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Holy Transfiguration Greek Orthodox Church in Anchorage, Alaska is a parish of storytellers.
Parishioners punctuated this week’s Archiepiscopal visit–the community’s first since Archbishop Iakovos visited in 1977–with tales of churches built by their own hands, episcopal fishing trips, broken doorknobs, and the long journeys their founders took to reach Alaska.
“We had finally arrived at the end of the world,” recalled parishioner Maria Baskous. “The next step would have been the moon.”
The parish’s path was not a straight one. It went from meeting in a basement in the 1950s to losing its priest and closing altogether in the 1960s. The 1970s-1980s oil boom brought a wave of Greek newcomers to Alaska, and a few dedicated faithful turned to the phone book, tracking down nearly 300 Orthodox families to reorganize the parish. Decades of growth and hard work followed: a move to a three-story building in 1987, a groundbreaking for a new Byzantine-style church in 2009, and its door-opening in 2014.
The church’s long-awaited consecration was the occasion for the visit of His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros of America.
“The consecration is the manifestation of sanctified ground and the mingling of heaven and earth,” Parish Council President Akis Gialopsos said in an interview with the Orthodox Observer, “but it’s also that deep tethering of our church forevermore with every other parish within the communion of the [Ecumenical Patriarchate].”
> Learn about the Services of Consecration
Archbishop Elpidophoros offered the Consecration Service and Archierarchical Divine Liturgy on September 19, sealing the relics of the Holy New-Martyrs of Samothrace, Sts. Michael, George, Emmanuel, Theodoros, and George the Young, within the parish’s altar.
Serving alongside Archbishop Elpidophoros were His Eminence Metropolitan Gerasimos of San Francisco, His Grace Bishop Athenagoras of Nazianzos, His Grace Bishop Ioannis of Phocaea, Holy Transfiguration parish priest Fr. Vasili Hillhouse, Fr. Edward Hillhouse (Fr. Vasili’s father), Fr. Luke Kontgas (a former priest of Holy Transfiguration), Fr. Alexis Clodfelter, Fr. Marc Dunaway, Fr. Matthew Howell, and Fr. Seraphim Majmudar. Serving as chanter was Dimitrios Katsiklis, Master Chanter at St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church and National Shrine.
Following Saturday’s liturgical services, the parish celebrated with a banquet at the Anchorage Museum, complete with a Greek folk dance performance by the youth.
“What will our parish now be?” Fr. Vasili asked at the banquet. “My hope is that … our parish becomes a house and a true home of transfiguration for each one of us.”
> Previously: Alaska parish begins new chapter with Vespers of Consecration
Thousands of miles separate Holy Transfiguration Church from their nearest Greek Orthodox parish. The long winter months of darkness and snow do, too. But as Archbishop Elpidophoros noted, in its parishioners he found only warmth.
“We all wondered what we would find in Alaska,” Archbishop Elpidophoros said on Friday. “You imagine ice, snow, cold. We experienced nothing of that.”
A highlight of the Archiepiscopal visit was Thursday evening’s founders dinner, where faithful stood, one after the next, to share stories from the parish’s history–funny, heartwarming, and bittersweet alike.
“We came here to bless this community, but I see that this community is already blessed,” Archbishop Elpidophoros said at the dinner. “You are all part of God’s plan for Alaska.”
These stories are shaped by the community’s distance from relatives in Greece or the Lower 48. In this isolation, they’ve become family, making Alaska a home together.
The parish also holds dear the Saints who once called the same land home–St. Herman of Alaska, St. Innocent of Alaska, St. Jacob Netsvetev, St. Peter the Aleut, St. Juvenal of Alaska, and, most recently, St. Olga of Kwethluk. Founder Maria Baskous shared the faithful take pilgrimages to Spruce Island, where St. Herman lived and was buried.
> Watch: St. Herman the Missionary and Wonderworker of Alaska
“We commemorate [St. Herman] at the dismissal of every Divine Liturgy. The ‘patron of this land’ is what we call him,” Fr. Vasili said in an interview with the Orthodox Observer. “We also commemorate St. Olga of Kwethluk … Our parishioners have taken them on as their own.”
> Read: In a historic canonization, the ‘mother of the Kuskokwim’ becomes an Orthodox saint
During Archbishop Elpidophoros’s time in Anchorage, parishioners also took pride in introducing the Archbishop to Alaska’s natural wonders through a visit to the Portage Glacier.
“The beauty of Alaska … invites more than admiration. It invites contemplation. It invites thanksgiving. It invites responsibility. And perhaps most importantly, it invites humility before the greatest artist of all time, our Creator,” Archbishop Elpidophoros said in a social media reflection.
> Read Archbishop Elpidophoros’s full reflection
For Holy Transfiguration Church, this week’s consecration marks not only the end of one chapter, but the opening of the next.
“We have witnessed a milestone that will remain part of the history of Holy Transfiguration for generations,” Metropolitan Gerasimos said at the consecration banquet. “But tomorrow, the doors of this church must open again, and the work of the Gospel continues. The consecration is not simply the completion of something; it is the beginning of a renewed calling.”
As one founder affirmed, “The story is just beginning.”
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