Slowly, yet inexorably, a new Russian word is making its way into the English language. It is sobornost (pronounced so*bor'*nost). This word is familiar to those who follow Eastern spirituality.
What does this strange word mean? So many wonder about it, as they did about the word poustinia which seemed so alien even to my publishers. These words are part of my life, part of my soul, part of my Russian heritage. 'Poustinia' has become a more or less familiar word. But 'sobornost' — what does it mean?
Literally, it means unity. An English publication dedicated to unity calls itself Sobornost because it seeks unity among all denominations. To Russians, however, the word 'sobornost' carries a much deeper concept than just unity.
In the West, one can say that a team is a 'unit' — a group that has agreed to abide by certain rules of work or play and is 'united' by them. People can be united on political or economic policy. But the word 'sobornost' goes much deeper than this. It means a unity that has been effected through the word of the Gospel.
A 'sobor' generally means a cathedral. It is usually the one where the bishop of the diocese is in residence and where, on all major occasions, his priests and people gather around him to offer the Eucharist and to praise God.
'Sobrania' means a gathering, in a sense somewhat similar to the word 'liturgy' which is basically a gathering of people to perform some kind of communal work. A Russian might say, "It was a wonderful sobrania."
'Sobornost,' though having 'sobrania' as a root, has a quite different connotation. It has some kinship with the English word 'collegiality' but it has a much more profound meaning for the people of the East.
It is certainly not a word to be used flippantly, which is a special hazard today when so many foreign words are coming into our language. It is a holy and awesome word which has great depths, and its incarnation into the lives of people is something like a spring that wells up from the very heart of the Holy Trinity.
Perhaps this reality of the Holy Trinity is the best context in which to approach the true meaning of sobornost. When the people of God become truly 'bound' — as all Christians should be — by the will of the Father, into a community, they take on theobedience of the Son. And they rely for total unity of mind and heart on the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, whom the Father sent to remind us of all that the Son has taught.
True as this is, it is still very difficult to reach that immense depth of mind and heart and soul that is expressed by the word 'sobornost.' When it exists, it is an absolute unity of (in this case) Christians. They think alike. They pray alike. They are alike.
When people behold such a group, it seems that they are looking at an icon of Christ. Each face is a composite of that icon, and the unity is soul-shaking. Certain sects have had a type of likemindedness, even though (to other Christians) they may appear as heretics. Alas, this apparent unity often does not last, and many of these groups have experienced a breakup of their 'community.'
Having said all this, I feel I haven't said anything. I do not know how to explain, how to express this total unity in which all who are drawn into this sobrania [gathering] are of one mind on some immutable ideas — for example, the Gospel without compromise.
For us in Madonna House, it is The Little Mandate. On this we are a sobrania, which breeds sobornost among us.
How difficult it is to translate words and ideas from one language to another! Still, I am forced to translate sobornost because we must begin to know it; for, as I have mentioned, it is part of the unity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It is from them, the perfection of sobornost, that we learn it.
The ingredients of sobornost come from generations of experiencing a certain way of life. Tolstoy and Dostoevsky tried to describe it; but unless their writings are approached in grave humility, they become mere pieces of literary beauty, and their very essence escapes the Western mind. In the West, which grew more and more individualistic since the so-called Renaissance, unity among people has become rarer and rarer.
Just to desire such a unity, however, is already a gift. Let us face the fact that, unless we live the Gospel — not only preach it, but live it — there can be no unity among us, no sobornost, no gathering of like minds.
But few can agree on the Gospel. In order to live the Gospel, one has to move through the life of Jesus Christ. That means abandonment, being rejected, being crucified.
There is no sobornost without crucifixion, because it is through pain that one acquires the deep knowledge that is not found in books or by education.
This deep knowledge, given by God and by God alone, builds the foundation of unity. People thus united are transparent — and it is in those depths that one finds the foundation of sobornost, of unity.
Sobornost is never superficial. It is never temporary. It is always there like cool water offered from the cup of one's heart to all of one's brethren.
Yes, there is much more to be said about sobornost! God has given us in sobornost a strange unity that could really shake the Church. Sobornost is the manifestation of that unity which Christ asked us to live and reflect, when he prayed to the Father that we "might all be one… as you are in me and I am in you." (John 17: 12)
