin’s name is also on the list of employees of the “Path” magazine. In the theological collections of the Lausanne movement: The Grace, Ministry and Sacraments, a New Commentary on Holy Scripture. The Jewish Antecedents of the Christian Sacraments. London. 1928 etc.