On the evening of March 17, 2020, His Eminence Archbishop DAVID directed the following guidelines for clergy and parishes throughout Alaska. These measures are effective immediately. Updates will be posted as circumstances change.

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Holy Synod Statement & Instruction

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His Eminence Archbishop DAVID - Clergy & Parish Instruction

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His Eminence, David, Archbishop of Sitka and Alaska

We are all familiar with the story of Saint Mary of Egypt.  We admire this woman who led a life of debauchery, even poking fun at the Christians she was traveling with on her way to Jerusalem.  Then, something happened to her there.  She could not enter the church and did not understand why.  Eventually God allowed her entrance, she left a changed person and went straightway into the desert where she remained until her death.  Her only visitor during her exile was a hieromonk named Zosimas.  He heard her story and returned to bring her Holy communion, and then found her dead on his next visit.

I believe we are in our current dilemma at this time because there are so many comforting gifts of God’s grace and the Church’s wisdom to aid us in our struggle.  When the extreme limitations were placed on us, we had the Sunday of the Cross.  The Cross to remind us of how our Lord joins us in our suffering.  Then came Saint John Climacus and his “Ladder of Divine Ascent”.  It is here, in the third step we find his section on “Exile or Pilgrimage”.  Now, we come to Saint Mary of Egypt.  No better example of exile exists in the Christian Tradition.

However, we should be very careful how we view her life in exile and the reason for it.  We are tempted to think, “Well, yes, if I had led a life like hers, so sinful and depraved, I would want to flee to the desert as well.”  And thinking thus, we receive the devil’s temptation and are lured into a false sense of satisfaction that it is truly her, and not us, that needs to run to the desert.  This would be a very sad way to think and I trust we can see how misguided it could be.

In the time of Saint Mary of Egypt, there was no internet, to social media, no Hollywood, no television or satellite viewing, no game platforms, no Snapchat or Twitter to occupy the public’s craving for gossip, lust, worldly pleasure or extortion.  The world was a fairly basic place and licentiousness was pretty much the lowest one could get in seeking worldly pleasure or entertainment.  So how different is her life from many of us today?  We note that she says she did not engage in this life for money or for profit, but simply because she received pleasure from it.  It was the very height of debauchery for debauchery’s sake.  No other reason drove her but her own worldly satisfaction.

Now, if we are to be honest about our life today and the world we live in, is it really that different from hers?  Do not many people do things simply for the sheer pleasure of it?  Do we not find ways to please ourselves without any thought to a moral grounding? 

We have seen the degradation of our nation in so many ways.  In 1962 prayer was taken out of the classroom.  In 1973 the killing of infants in the womb became legal.  Eventually our struggle against a self-pleasing, hedonistic society would include everything from complete breakdown in the traditional family to the loss of traditional marriage due to our own Supreme Court.  The last controversy in our society before this virus was the definition of gender or the absence of it, even to the point of not using gender-specific pronouns to describe us. 

Today, we no longer look to religious leaders for guidance, and those who “cling to their faith” as seen as misguided or foolish.  People believe the ultimate decider of right and wrong is myself and no one can tell me what I can and cannot do.  I am my own moral authority and I seek those things which give me pleasure, make me happy, or add to my bank account.  Short of that, nothing else is of any importance.

I know some religious leaders are tempted to say that the coronavirus is God’s punishment on us for our wondering away from His commandments.  Surely, someone could look at what I have just said and misread it that way.  Understand, it is not what I am saying.  We know that Saint Paul said the wages of sin is death.  Of course, but was he speaking to society or to the individual Christian?  The exact quote from Romans 6:3 is “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  It is to every Christian to understand that God will give him eternal life as he turns from his sin.

If this isn’t a punishment, then what can it be?  Saint James, in his Catholic Epistle, says in 4:6, “But he gives all the more grace; therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”  It should be exactly for us as it was for Saint Mary of Egypt.  It is our time in the desert to become humble, to meditate on our ways.  To think on our misgivings and sins.  It is a time to recognize what truly is important, what is right in God’s eyes, what is an authentic human being before the Lord.  It is our time of grace to humble ourselves before God.  It is for the self-realization of what we have been called to become.  As we say in that beautiful Liturgy of Saint Basil the Great, “He appeared on earth and lived with humankind. Becoming incarnate from a holy Virgin, He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, conforming to the body of our lowliness, that He might change us in the likeness of the image of His glory.”  So, we are becoming the “image of His glory” in the hastening of our exile.

We can change ourselves.  And through changing ourselves we will help to change the world.  And in changing the world we can once again make it a place for God’s glory to dwell.  And when we have done this.  When we have bent our knees and wept our tears, and prayed and fasted, and prepared ourselves during this time of strife, we shall behold something we have not seen before.  God will send us a Zosimas.  He may not come in the form of that Zosimas, but he will come to each of us as God reveals him to us; to hear our confession and provide us with the Holy Gifts of His precious Body and Blood.  Then we will live in a world changed by looking to what is significant and not what is superfluous.  Amen.

Third Sunday of Lent, Cross Sunday

+ David, Archbishop of Sitka and Alaska

Each time we come to the middle of the Great Fast, we are greeted by the Holy Cross of our Lord, Jesus Christ.  For truly, our Lenten journey is a trying one if we are making the effort we should.  More prayers, more fasting, more prostrations and so on.  By this time the Church realizes our difficulties, our struggles, and our weariness and so gives us the Cross as an oasis in the middle of our journey.  We are comforted by the wood of the Cross.  We fall down before it in adoration.  We sing to it as the source of our salvation.

An unknown author said, “O mighty Cross of the Lord, manifest thyself: show me the divine vision of thy beauty, and grant me worthily to venerate thee. For I speak to thee and embrace thee as though thou wast alive.”  Yes, a living Cross has been given to us so that we may see the true reason for its existence.  The Cross that held our Savior in death became a source of life.  The Cross that became the path from death to life through the death-resurrection of Christ now is before us in the center of the church, in the center of the fast, in the center of what should be, our life.

In the Vespers of this Third Sunday, the beautiful verses are filled with so many expressions of God’s grace and joy that we should mediate on them almost sentence by sentence. 

“Shine, Cross of the Lord, shine with the light of thy grace upon the hearts of those that honor thee.”  Do you see the light of grace given to us?  Do you see that it is not the wood or the metal that gives the light, but the light of God’s grace. 

“Through thee our tears of sorrow have been wiped away: we have been delivered from the snares of death and have passed over to unending joy.”  A new path stands before us, a path of life and joy never ending.  This is the true way of the Cross, not to death, but to life. 

“Show us the glory of thy beauty and grant to us thy servants the reward of our abstinence, for we entreat with faith thy rich protection and great mercy.”  Now we see the purpose of our efforts in fasting, in prayer, in almsgiving.  The Cross is also a reward for the work of the fast.  The Cross is a protection and a source of God’s mercy as well, but only if we are committed to honoring it as we honor the Lord Who hung upon it.

“Hail! life-giving Cross, the fair Paradise of the Church, Tree of incorruption that brings us the enjoyment of eternal glory:” Through the Cross we also see Paradise offered to us once again.  Though lost by our forefathers Adam and Eve by the tree of which they are, now a tree offers to us a return to that Paradise through the Lord who has given us the path, the enjoyment of eternal glory.

“Hail! life-giving Cross, unconquerable trophy of the true faith, door to Paradise, succor of the faithful, rampart set about the Church.”  The Cross also becomes the door to Paradise, that gateway that opens for those who have chosen to carry their as we have been called to so by the Lord.  The Cross is the succor, the protection of the Faithful, a defense against the enemies of the Church by which the Church is kept invincible.

May the Holy Cross show us the way to salvation.

O mighty Cross of the Lord, manifest thyself: show me the divine vision of thy beauty, and grant me worthily to venerate thee. For I speak to thee and embrace thee as though thou wast alive.

Shine, Cross of the Lord, shine with the light of thy grace upon the hearts of those that honor thee. With love inspired by God, we embrace thee, O desire of all the world. Through thee our tears of sorrow have been wiped away: we have been delivered from the snares of death and have passed over to unending joy. Show us the glory of thy beauty and grant to us thy servants the reward of our abstinence, for we entreat with faith thy rich protection and great mercy. Hail! life-giving Cross, the fair Paradise of the Church, Tree of incorruption that brings us the enjoyment of eternal glory: through thee the hosts of demons have been driven back; and the hierarchies of angels rejoice with one accord, as the congregations of the faithful keep the feast. Thou art an invincible weapon, an unbroken stronghold; thou art the victory of kings and the glory of priests. Grant us now to draw near to the Passion of Christ and to His Resurrection. Hail! life-giving Cross, unconquerable trophy of the true faith, door to Paradise, succor of the faithful, rampart set about the Church. Through thee the curse is utterly destroyed, the power of death is swallowed up, and we are raised from earth to heaven: invincible weapon, adversary of demons, glory of martyrs, true ornament of holy monks, haven of salvation bestowing on the world great mercy. Come, Adam and Eve, our first father and mother, who fell from the choir on high through the envy of the murderer of man, when of old with bitter pleasure ye tasted from the tree in Paradise. See, the Tree of the Cross, revered by all, draws near! Run with haste and embrace it joyfully, and cry to it with faith: O precious Cross, thou art our succor; partaking of thy fruit, we have gained incorruption; we are restored once more to Eden, and we have received great mercy. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages, Amen. Great Vespers on Saturday Evening before the Third Sunday of Lent, The Adoration of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross

The knowledge of the Cross is concealed in the sufferings of the Cross. St. Gregory the Great

"The Cross, is wood which lifts us up and makes us great ... The Cross uprooted us from the depths of evil and elevated us to the summit of virtue". St John Chrysostom

God does not create a cross for man. No matter how heavy a cross a man may carry in life, it is still just wood, from which man himself made, and it always grows from the soil of his heart. St. Ambrose of Optina (+1891)

“What does it mean to take up your cross? It means the willing acceptance, at the hand of Providence, of every means of healing, bitter though it may be, that is offered. Do great catastrophies fall on you? Be obedient to God’s will, as Noah was. Is sacrifice demanded of you? Give yourself into God’s hands with the same faith as Abram had when he went to sacrifice his son. Is your property ruined? Do your children die suddenly? Suffer it all with patience, cleaving to God in your heart, as Job did. Do your friends forsake you, and you find yourself surrounded by enemies? Bear it all without grumbling, and with faith that God’s help is at hand, as the apostles did.”  Book St Nikolai Homilies  + St. Nikolai Velimirovich

Many complain against technology.  Many accuse modern technology for all the woes in the world.  Is technology really to blame, or those who create technology and use it?  Is a wooden cross to blame if somebody crucifies someone on it?  Is a hammer to blame if a neighbor breaks his neighbor’s skull?  Technology does not feel good or evil.  The same pipes can be used for drinking water or the sewer.  Evil does not come from unfeeling, dead technology, but from the dead hearts of people.

+ St. Nikolai Velimirovich, From the Complete Works of Bishop Nikolai [in Serbian], Book 12, p. 23. Translated from the Serbian by Marija Miljkovic.

The second Sunday of Great Lent is also a Sunday where we as a Diocese have to support our St. Herman Seminary with a financial contribution. If you are not in a parish that is taking a collection you can donate to St. Herman Seminary Donate.

Read His Eminence Archbishop David's Lenten reflection on St. Gregory Palamas.

By The Most Reverend David, Archbishop of Sitka and Alaska

Each year as we celebrate the Sunday of Orthodoxy, we recognize the Triumph of Orthodoxy when those who venerate and hold the Holy Icons in reverence defeated the Iconoclasts who sought to remove them from our churches.  We gather in our churches carrying an Icon to remember this event.  This victory is not simply the decision of a contest between two parties, it was the outcome of a battle over a significant part of our Theology.  Said another way, it is not an argument over artwork, it is the reinforcement of the very Creed we recite in nearly every service.

We all understand the difference between the admonishment in the Old Testament against idol worship and the reverence we offer to the Holy Images we have in our churches and homes.  There is no need to rehash that dispute here.  But what we must forget, and what we indeed must constantly do is reinforce the belief that God became a human being and took on our image, our body, our flesh; in short, He became as one of us, so that we might have the ability to become like Him.

On this Sunday, we read the passage in St. John’s Gospel where Phillip goes to Nathaniel and tells him that they have found the Christ, the Messiah, that was promised to Israel.  When Nathaniel questions if it is possible, Phillip answers, “Come and see.”  Yes, beloved, from then until now we continue to say to the world, “Come and see.”  But what are they looking at when they come?  What do they see?

Do they see a people loving and caring for others, especially for those less fortunate than themselves?  Do they see people who clothe the naked, feed the hungry, visit the sick and imprisoned?  Do they see people practicing their Orthodox Faith as it is taught to us all?  Are we praying together?  Are we fasting?  Are we giving alms?  All of these things are asked of us, especially at this time of year.  Before we began this Lenten journey, we heard the Gospel of the Last Judgment, a reminder of our call to be there for others.  How do we participate in the fulfillment of this Gospel?

Today when we speak of the Triumph of Orthodoxy, it is not simply the remembrance of an historical event, God forbid.  It is also about the triumph of Orthodoxy over a world that is constantly looking for a better life.  Of course, the world does not know how to look in the right places.  The world is too caught up in the latest spiritual fad, the newest version of self-improvement or group discussions on relationships.  But unfortunately, it is blind to the only vision that truly offers all of the wants and desires they seek, our Lord, Jesus Christ.

So, beloved, on this day we are not just called together to celebrate a triumph over our enemies.  We are called to make these images have life.  The true Icons are not on our walls, they are but reminders of the image we are to emulate in own lives.  The real images, the true Icons we are asking others to “Come and see”, are the ones we carry on our own flesh and blood.  Our image is the living image of Christ that we are to see every other person we meet.  Therefore, if this is to be a true “Triumph of Orthodoxy”, it will only happen when we become the living image we are called to be.  Let this Sunday be a call on all of us to be more like Christ, more like the saints we give so much veneration to and whose Icons hang in our churches and homes. 

Brothers and Sisters in Christ, it is now our turn to say to the world, “Come and see.”

In the Name of the Father, and the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

By The Most Reverend David, Archbishop of Sitka and Alaska

When we think of Forgiveness Sunday, two passages of Scripture should come to our mind:

“whoever loves God must also love his brother.”  [1 John 4:21]

“For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”  [Matt. 6:14-15]

Notice that there are two mutual acts at work in this understanding of why forgiveness should matter to us.  The love of God demands we also love our brother, and forgiving our brother, or not doing so, reflects how God will, or will not forgive us.  Love and forgiveness are inclusive acts of Christian identity.  We actually cannot have one without the other.  The one who loves will also forgive, and the one who forgives is showing love.

This is why, as we begin the Great Lent, we are called to come together and present ourselves to all of our brothers and sisters in Christ and seek mutual forgiveness.  It is a person to person, one on one, eye to eye, event that we must enter authentically, or it becomes a meaningless exercise.  And it becomes even worse than that, as the Gospel says, for us to receive the forgiveness of God, we must forgive those who offend us.

In another place in St John’s Epistle, he says, “If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?”  [I john 4:20-21]  How many ways can we say this?  To love God implies loving our neighbor, and to be forgiven means to forgive our neighbor.

Our world has become a nearly incomprehensible entanglement of offensive behavior.  Everyone has become a victim of one sort or another.  “It’s not my fault I’m addicted, someone must have caused me to be that way.”  “It’s not my fault I did that illegal act, I was forced into it by a society that does not care about me.”  No one accepts responsibility for their mistakes, and no one can offend me because it will make me feel bad.  That kind of a world has no understanding of true forgiveness.  For them, the only forgiveness that matters is the one that proves I was right and you were wrong and that is why you ask me for forgiveness.  I am therefore justified in my actions and you just proved it!

It is not that this behavior is new or innovative, if we look carefully at the original sin of Adam and Eve, we find that is exactly what they did.  Look at the dialogue that occurs once they are found out by the Heavenly Father:

Then the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.”

And the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”  [Gen. 3:12-13]

Notice they did not accept any blame for what they had done.  For Adam it was the fault of the woman that God gave him.  For Eve, it was the deception of the serpent.  No one accepted any blame for what had happened.  It is not the fact that they ate of the tree that causes the punishment, it is the lack of responsibility and the lack of asking a Merciful God for his forgiveness.  That failure of Adam and Eve to seek forgiveness causes them to lose Paradise.  In fact, there is also no dialogue that Adam and Eve ever tried to forgive each other!  The Lord cannot allow people who do not know how to love and forgive to remain in Paradise, otherwise it will cease to be Paradise.

So, as we come to this Sunday of Forgiveness, the Sunday we commemorate the expulsion from Paradise of Adam and Eve, we must ask ourselves, how loving and forgiving are we?  Who have we offended?  Who have we caused to have hatred or sorrow in their hear by our actions?  How have we contributed to the sinfulness of the world by our actions in general?

We have the ability to do something about it.  We can fall down before each other and embrace each other with those words of love and forgiveness and ask to be forgiven.  Only when we are able to do that will we be once again on the road to Paradise by following the example we have been given by a loving God Whose Son came to offer it to us, Himself.

I bow down before you all, my Brothers and Sisters in Christ, and I beg you to forgive me, a sinner.  May God forgive us all.

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