Sunday Morning Scene: Churches of the West: Church of St. Nicholas, Old Believers Russian Orthodox, Nikolaevsk Alaska

Churches of the West: Church of St. Nicholas, Old Believers Russian Orthodox, Nikolaevsk Alaska

Church of St. Nicholas, Old Believers Russian Orthodox, Nikolaevsk Alaska

This is the Church of St. Nicholas in Nikolaevsk Alaska. The church is an Old Believers Russian Orthodox Church.

I've generally avoided describing doctrinal matters on this blog, but because there are Russian Orthodox churches that appear hear, and because this stands to be confusing, I will here, although only very briefly.  The Old Believers descend from Russians who separated from the main Russian Orthodox Church when they refused to accept certain reforms that came about in the 17th Century.  By almost any outside standard, the reforms were very minor, but the Old Believers rejected them and separated from the Russian Orthodox.  Some priests were included in the group, but no bishops were, so within the lives of those priests the clergy died out, as there was no valid way to ordain new ones.

To add to the confusion, however, starting in the 20th Century various Old Believer groups have come to have priests once again, as they've located bishops willing to ordain priests for them.  Not all have accepted this, however, and today there are Old Believer Russian Orthodox churches with priests, and without, as well as some that are in communion with Rome, while most are not.  

This church in located in an Old Believer community, as almost all of them are.  Nikolaevsk, which is outside of Homer, once had two churches, one priestless, and this one, but the other one burned down at some point (I'm not suggesting fowl play) and the parishioners relocated to another town near Homer.  

These photos fail to show the entire church, which is being added to, as the vegetation in the area is so dense.