Day 81: Anchorage

I’ve intentionally not posted for a few days. Having reached the pinnacle of my pilgrimage experience, Kodiak and Spruce Island for the feast of St. Herman, I have needed a few days simply to decompress emotionally and rest physically.

On Tuesday, August 10, we took an afternoon flight from Kodiak to Anchorage to spend a few days here before Matushka returns to State College and Penn State on the weekend.

At the airport in Kodiak we were visiting with some other pilgrims who were on our flight. Come to find out one of them is: 1) a former Episcopal priest; 2) a Texan; 3) who used to live in Austin; and 4) whose brother — also an Episcopal priest — I met while I was at the University of Texas. Small world, but the connections continued: he went to seminary with the man who would be my rector in Kerrville in my Episcopalian days. And not to stop it there, he spoke of a classmate from seminary that had also left the Episcopal Church to become an Orthodox priest, as had I. Strange thing: we’ve known that fellow for over 30 years.

Not that I want unexpected joys to cease, but I wouldn’t be able to escape them if I tried.

The unveiling of New House Totem at the Alaska Native Heritage Center.

Our suite — I got a very, very good deal from Priceline.com — overlooks Cook Inlet giving us a magnificent vantage point from which to see wonderful sunsets, when it’s not raining in Anchorage — and the point where the inlet opens into the Pacific.

We oriented ourselves with a city tour on Wednesday, and visited the Alaska Native Heritage Center on Thursday. There, a house pole — an indoor totem pole — one of four carved for the center, was unveiled in a traditional Haida ceremony and installed in a house representing a typical dwelling of the four tribes from southeastern Alaska.

The old St. Nicholas Church (left) was constructed as early as 1830 and moved to Eklutna around 1900. It is the oldest standing building in the greater Anchorage area. New Saint Nicholas Church (right) next to the old church in 1962.

Today we ventured out of the city to Eklutna to see St. Nicholas Church and the church cemetery that is renowned for the “spirit houses” sitting atop the graves. This was a pre-Christian practice of Athabaskan Indians who lived in this area. They buried their dead — as opposed to cremation or exposure to the elements — and saw a connection between the body of the deceased and its spirit (or, soul). Orthodox missionaries used this belief to teach the indigenous about the Resurrection and the consequent restoration of the soul with the body. So, they did not discourage the practice. Instead, it was Christianized by burial in church cemeteries and adorning the houses or the graves themselves with crosses.

The Spirit Houses at Eklutna Cemetery.

The spirit houses are colorfully decorated. I haven’t seen such use of bright hues in graveyards since visiting the “Joyful Cemetery” in northern Romania.

We stopped by Eagle River on our return to see the magnificent St. John Cathedral of the Antiochian Archdiocese. St. John’s was originally built by a group of evangelicals who were searching for historic Christianity. They were received as a community into the Orthodox Church in 1987.

In the evening, we visited the equally outstanding St. Innocent Cathedral in Anchorage. St. Innocent’s and St. John’s are similar in size, with each building accommodating perhaps 800-1000 in worship (“if they had to”).

Fr. Peter "Snuffy" Smith, seen here donning a lifejacket for the boat ride to Spruce Island, dined with Fr. John this day.

Finally, we had dinner with Fr. Peter Smith, his daughter Kieran, and her three children. Kieran was Elisabeth’s maid-of-honor, and vice-versa. We had not seen her since Elisabeth’s wedding in 1996. Wow! Time flies, doesn’t it?

I’ll be in Anchorage until August 20 when I head for the Yukon Delta area. I will post less frequently but try to keep you informed of what’s going on, nevertheless.