In the Footsteps of St. Herman

I left Alaska last week and am now in the Lower 48 but not home yet. Part of rounding out the sabbatical is spending some time debriefing, giving me a while to adjust before moving right up to speed in the parish once more. For that reason, this will be the only post I will be adding to the Blog during this time.

When all said and done, Fr. John will have travelled more than 27,500 miles (44,250 km) from start to finish.

Let’s just say that I am slowly wending my way back to State College. I am also slowly attempting to digest what has transpired in my life over these past four months. It is not merely a question of the places I’ve seen and the people I’ve met and the things that I’ve done. A sabbatical is not an extended vacation.

Some sabbaticals are intended for research, with books or papers or lectures expected to demonstrate the new knowledge acquired, the new conclusions reached. This one is different in that no research was expected in the strictly academic sense. And no books or papers or lectures are required.

Rather, this time has been intended for clergy spiritual, intellectual and physical renewal, giving a time for rest as well as new perspective on vocation: one that will benefit the parish upon the pastor’s return, as well. Indeed, the parish wrote the grant and has had its own requirements to fill in my absence, taking on a greater share of ministry by the laity, seeing to the meeting of pastoral needs, maintaining a full round of services and programs, and perhaps in short, learning how to get along without me for a while.

No pastor, no priest is indispensible for ministry. It can be a humbling lesson for clergy to learn. Yet, it is essential for the emotional and professional well-being, not only of the priest but of the parish, too. It is not a matter of “who needs him (or them)?” It is a matter of focusing more on the message than the messenger and taking responsibility for the work of ministry as a mutual calling for the Body of Church; not solely the province of the professional who is paid to “do one’s Christianity” for the parish body.

In my absence the parish has taken part in a church-health initiative of our Archdiocese, assessing the strengths and weaknesses of parish life, in order to begin taking steps to strengthen the strengths and address the weaknesses. An outside consultant has been engaged for the process.

My hope is that my absence enabled a frank assessment of these areas in our community’s life, far franker that had I been present. And while I will certainly be involved in the next phase of the initiative upon my return, I expect the ball to be kept in play by the ones who have been playing the first-half while I’ve been on the “bench”.

To my elders: my brothers and sisters on the Yukon, greetings in our wonderful Lord Jesus Christ!

Words cannot express my joy. It truly was joy to have lived with you, shared with you and learned from you during this past month. You welcomed me to your homes, your tables, and your lives.

As I said during my first days in Marshall, all of you on the Yukon, all of you in Alaska, are elders to us Orthodox in the Lower-48. You, the spiritual descendants of St. Yaakov and St. Herman, St. Innocent, St. Juvenaly, and St. Peter have had the blessing of Orthodox-life for almost two centuries and more years on this North American continent.

Your faith has been integrated into your life, in spite of many difficulties, the absence of clergy with a regular cycle of services chief among them. Yet, you have persevered and developed a truly Orthodox understanding of your lives and how they are to be lived in ways that those of us “down-south” can only hope or dream for our descendants.

At present you face but a temporary challenge to your faith. Deep in your soul, your hearts, your faith is well grounded. The elders taught you to love God and to love each other. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.

Continue to love God, as St. Herman instructed all of us: From this day forth, from this hour, from this minute. Without love of God, anything else we do or say is empty, is vain. Continue to love God with attendance at services and with prayers, both as the church and in your homes. We cannot say we love God with all our hearts if we absent our selves from assembling together each Lord’s Day. That day belongs to Him.

As well, continue to love God with study of the Holy Scriptures, as John, Willie and Peter teach you. Bind God’s statutes upon your hearts and teach them daily to your children.

For your children, continue to instruct them in the ways that lead to eternal life. Work, especially, with the Youth Group to establish a youth center for them in your midst. Make sure that it is open to all the children of Marshall without any strings attached, without any pressure exerted. Give them a safe place where they are neither tempted by vice nor coerced by persecution. Be examples of the love of Christ to your children in village life in all that you do.

Someday, your children will grow to positions of leadership in the church, the village, and the tribe. Teach them all that they need to know that they may bring honor to their fathers and their mothers, their A’pas and A’mas: that their days may be long upon the land which the Lord their God has given them. God has no grandchildren: every generation must be taught anew.

Teach them what Christ taught his Apostles and what his Apostles taught our Elders, the Holy Fathers down through the centuries. Teach them especially about Alaska’s saints: St. Yakov, who sanctified the shores of your village, traveling Yukon waters as he lived and worked to bring Good News to the Yup’ik people; St. Herman, who labored a generation before him in Kodiak; St. Innocent, first bishop in our land who blessed the labor of St. Yakov; St. Juvenaly, first-martyr in America; and, especially for the youth, teach them more about St. Peter the Aleut.

St. Peter was born around the same time as St. Yakov, of the same Aleut people. He was the first native-American to lay down his life for the Orthodox faith. May his words, “I am a Christian. I will not deny my faith,” be the first lesson the children learn. And may it be the last words an elder speaks.

For those who condemn your faith as “Eskimo religion,” take this as a compliment. Take it as a blessing. “Bless, and curse not.” Those who say these things do not know the truth that they speak. You are the Real People and this is the True Faith.

I thank you from the bottom of my heart. And I will always cherish the days I spent with you, the days that you also spent sharing the life of the Real People with me.

You are ever in my thoughts and prayers and will continue to be so. Pray for me, the unworthy priest, your younger son, your younger brother, in our common faith. Quyana! Piurra!

– Fr. John