A Legacy of Faith: The Russian Orthodox Church in Alaska

they trace their beginnings back 2,000 years to Pentecost to the very beginning of Christianity in honor of the missionaries who brought them the faith they take the name Russian because they believe that they alone have kept the original faith of Christ and his 12 apostles they call themselves Orthodox we consider the Orthodox Church be the original Church that was founded by our Lord Jesus Christ and in the history of of the world it's almost 2,000 years ago and we can see their orthodox exactly what it means to be true to the original we also believe that the church should not be changed because of the needs of the times we feel that the church can remain constant can remain true to the faiths that have been hand to the truths that have been handed down for almost 2,000 years and still be very applicable for every person in the world today from and behold we see the strength in this dye vineyard which towers plant eat with our eyes holy bad they believe that God's kingdom which is to come is also for the here and now that there's a sacred dimension to all of creation through Christ through the Scriptures and through the church this world is redeemed as the kingdom of God orthodoxy is filled with symbolism everything is significant they sing the thrice holy hymn holy God holy mighty holy immortal have mercy on us their prayer is to the Holy Trinity Father Son and Holy Spirit the most important three of the Orthodox faith but there are other significant threes the distinctive three bar cross used widely in the Russian church the top bar represents the sign above Christ's head which said this is Jesus the King of the Jews the middle bar is for the cross where Jesus hands were nailed the bottom bar is slanted to show Christ's physical suffering portraying agony so intense that he wrenched loose the nailed crossbar as he pushed one foot down and drew the other up in pain for the Orthodox there are three embodiments of God the world of all of creation the written word of God the sacred scriptures and Jesus Christ God who became man Orthodox Church buildings are designed with three sections representing the three incarnations the narthex the entry hall represents creation the nave the largest area of the building represents Scripture the icons here depict events from the Bible and scenes of Christ's life and the lives of the Saints behind the Econo stas the icon screen is the sanctuary representing the kingdom which is to come the dwelling place of Christ the ordained clergy enter the sanctuary and bring out the elements of the sacraments to the people the kingdom which is to come is brought into the here and now the building is topped with the dome rather than a steeple reaching up toward heaven toward another world the dome above the nave shows God's kingdom come to this world restoring it reclaiming it as God's in 1054 there was a split between the Church of the West and the Church of the east the Western Church pledged their allegiance to the Bishop of Rome the Pope the Eastern Church was centred in Constantinople but looked to no one Bishop as the highest authority over all the church the Western Church worshiped in one language Latin the eastern church worshiped in the language of the local people when the first Orthodox missionaries came to Alaska in 1794 they brought this tradition with them and the Aleutians they worshipped in Aleut in southeast Kling it in southwestern Alaska you pick the people accepted the faith as their own and in turn passed it on to others when Father John Benjamin off arrived in onalaska as a missionary in 1824 he found that the faith had already been started among the people in addition to making converts he put his energy into further educating the people already in the faith he created an alley you'd alphabet made translations and taught the people in their own language venya mean off later became bishop innocent of the new Diocese of Kamchatka the Kuril and Aleutian Islands he went on to become metropolitan of moscow and in 1979 was canonized as a saint the early missionaries also defended the native people against the abuses of the Russian traders the first nation to Alaska arrived officially in September of 1794 and by that time the situation was that the Russian American company or its ancestor the Shelikof Golikov company had pretty much established its monopoly on the island and were abusing the labor force namely the local soft back or Alutiiq ally or people the clergy recognized that this was not going to be conducive to the acceptance and the pre of their preaching they immediately told what was wrong with the way the Russians were acting in the way that the Russian fur traders were behaving and defended the native people and with his defense of the native people the people turned to them and trusted them and in addition to this the missionaries had a very strict training or advice and guidance that was so beautiful the missionaries were told that when you come to America when you come to Alaska you are to consider yourself a guest in someone's home and you will act accordingly it has become since when you mean auvs time certainly in 1824 and Alaskan native religion rather than superficially a white man's religion with white clergy within missionaries continuing to run the church after the initial introduction of Christianity had taken place when I came to Alaska with almost 13 years ago there were 84 villages and parishes we call them and only a 10 priests then priests that were old six of them already passed away so you can imagine in this great land with the 84 the villages with ten priests it was simply impossible to take care of this he felt that the greatest need was to train an indigenous clergy to train the Nate people in Alaska for the church in Alaska we built seminary which we have now three buildings in archives we have students we have now a 29 priests 29 priests taking care of 84 villages it's still not enough but Alaska never in its past history had so many priests in the Golden Age as I would say before the Russian Revolution 1917 Alaska held mostly nineteen priests it was the most they had now we have 29 and hopefully with our seminary we will produce more and more along with the Church of the Holy resurrection st. Herman's Seminary is situated on a hillside overlooking the wharves and fishing boats of Kodiak students come here from Orthodox communities throughout Alaska to prepare for service in their church the seminary is named for Father Herman a monk who was among the first group of missionaries to arrive here from Russia in 1794 he founded a school at an orphanage on nearby spruce Island today the seminary students are making a pilgrimage to spruce Island to honor st. Herman the island lies just north of the city of Kodiak they must anchor close to shore and paddle in in a small boat many days high windblown waves break against the beach in Moncks Lagoon preventing access today the water is calm they say that st. Herman is watching over them we believe that since the canonization of st. Herman in 1970 that there has been a spiritual renewal in many ways in the church in Alaska and indeed in the United States because the st. Herman doesn't belong to Alaska he belongs to the Orthodox faithful throughout not only the United States but throughout the world and not only for this this generation but for generations to come and as we go up the path you'll find the Chapel of st. sergius and st. Herman of Allah this was built over the grave of st. Herman when st. Herman first came to spruce Island he dug a cave a dug a hole and he spent his first winter in that cave in the side of the hill and he stated later that when he died he wanted to be buried there in 1970 father Herrmann became the first Orthodox American Saint canonized by the church as st. Herman of Alaska wonder-worker of all America it said his life was a perfect example of holiness that he performed miracles of healing and prophecy since his death there have been accounts of miraculous healings from people who have come to spruce Island to pray and invite themselves with earth from his grave and water from a nearby spring his relics have been removed from the grave on spruce Island and are now in the Church of the Holy Resurrection in Kodiak our students come from completely different backgrounds some of them come from the Yukon River some come with a Kuskokwim some of them have been from the Aleutian chain the Pribilof islands some are very young some are married some have families the first graduate of our seminary was a clinker Indian from from Sitka and had 14 children at the time that he enrolled in the seminary I think the oldest student that ever enrolled in the seminary was 68 years old at the time that he enrolled and of course the youngest would be those that have just graduated from high school since the high school diploma is a prerequisite for entrance to the seminary is it's very important what he says right after that I and the father are one but really what's really we hope that the graduates of the seminary here would be priests in the Alaskan diocese and because of that most of our training and our courses are geared at the spiritual life here in Alaska but at the same time we have tried to follow the old tradition it goes back to the early missionaries and that is to train people for life in the villages and to become leaders in their communities as well and it's because of that that we have women in the seminary recognizing that life in Alaskan villages is not what it is in many of the other communities we have a course in in health and we found that some of our students have gone back and have been helpful in saving the lives of people that were hurt in boating accidents and had given CPR and so forth our graduates now will have level 1 certification as alcoholics counselors others have gone back and helped as teachers aides do we try to train them in the way that they could be helpful and good parts of their community and help guide the life of their community I'm going on my fourth year and hopefully I might be graduated in centrum seminary and then hopefully I might go out and teach my people what I have learned in here in centrum seminary in our rural areas there's a great need for trained church readers I am here for that purpose I hope to help my church my people my first motive was I wanted to put something back into a country that had been very good to me and my church was a natural Avenue for that and the more I found out of the situation of the church up here the more that became apparent and to be a good place father garrison is a recent graduate of the seminary he will now be the priest for nine communities on the Alaska Peninsula nurturing them in a faith that is 2,000 years old a faith that came to Russia a thousand years ago and has been in Alaska for nearly 200 years you right Oh creators Angelico's you father vermin to be the Proclaimers the earth brought space in the new line to be the founder the monastic way to be both lands of the north you were Santa's was the Apostle Paul to the pagan so that the light of Orthodoxy by viably shine to all the ends of the world we inhabitance of the american continents been to this Thanksgiving and sing to you our heavenly prepare for this song we try to serve in this North infinite of Christ and hopefully there will be fruitful s but the fruitfulness is something we'll never know in this lifetime fruitfulness can never be never be gauged by the start of a seminary by the rebuilding of a cathedral by the construction of new churches success will be gauged at the last judgment and until that time we just try to follow very simply the teachings of Christ through his Holy Church and the scriptures of course because the Orthodox Church is a scriptural Church and basically one of the teachings of st. Herman who taught I think from this day forth from this hour from this minute let us learn to love God above all else we can do that there's nothing but good things in the future Russian mission sits on a hillside above the Yukon River where it flows out onto the flat yukon-kuskokwim Delta about a hundred seventy-five yupik Eskimos live in this isolated village making their living mostly by hunting and fishing no roads come here all supplies must be flown in or else shipped in by barge in the summer when the river is free of ice their way of life is simple and traditional most of the villagers are Russian Orthodox it is Holy Week the week before Easter the faithful gather for services every day this week preparing for Easter Sunday the most important day of the Orthodox year they carry on the tradition brought here by the early missionaries in the early 1800s the russian-american company ventured up the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers and set up small trading posts the church followed establishing a vast interior mission parish that covered thousands of square miles ordained clergy were in short supply and one priest Father Yakov net shot off of a Liat descent was sent to serve the entire region in 1845 he established the parish headquarters in acog mute the village which is now called Russian mission the Russian American company's trading post had been abandoned and the mission was established without company assistance and maintained solely by Church funds at 11:30 Saturday night the people gather for the Easter service Father Gabriel off priest for Russian mission and the Yukon region is already vested in his brightest robes as he completes the preparation for paska the Passover from death to life on Good Friday a replica tomb was placed in the center of the church and the Holy Shroud an icon of the crucified Christ was placed on top of it now father Gabriel off takes the Holy Shroud into the sanctuary and places it on the altar the people take candles and walk around the outside of the church symbolizing the journey made by Mary Magdalene Mary Cleophus and Salome to Christ's tomb in the early morning Easter in Alaska is not always warm as it typically is elsewhere although it is April it's below zero and the path is covered with packed snow and ice after three times around the church they stopped at the door and wait as if waiting outside Christ's tomb they continued to sing repeating each verse in three languages you pick their native tongue Slavonic in honor of the missionaries who brought the faith and the newest language of the community English they saying Christ is risen from the dead trampling down death by death and upon those in the tombs bestowing life Oh then the doors are reopened and the people re-enter the church while they were waiting the dark colored cloths inside were replaced with bright whites it's midnight Easter morning the beginning of the holiest most joyful holiday of the Orthodox Church unless isolated communities fresh flowers fill the church at Easter in Russian Mission where there are no fresh flowers to be had they decorate with plastic flowers tinsel colored lights whatever is bright and festive service goes on into the night father Gabriel off senses the altar the icons and the people that their prayers will rise to heaven just as the smoke rises and that they will be enveloped by the Holy Spirit just as the incense envelops them there is the traditional Easter greeting in other churches this is a time when the people turn to those beside them and say Christ is risen - which comes the reply indeed he has risen here in the village it's not just the person on either side who has greeted everyone in the church greets everyone else they go to father Gabriel off and venerate the cross then greet each other with kisses on the cheeks a whole community is united in this joyful celebration ah yeah there are always candles burning in Orthodox worship they symbolize that God illuminates the world with his spiritual light the service builds to the most sacred moment with this most sacred day of the Orthodox year the consecration of the elements of communion one at a time the people approach father Gabriel off with a crossed arms to receive the sanctified bread and wine said to be the body and blood of Christ for them this is the food of spiritual immortality it brings them into the realm of God's grace into God's kingdom here on earth in most communities the Easter service takes over two hours and rush a mission it takes all night they worship from 11:30 till dawn keeping a tradition which has been passed down for 2,000 years a tradition that was brought to Alaska by Russian missionaries and into the interior by a man of hobby of descent they keep alive and native tradition their own tradition their own faith when the Russians left the Americans came all of the various things that happened through this period of history the church remains the same the church was that identifiable cultural entity that was unchanging in the homeland and they still hang on to it you

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Length: 27min 45sec (1665 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 20 2016