My husband and I want to do this next year or the year after (with some of our kids). Our priest is from near Spruce Island.

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015 ... iak-alaska

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Warmly, Darla Juliana
"Be kind for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle" (Philo of Alexandria)

Sounds wonderful. We are around both Eastern Catholic and Eastern Orthodox and there seems to be a common pull to pilgrimages to such holy places. I love the description of the peacefulness.

I appreciated this, clarifying the different between a Russian fur trader and a Russian missionary. The same can be said for a Spanish conquistador and a Spanish missionary. American history political correctness has villified the Catholic missionaries and their work among the natives here. It's a wonder in South America you still see the natives there among the general population as a majority.

"Russian fur traders first arrived in the Kodiak Archipelago in the mid-1700s and were quick to exploit and abuse the indigenous Alutiiqs. Russian Orthodox missionaries soon followed, and when Father Herman – who Alaska natives call “Apa Herman” – arrived, he became an advocate for the Alutiiq people, earning their trust and bringing villages into the Russian Orthodox church.

“There’s sort of a spiritual purity to the missionary work of the Orthodox throughout history, but particularly here in Alaska,” said Metropolitan Tikhon, the Archipshop of Washington and leader of the Orthodox church in America. “It’s a way of bringing the gospel of Jesus Christ to the people in a very personal way, and in a way that doesn’t destroy the integrity of their local culture and life.”

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"...with men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26

Lovely article. Sounds like a great trip! : )

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