St. Jacob followed in the footsteps of many who came before him, not only the big names like St. Herman, St. Juvenaly, and St. Innocent, but more than that, the faithful, everyday folks who worked for the Russian-American Company and lived a faithful witness among the Alaskan peoples. What we find all over St. Jacob’s journals is mentions of locals who had been baptized by laymen and just did not have access to a priest. “It remained for me only to establish them in the faith and chrismate them.”
Continue reading “St. Jacob’s Greatest Gifts to the Church”St. Jacob of Alaska: His Legacy, His Trials, and His Example for Today
St. Jacob of Alaska has left us a wealth of information in his journals. We have translations of his journals, with entries almost every day spanning nearly forty years of missionary efforts. It is clear in many sections of his journals that part of the purpose of journaling was to record vital statistics to pass on to superiors in the Church and in the Russian-American Company.
Though not often mentioned, there is also a feeling that he thinks of these journals as, what we might call, clinical notes: partially processing what is happening, partially recording information that might be useful to himself or others who come back to these same places, and partially studying his own mission efforts so that he may improve upon his methods over time.
Continue reading “St. Jacob of Alaska: His Legacy, His Trials, and His Example for Today”St. Tikhon visits Oklahoma
Visitation by His Grace Bishop Tikhon (Bellavin), Bishop of the Aleutians and North America
to the Orthodox parish in Hartshorne, Indian Territory (Oklahoma)
as related in the Russian Orthodox American Messenger, May 1904
Our Orthodox Visitor: On April 6 (19), Bright Tuesday, Hartshorne had the good fortune to receive His Grace, Vladyka Tikhon. Meeting the archpastor at the railway station were the rector of the church, Hieromonk Tikhon (Rostovsky); the church warden, Vasiliy Prokopchak; and the local brotherhood, led by their chairman, Ivan Kitchak; along with a host of children. Led by Hierodeacon Anthony, His Eminence was brought from the station to the church in a carriage, accompanied by the crowd gathered.
Continue reading “St. Tikhon visits Oklahoma”Do We Need to Send Money for Missions?
And how do we apply all these ideas in our parishes today? Do we build our own mission parishes here at home or send money to foreign “missions”?
I do not want to go too far, as if to suggest that the Protestant drive toward missions that I grew up with is completely misplaced, because, otherwise, “how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard?” And truth be told, their zealousness toward missions shames us. However, I would say that using money to support people to go and live among another culture often gives us a false sense of self-accomplishment. We feel like we are “doing missions”, but we choose to ignore the negative effects of what is actually happening.
Your parish will choose how to use your money and how to engage in missions. However, there is one waning sign I would like to share, something that might be helpful in determining to whom or to what organization you should send your money.
Continue reading “Do We Need to Send Money for Missions?”What Is Living a Christian Witness?
Heading toward a fuller understanding of what it means to live incarnational lives, whether you stay in your local parish or are sent out to cross into another culture and incarnate Christ in that context, we should first investigate some key words from the gospels to build an appropriate understanding of what it means to “bear witness” to the gospel.
Witness, testimony. Maybe some of you have heard this before, but it is a good reminder: the word “witness” and “testimony” are the same word in the Scriptures. To bear witness, false witness, give a testimony, “his testimony is true”, and every other instance, are built on the same root word in Greek. And that is not all. The root on which they are built is the word martyr. So, intentionally transposing these words in English will help us feel some of the nuance that word holds in all of its various contexts:
Continue reading “What Is Living a Christian Witness?”