Arrival in Kodiak

August 11, 2008

First of all, I want to thank everyone for your prayers for our safe trip and that things will go well here. Please continue those.

Now, for some news. It's hard to believe that I have only been in AK for 5 days -- so much has happened since then.

The mountains of AK were beautiful as we flew into Anchorage. The city is surrounded by them and the whole state (the small part I have seen) seems to be full of mountains.

We arrived in Anchorage on August 6 -- the feast of Transfiguration -- but in Alaska, August 6 in church will not be observed until August 19, since the Diocese of AK is on the old calendar. So, up here there are still 2-3 more days before the Dormition Fast begins.

On Aug. 7 we went to St. Innocent's Cathedral in Anchorage. What a beautiful temple! I have seen few, if any, that were the equal of it. I attended a meeting of Metropolitan Herman and Bishop Benjamin Benjamin with the clergy. Bishop Benjamin is the administrator of the diocese and the metropolitan is the locum tenens, or temporary overseer. We had lunch in the parish hall of the cathedral. We then visited St. Tikhon's parish, the "A" Street Orthodox Museum in Anchorage, and the St. Alexis Mission. St. Tikhon's is an attractive new church. St Alexis is a mission parish presently meeting in an attractively furnished storefront in a new shopping mall. It's amazing how a plain new building can be beautified by the presence of a few good icons.

At 6 pm there was an akathist to St Herman at the cathedral, attended by many. The time in Anchorage was a chance to meet some old friends from St Tikhon's, including Fr Christopher Stanton, his matushka Mary Sarah, and their 3 small children, whom I had not met before; also Fr Daniel Andrejuk.

On Friday, the 8th, we flew to Kodiak, an hour's flight. Here I saw Fr Innocent Dresdow and met Fr John Dunlop, the dean of St Herman's Seminary, where I will be teaching. We visited the Alutiiq Museum and I walked around and got acquainted a bit with Kodiak. It is a place of rare beauty. While in Anchorage, one priest from western AK told me he thought Kodiak was the most beautiful place in AK (although he added that there are a lot of beautiful places in AK) and several people confirmed that it is called the "Alaska's Emerald Isle." About half of the island is a national wildlife preserve. Kodiak is the 2nd largest island in the US. The views from most places in the town are stunning. Right beside the town is a very steep hill that rises about 400 feet - perhaps at a 75 degree angle. houses are perched on the hillside; I don't know how they managed to build them. The hill is very green with thick brush, and is dotted with fir trees as well as houses perched on it.

At 6 pm we had a vigil service for the feast St Herman. This was held in Holy Resurrection Cathedral, which is a block from the seminary. This cathedral is the oldest Orthodox parish in North America, although the church building is about the 4th one, earlier ones having been lost one way or another. It was a beautiful vigil service.

The next morning we got on boats and made the 1-hour trip to Spruce Island. The day was beautiful, as were Monk's Lagoon and the island. The island has the beauty of a cathedral -- old growth forests are filled with great moss-covered trees covered. Colorful wildflowers are here and there.

The temperatures are comfortable. People confirmed that in winter Kodiak stays wamer than Pennsylvania or New England (seldom dropping below 20 degrees) while in summer it is cooler (naturally, being so far north). Another side of that nice climate is that it rains here a lot - 95 inches a year, and a lot of days are cloudy. But this weekend it was wonderfully sunny.

We walked about a third of a mile through the forest and came to the chapel built over the place where St. Herman lived. Here the Divine Liturgy was served. Bishop Benjamin served along with Serbian Bishop Maxim. Some nuns and some monks who live on Spruce Island and answer to Bishop Maxim were present, as were many people from the cathedral and seminary and also a group from the St Innocent School in Kodiak, I'm guessing 175 in all. The liturgy was 85-90% English, with the rest being in Yupik, Slavonic, and Serbian, with dabs of Arabic, Greek, and Romanian. We also saw the spring, and the hut where Hieromonk Gerasim (+1969) lived. The native peoples seem so reverent.

The day was just beautiful, the forest so peaceful. The beach has black sand and round, smooth and flat black stones. After liturgy there was a picnic on the beach and under the trees near the beach. The conditions (sun, temperature, etc) were perfect. Then another boat ride back. On the trip back I talked with a man who was originally from Greece, and had been a merchant mariner in the Caribbean, but about 20 years ago, someone invited him to Kodiak and he was so taken with the place he decided to stay there, and he has been there since. His wife (also from Greece) is also there, and she likes Kodiak yet not as much as he does (she misses Greece). For that reason he said they "might leave now" (This reminded me of a story in the Desert Fathers and so I told him the story. It is about a small group of monks living in the desert. Every single day, they get together and talk, and they say, "Tomorrow, we will leave and go away from here." But they never leave!)

While on the boat we watched puffins and saw an eagle and a sea otter. It was comfortably cool. It was about 60 degrees, and the sun was warm. I did not see orca whales or dolphins, but they say they are often there and sometimes swim along with the boats as they go to Spruce Island.

We returned to the church - it's just 3 blocks from the harbor, which is filled with all manner and size of fishing boats - there is a cannery in town which consists of a ship, the Star of Kodiak, that was brought in and permanently docked here to serve in that capacity. At church they had a meal of soup and bread and pies. Then, upstairs in church, we had vespers for the Resurrection.

Sunday morning liturgy was presided by Bishops Benjamin and Maxim. Met. Herman was present all weekend, but did not serve much, because of his sciatica. A bit later, there was a banquet in a nearby church. All the clergy had to stand up and introduce themselves, so I described myself as "the newest resident of Kodiak." This afternoon (Sunday) there will be an akathist before St. Herman's relics at Holy Resurrection Cathedral in Kodiak. For those of you who don't know, St. Herman was a miracle worker during his life and remains so to this day. He also strove to protect the natives from the depredations of the Russian commercials interests who tried to enslave them.

Today His Beatitude, Metropolitan Herman, Bishop Benjamin, Archdeacon Alexei, Peter Ilchik, and Martin Paluch are leaving or have left. I am staying in an apartment at the seminary.

Now, I am faced with preparing for 4 courses - 3 in liturgics and 1 in canon law. I am very apprehensive about that, so I ask everyone to pray for me, that I will do a good job with these courses. In addition, I will be dean of students / chaplain and I will also travel (probably by small plane) once or twice a month to serve at a parish in a place called Port Lions.

That brings me up to date now. Again thank you all for your love and your emails, and please continue your prayers!

In Christ's love
Fr Juvenaly

[The above was a letter sent to friends five days after arrival in Kodiak]