Palm Sunday in Larsen Bay

Spent the past weekend in Larsen Bay, AK, pop. 50 -- an idyllic spot with awesome beauty. I was there in August '09 (see Larsen Bay photos). Then, it was green -- this time it was brown, but the mountains that ring the village and its beautiful bays were snowy this time from about 400-500 ft. and up. They seemed to say "climb me" -- you can walk up them. The village sits at the intersection of Larsen and Uyak Bays.

I was in Larsen for a funeral. That was beautiful too. In many Alaskan villages, a funeral is done as it used to be done everywhere. The departed one is laid out in his home by the family; there is no funeral home. When I arrived on Friday, we did a service in the home of the newly-departed Peter. On Saturday, we went to the house again, began with a brief service there, then brought the body to the church for the funeral. Burial followed in the small church cemetary, which is all that stands between the church and the bay. Simple wooden crosses, painted white, mark the graves; there are no stones. Cemetery stones are expensive, and there would be added expense of transporting them by air to a village.

After services Saturday evening for the eve of Palm Sunday, I walked in the cemetary and looked out over the blue bays to the mountains beyond them. In the setting sun at about half past nine, the snowy mountains beyond the bays were pink and yellow. Soon, in summer, the churchyard will be adorned with purple fireweed.

The next morning, we had services for Palm Sunday. In the negative tide, some went gathering clams, tasty udoks (sea urchins), and octopus. On Sunday evening we started the Holy Week prayers. There were just two people in church, besides myself, but it was beautiful. The sun was still high and light was streaming in.

On Monday we returned in a float-plane. They are slower, allowing plenty of time to view the snow-blanketed mountains and the valleys as we flew over them. The scenery was spectacular as we floated just a few hundred feet above the peaks. At Larsen Bay, we waded into the water to reach the plane -- the tide was so low they could not use the usual float-plane berth. We landed in Kodiak at the float-plane base by Near Island, just a short distance from the seminary.