Orthodox Christian churches near Ketchikan Alaska?

Question

My family may be moving to that area next spring, and I've had no luck finding one on my own. I don't have a preference as to Greek, Russian, Antiochian, etc. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

I've tried goarch.org, oca.org, and the russian site's searches, and general searches on msn.

Answer 1

Not that I've ever seen there (worked there a dozen times) and not that I could find in any web or phone searches.

Whereas my Alaskan town ( Kenai) and many other Alaskan towns have Russian Orthodox churches (Kodiak, Unalaska, Sitka, Juneau, Anchorage, etc come to mind), Ketchikan was founded as a salmon saltery (later a cannery and lumber mills) in 1883, decades after Russia's ownership of Alaska. So the founders had no reason to set up an Orthodox Church and there was no local congregation existing from Russian colonial days.

Note that searches for the nearest one, like in Sitka, that will pop up on the web, Mapquest, etc are LOUSY in SE Alaska. They'll quote travel times of 2 hours or so, when, really, you need to wait a few days for the State Ferry to come through or hop on the once-a day "milk-run" Alaska Airlines jet going in your direction (or charter a plane for $1000-2000 or so). Except for Hyder, Haines and Sagway, all of SE Alaska is off the road system. And those 3 towns are a LONG drive from anywhere else.

Typically, Ketchickan residents look to Seattle for their shopping, medical needs, and travel connections rather than traveling further north into Alaska. So for periodic attendence, you could look to a Seattle church (should be all flavors, I had a Greek Orthodox Church near my Seattle house in Capital Hill) by laying over whenever you travel south.

For regular attendence, Ketchikan would be a difficult starting point.

Hope that helps.

Answer 2

This seems to be the closest:

Saint Michael the Archangel Cathedral
Lincoln St.
Sitka, Alaska 99835
[phone]

His Grace the Right Reverend NIKOLAI - Rector

but I would write or call: Priest Ilea Larson

Priest Nicholas Bullock - Retired - Attached
PO Box 7015
Ketchikan, AK 99901
(907)-225-6802