Prayers for Alaskans

*Update: We are collecting donations through the parish to send for immediate help to Bishop Alexie and the OCA diocese of Alaska. Please send your donations in to our usual St. Aidan auto transfer e-mail address of [email protected] and mark them “Alaska” and we will collect them and send them through to our Archdiocese to send to Alaska. This way we can issue you a charitable tax receipt for the end of the year. Alternately or in addition, Simon from the Sacred Alaska film has sent us a “Go Fund Me” which we can also use to help Fr. Noah personally.*

Please pray and help support our suffering Alaskan Christian brothers and sisters.

Archbishop of Sitka and Alaska wrote the following to Metropolitan Tikhon and Archbishop Irénée, who then sent it on with encouragements to keep the suffering in your prayers:

“I write with gratitude and fraternal love in Christ to thank Your Beatitude for calling the Church to prayer following the devastating storm that has struck our people in western Alaska. I am also deeply thankful to each of you, my brothers, for keeping the diocese and especially those displaced and those still unaccounted for close to your hearts and in your prayers during these difficult days.

Over the past seventy-two hours, my office has received numerous reports of the terrible conditions on the ground following the destruction caused by Typhoon Halong. While the worst of the storm has now passed, many villages remain inundated by floodwaters and without basic infrastructure. At this time, one death has been confirmed, and at least five individuals are still missing. The villages of Kwig, Kong, and Tunt were among the most severely impacted; tragically, the temples in Kwig and Tunt were washed away by the river’s surge. Approximately forty percent of the affected communities are Orthodox, and of those completely destroyed, two are our own.

Among those suffering is Priest Noah Andrew, who, together with his Matushka, was at home when their house was torn from its foundation and carried them a mile downstream. Clinging to a rope and an icon of the Mother of God they survived and are now sheltering with hundreds of others in the village school. We are doing all we can to support them and the faithful in these afflicted communities.

I will continue to keep the Holy Synod informed as more information becomes available. In the meantime, I humbly ask for your continued prayers and remembrance of the diocese and for the safe return of those still missing, and for the consolation and steadfast faith of those who now find themselves without homes, churches, and livelihoods.”

*Icon image of the Saints of North America (oca.org)