On December 10, 2009, the the following was posted on the web page of the Orthodox Church in America:

The Holy Synod of Bishops of the Orthodox Church in America, a New York
religious corporation (the "OCA"), has concluded an investigation into
the allegations made by Paul Sidebottom regarding actions by
Archimandrite Isidore (Brittain) which took place in Kodiak, Alaska on
May 16–17, 2007. While the OCA does not admit liability for any of
the matters involved in Mr. Sidebottom's allegations of sexual
harassment, those allegations have been found to be credible by the
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ("EEOC") in its
investigation of Mr. Sidebottom’s allegations, and the Holy Synod
recognizes that the consequences of the protracted investigation have
been a source of much distress to Mr. Sidebottom. The Holy Synod
regrets any adverse impact these circumstances have had on Mr.
Sidebottom. The Holy Synod also regrets that Mr. Sidebottom was
discharged from his position at St. Herman’s Seminary by the
now-retired Bishop of Alaska, Nikolai, in retaliation for filing the
complaint with the OCA, as found by the EEOC in its investigation of
Mr. Sidebottom’s allegations. In bringing this unfortunate case to a
conclusion, the Holy Synod prays that the parties hurt and affected
will partake of the merciful love, healing and peace that Our Lord
Jesus Christ grants to all. The Holy Synod willingly embraces its
Christian duty to facilitate healing, forgiveness and reconciliation,
and it prays that these and other steps taken will, by God’s grace,
lead to that end.

The seminary computer lab was updated to a server based system over the last few weeks. Fr. Innocent used existing hardware to build a Ubuntu Linux based server which the students can access from the workstation computers. This upgrade cost the seminary nothing and runs exclusively open source software. Not only is the network easier to maintain but it is also more convenient for the seminarians and their families.

The 2008 academic school year came to a close with the ordination of Deacon John Larson to the Holy Priesthood. His Grace Bishop BENJAMIN presided over the hierarchical Divine Liturgy at Holy Resurrection Cathedral in Kodiak on Sunday June 1st.

Priest John Dunlop was also elevated to the rank of Archpriest and appointed the Dean of Saint Herman Seminary. He and Matushka Beague were awarded a gramota from the Holy Synod of Bishops in recognition for their faithful service to the seminary over the years.

Later that evening graduation ceremonies were celebrated and Father John Larson graduated, having completed his studies at St. Herman Seminary.

Also recognized were Ishmael Andrews and Methodios Nicori, having earned their Readers certificates.

His Grace Bishop BENJAMIN gave the commencement address. Mary Ann Khoury, administrator of Outreach Alaska was also present to personally present Father John with a new set of vestments and final support check from his Outreach Alaska sponsor.

We eagerly anticipate the 2009 graduation ceremonies at St. Herman Seminary. The Board of Trustees will meet on Saturday, May 30, followed by Resurrectional Vigil at Holy Resurrection Cathedral at 6 p.m. His Grace Bishop BENJAMIN will celebrate Hierarchical Divine Liturgy at 9 a.m. on Sunday, May 31, with commencement exercises held at 5 p.m. The commencement speaker will be The Very Reverend David Lowell, executive director of Raphael House, located in San Francisco.

On February 13-14, 2009, St. Herman Seminary instructor Irenaios Anderson travelled to Napaskiak at the invitation of the Bethel Deanery to give a presentation to clergy and church school teachers, Topics discussed were what is an Orthodox Christian view of education, essential books for teaching both adults and children, an introduction to available curriculum, how to write lesson plans, and various on-line resources available to teachers. A point of emphasis was that the role of the seminary is to serve the Church in Alaska. At the teachers' request, this web page soon will provide more on-line sources for Church school teachers. We hope that this presentation is the first of many and that the seminary can help all the deaneries of our diocese to teach our people more about the Faith. Our heartfelt thanks go to Fr. Phillip Alexie, dean, Fr. Vasily Fisher and the community of St. James Church in Napaskiak who showered such hospitality on Subdeacon Irenaios, and our supporters who selflessly provided books, curriculum, and their continued prayers for the clergy, church school teachers, and faithful not only of the Bethel deanery but all of the Diocese of Alaska. May this be the beginning of a renewal of education for our people!  

On the Sunday of the Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council, St. Herman Seminary celebrated the sending out of seminary graduate Fr. Gregory Parker to help guide people to the True Faith (from the troparion of the Feast). On Saturday, May 30, the St. Herman Seminary Board of Trustees met, and on Sunday His Grace BENJAMIN, Bishop of San Francisco and the West, whom also is the locum tenens of the Diocese of Alaska, celebrated a Hierarchical Divine Liturgy. At the Liturgy His Grace tonsured two seminarians, James Sipary and Michael Heckman, as Readers. After the Liturgy His Grace blessed a mission team from Holy Resurrection Church in Kodiak that would travel to Old Harbor, Alaskans ministering to Alaskans. At the commencement later that evening, trustees, faculty, family, and friends of the seminary enjoyed the commencement, the address by seminary trustee The Very Reverend David Lowell of Raphael House in San Francisco, and the music and food provided by St. Innocent Academy. The community rejoiced at the graduation of Fr. Gregory, who will be serving at the historic parish of Three Saints Church in Old Harbor on Kodiak Island. In addition to graduating from seminary, Fr. Gregory received Chemical Dependency Counselor (CDC) I certification to help those in his community with substance abuse issues. Substance abuse training is an integral part of the curriculum at St. Herman Seminary and reflects our view of a holistic healing of the person in Christ.

At the reception following commencement exercises, Fr. Gregory received gifts of an icon of St. Nicholas and vestments from his sponsoring church, St. Nicholas Cathedral in Washington, D.C. This sponsorship program has been coordinated by Mary Ann Khoury of Outreach Alaska and provides opportunities for individuals and churches to support seminarians and churches in the Diocese of Alaska. His Grace called attention to Mary Ann's work for the Church in Alaska and led the people in applauding her, even though she was unable to attend this year's graduation personally.

Finally, Subdeacon Andre Tepper, Reader James Sipary, Reader Michael Heckman, and Ephrim Smith received their Reader's Certificate.

We celebrate with Fr. Gregory, Matushka Mary Magdalene, and sons Gabriel, Alexei, and Leo as they begin their ministry in Old Harbor. May God grant them many years!

The youth group from Holy Transfiguration Greek Orthodox Church in Anchorage came to Kodiak Island for a pilgrimage June 27th-July 1st.  They enjoyed beautiful weather while exploring the island, praying at Monk's Lagoon, and helping us out around campus.

Since fishing was closed for the day, Fr. Alexie Knagin and his boat crew spent the day working on campus and finished putting up dry wall at the back entrance of the married student dorms.  Thank you for your hard work!!

This week, the aging roofs of both the married student dormitory and the administration building were replaced with new steel roofs which should last about twenty years.

Metropolitan visits 39^th St. Herman pilgrimage
By Bradley Zint, Kodiak Daily Mirror writer

Monday, August 10, 2009

MONK’S LAGOON, Spruce Island — The sounds of ringing bells infused the misty Saturday morning air during the arrival of the skiff transporting His Beatitude, Metropolitan Jonah to the tiny corner of Spruce Island.

For Metropolitan Jonah and about 250 other attendees from throughout the world, the annual pilgrimage to the small corner of Alaska is made to honor and remember St. Herman, the canonized saint who was instrumental in establishing Orthodoxy in North America. St. Herman, who first arrived in Alaska in 1794, lived a monastic life on Spruce Island in the early 1800s. He often is considered the patron saint of the Americas.

St. Herman was canonized in 1970 and is now buried in Kodiak.

Saturday was the 39th anniversary of the pilgrimage and the first one for Metropolitan Jonah, who was elected metropolitan of all American and Canadian Russian Orthodox churches in 2008. The pilgrimage was only one event of the three-day schedule, which began Friday and ended Sunday.

Metropolitan Jonah was warmly greeted as he arrived on the shore of Spruce Island, where bells continued to ring until he led the procession inland toward the chapel where the Divine Liturgy is concelebrated.

The small chapel has a deck built outside its entrance to accommodate the modern-day crowds who come for the pilgrimage. The Divine Liturgy — which dates back to the fifth century — lasted about two hours and included chanting of Psalm verses, prayer petitions, the asking of peace for the world, reading of Scriptures, venerations, and a sermon by Metropolitan Jonah and communion.

“Coming to this place, I think we all feel the grace,” said Metropolitan Jonah during the sermon. “You feel the sanctity. This place was permeated by the prayers of St. Herman. This place was permeated by grace, by the very activity of the presence of God.”

The metropolitan reflected on the significance of St. Herman.

“St. Herman is the foundation of Orthodoxy in America because he heard the Gospel and he lived it,” he said. “The sanctity that dwells up in his relics, the sanctity of this place, it came through his prayer. It must be for us that wellspring of inspiration and hope where we, too, can fulfill the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

He offered advice to congregants.

“We have to come to that place where we can let go of all of the darkness that holds us down, all the darkness that keeps us imprisoned in our egos, all of the darkness that fuels our anger and our passions and our rage and our lust … this is just not the way of the monk. It certainly is the way for the monk and the nuns, but it’s the way for every Christian.”

After the Divine Liturgy, some attendees paid tribute to St. Herman by visiting his original gravesite underneath the chapel.

“Sometimes people take a small amount of dirt from the ground in there,” said the Very Rev. Gregory Safchuk. “They keep it in remembrance of St. Herman. In some cases, they believe that both the oil from the lamp over his grave or his relics and the dirt, coupled with prayer and faith, can even help a person who is sick to recover.”

The day also had a short memorial prayer service at the gravesites of the Very Rev. Archimandrite Gerasim Schmaltz and Father Peter Kreta. The two are buried on Spruce Island. Schmaltz is a disciple of St. Herman and lived as a monk for a time around Monk’s Lagoon.

After the services, attendees had a picnic on the beach before heading back to Kodiak. For many, it was their first time eating for about 12 hours because they began fasting Friday night, waiting to eat only after receiving communion.

Saturday was the sixth pilgrimage for Safchuk, who taught in Kodiak from 1982 to 1985 at St. Herman Theological Seminary. He now works in Bethesda, Md.

Safchuk said he was especially honored to help distribute the communion during the Divine Liturgy.

“I got to literally distribute it, as the metropolitan said (Friday) night, to the descendants of those Native peoples whom St. Herman ministered to,” he said. “For me, that was a tremendously significant, moving experience.”

He said the addition of the deck in recent years to the small chapel has been a big improvement for the service. It has added more of a sense of connectivity for attendees. Before, congregants had to stand around the chapel on the grass while the Divine Liturgy took place with only a handful of people inside.

Safchuk said throughout all the pilgrimages, he has been grateful for the help from the community.

“What’s always struck me, back even when I was here in the ’80s, was the tremendous cooperation of people in town — whether they be Orthodox Christians or not — who lend their boats and time to bring people over there,” Safchuk said. “I’ve always been tremendously impressed with that, especially when the price of boat fuel has been extremely high at times and it’s a tremendous sacrifice for them to fire up those big boats and take us over there.”

Filming Saturday’s pilgrimage was filmmaker Dave Kaplan, who also serves on the Kodiak Island Borough Assembly. Serving as producer was Alexander Safchuk, a student at Ohio State University who came to Kodiak from Bethesda with his church.

Alexander and his church colleagues raised money for the expensive flight to the Emerald Isle. They came for the pilgrimage and have also been helping with local church projects.

Saturday’s footage is for the North American Saints Project, through the Orthodox Church of America.

“It’s outlining a lot of lectures, but they’re all talking about the saints of North America and the Orthodox Church,” Alexander said. “It’s going to be more of an educational series … we wanted to get the perspective on St. Herman, especially, because of the pilgrimage up here. It was also an historical occasion having Metropolitan Jonah here on his first time on the pilgrimage.”

Alexander interviewed Metropolitan Jonah on the Sea Breeze, owned by Kodiak Harbormaster Marty Owen. Owen offered his vessel to transport the metropolitan and others to Spruce Island. The metropolitan answered questions about the significance of Spruce Island, the Alaskan saints, of venerating the saints and how they have impacted his life.

The Rev. Safchuk said St. Herman holds special significance because he is a saint more recent and closer to home for North Americans.

“He really resonates with people who live here now,” Safchuk said. “He’s not exactly contemporary, but he was canonized in 1970 … people feel a certain kinship over the fact that he was canonized in their lifetime and he worked here in North America. We’re not talking about someone who lived in the fourth century.”

Article may be found at http://www.kodiakdailymirror.com/?pid=19&id=7850

 

MONK'S LAGOON, Spruce Island -- They say the sun has a way of shining on the celebration of St. Herman, patron saint of the Americas.

The sunlight came out dramatically for the 40th anniversary of Herman's canonization on Spruce Island Monday.

The light broke through the fog and spruce trees a few minutes before an international group of Orthodox Christian leaders in green vestments began preparing for communion. About 250 pilgrims stood in line to receive the communion, overflowing a wooden deck built around a small wooden chapel.

Among the visiting clergy was Metropolitan Jonah, head of the Orthodox Church in America and Canada, who led the celebration of the Divine Liturgy for the second year in a row.

Earlier in the service the metropolitan spoke about one of the lessons that can be learned from St. Herman's time living as a hermit on Spruce Island.

"Few places like this exist on earth," he said. "Very quickly in silence a person learns that you are not your thoughts, and this is one of the most incredible freeing things you can learn."

Saint Herman came to Kodiak in 1793 as part of the first Orthodox mission sent by the Russian empire to Alaska.

The church hagiography praises his ascetic life, his kindness to the Alutiiq people, and his miracles -- like a wildfire he stopped behind a piece of moss and a tsunami he halted by placing an icon of the Virgin Mary on the beach.

He died on Spruce Island in 1843 and was canonized in 1970. His relics are kept at the Holy Resurrection Cathedral in Kodiak.

The celebration of Saint Herman's canonization is one of only a few Orthodox pilgrimages in America and might be the hardest to access.

Many pilgrims from the Railbelt arrived in Kodiak Saturday on the ferry Kennicott, where thy gathered together on the top deck. Other pilgrims came from the Lower 48 and Russia. Among Russian guests was Alexander P. Torshin, a senator in Russia.

Also among the pilgrims were Archbishop Justinian, the Russian Orthodox church's leader in the U.S., acting Bishop of Alaska Benjamin and Bishop Maxim, head of the Serbian Orthodox Church in the Western U.S.

Monday did not begin with sunlight.

During the morning a fleet of skiff captains carrying pilgrims between Fort Abercrombie and Spruce Island called out to each other over radios in the pea soup fog.

Victoria Nielson, a Wasilla resident taking a break between college terms, called the entire day "ethereal." She had not expected such a big crowd.

"I was amazed by how helpful and happy everyone was," she said. "Everyone would be complaining if this was anything else except for a pilgrimage."

"It's funny, you get up at 6 a.m. and you wait at the beach for three hours, but you're happy."

Nielson has wanted to attend the pilgrimage since seeing St. Innocent's Academy perform in Homer. She said she hopes to teach the academy Irish dancing.

Father Deacon Samuel Woolums came from Santa Rosa, Calif. He said he was affected by both the presence of St. Herman and the isolation of the setting.

"It's incredibly easier to pray here," he said. "There's not as many people with evil thoughts polluting the airwaves."

Kera Dalton of Boston came to Spruce Island with her husband, three children and a friend of one of her children.

"One of the things I learned is how Father Herman treated the people," she said. "You hear terrible things about missionaries, but here is a man who cared for the Native people and stood up from them against the Russian American Company."

The trip was special, but she will probably not make the pilgrimage again because it was so expensive to travel from Boston.

After arriving at the beach on Spruce Island, pilgrims walked up a shallow hill to the chapel past mossy trees and icons of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary.

On the return trip the pilgrims stopped at the beach to eat a meal organized by the Holy Resurrection Church and the Nativity of Our Lord Church in Ouzinkie. Many had been fasting since the night before.

Most of the group left Spruce Island after the liturgy and lunch, but Spruce Island remains home to a group of monks who live in another part of the island. A group of nuns lives on nearby Nelson Island.

Footage from this year's pilgrimage may reach Russian-speaking audiences around the world through New York-based Russian Television International. A crew from the station filmed the service and interviewed church leaders.

"We loved it," said producer Sergey Shesthaov. "We hope to create a nice special and continue covering the pilgrimages."


This article was written by Sam Friedman and was published in the August 10, 2010, edition of the Kodiak Daily Mirror. St. Herman Seminary is not responsible for any errors that appear in the text of this article.