Fr. Alexander… (Schmemann) taught us - by his life and by his death - that this world is redeemed, that this world is saved, that God sent His Only-begotten Son to give Himself for the life of the world, for the life not only of every human soul of which the whole world is not worthy, but for the life of all things: the whole creation, the plants, the animals, his beloved hippopotamus! All that God has made will be saved, resurrected, restored, renewed in Christ who has risen from the dead, for death itself, in that restoration, becomes the instrument of victory.

~ Fr. Thomas Hopko, Sermon at the funeral of Fr. Alexander Schmemann