(14 Aug 2025)
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ASSOCIATED PRESS
Anchorage, Alaska – 13 August 2025
1, Orthodox priest leading prayer near iconostasis
2. Icon of Virgin Mary and candles
3. Wide church of St. Tikhon
4. Parishioner crossing
5. Candles lit dedicated to the repose of the deceased
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Archbishop Alexei, Archbishop of Sitka and Alaska of the Orthodox Church in America:
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"We hope for sustained peace, we hope for ceasefire, we hope for exchange of captives, we hope for the rebuilding of a world, part of a world that’s really been broken by war, by tragedy, by death, and by, of course, deep resentment and hatred and anger."
7. Wide Parishioners crossing
8. Close prayer book
9. Parishioner reading prayer
10. Reflection of choir member singing
11. Priest with censor
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Alexei, Archbishop of Sitka and Alaska of the Orthodox Church in America:
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"This is really a three-day assent of prayer, which begins with a church service really dedicated to St. Olga of Kuithluk. And she was known to be really a healer in families. And because of the great pain and hardship that is experienced by families in the Ukraine, and also in Russia. It felt good to start there, there would be healing there."
13. Wide worshippers
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Alexei, Archbishop of Sitka and Alaska of the Orthodox Church in America:
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"With the leaders coming to Alaska, what is the one thing that the church can offer? And that is prayers for peace"
15. Icon and candle
STORYLINE:
The Orthodox Church in America has been holding three days of prayer for peace at its churches across Alaska this week in advance of the summit between the U.S. and Russian presidents in Anchorage scheduled on Friday.
“With the leaders coming to Alaska, what is the one thing that the church can offer? That is prayers for peace,” said Archbishop Alexei of the Diocese of Sitka and Alaska in an interview with the Associated Prayers.
The first prayers, held Tuesday, sought the prayers of St. Olga of Kwethluk, an Alaska Native woman who was canonized as the first Orthodox woman saint in North America in June.
“She was known to be really a healer in families,” said Archbishop Alexei, who led in prayers to her on Tuesday at St. Innocent Russian Orthodox Cathedral in Anchorage. “And because of the great pain and hardship that is experienced.
Orthodoxy is the majority religion in both Russia and Ukraine, though it has also been a flashpoint with the Russian church’s support for the war and a deepening schism among Ukraine’s Orthodox.
The OCA, meanwhile, is the now-independent offspring of Russian Orthodox missionaries who planted the faith in Alaska when it was a czarist territory in the 18th and 19th centuries. It has about 80 parishes statewide and hundreds more across North America.
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