There is a significant population of Orthodox Christians in the state of Alaska, and this largely has to do with the efforts of Russian Orthodox missionaries in the state in the mid-1800s. In the library at RTS earlier this week, I saw the book, Alaskan Missionary Spirituality, on the shelf between a number of other Orthodox-related books. I checked it out and paged through it over the last few days. It caught my eye because I spent a short time in the state in 2005, and pretty much fell in love with it. Also, in the city of Sitka I visited St. Michael's Cathedral, where I first learned about the Orthodox presence in the state.

The original missionaries came from the Valaam Monastery originally in Finland (now Russian Karelia), and set out to start a mission in traditional Orthodox fashion:

From the beginning the goal of the Valaam Mission to Alaska was to…establish an American Church, respecting and employing the languages and artistic culture of Alaska within the community of Orthodox churches. This has been the vision of SS. Cyril and Methodius, the Macedonian missionaries to the Slavs centuries earlier (7).

Interestingly, while it may seem that indigenous cultures in places like Alaska would be drastically different than the culture of Orthodox missionaries coming out of Finland and Russia, there actually existed elements of a common foundation that allowed Orthodoxy to flourish as it did.

Every mission needs first to assess the religious traditions and spiritual milieu into which it hopes to bring the Christian gospel…Traditional societies, as have existed since homo sapiens first appeared, have almost universally shared certain common attitudes toward fundamental human experience. They perceive time, space, and nature in ways remarkably different from those of the post-Renaissance West, but in close harmony with medieval and Eastern Christian world views (7-8).

The traditional religion of the indigenous tribes of Alaska is largely that of shamanism. Orthodox missionaries certainly did not seek a syncretistic Christianity meshed with traditional shamanistic religion, but used it more as a springboard from which to present the faith.

The missionaries effectively communicated with the Sugpiaq in the Kodiak region, preaching to them the Christian gospel without directly attacking the traditional shamanistic world view of the natives. They sought, as best can be determined from the archives, to present Christianity as the fulfillment of what the Alaskans already knew rather than its replacement (13).

The Orthodox missionaries had many converts, and the Church grew quickly up until the point that Alaska was transferred to the United States, after which it slowed for a number of reasons. It's presence is still evident in many places in Alaska, including its many parishes and one of three Orthodox seminaries in the United States.