Russian Orthodox Church

Gregory Golodoff was sitting in a sod house when the soldiers arrived. “We had heard machine gunfire from this side, this side, you know. I forgot who it was told us they’re coming from this side, they’re coming from that,” Golodoff said in a 2018 interview — 75 years after the Battle of Attu. The Japanese Imperial Army invaded the Unangax̂ village in 1942, where the three-year-old Golodoff lived with his family.

Archpriest Michael James Oleksa of the Russian Orthodox Church passed away during the wee hours Wednesday morning after having suffered a stroke. Oleksa became a prominent figure in the Alaska Diocese after arriving in the state in 1970, when he moved to an Alutiiq village in Kodiak.

Unalaska's iconic Russian Orthodox cathedral has a new resident priest, who says he is excited to get to know the town.

The Right Reverend Alexei was elected as the bishop of the Orthodox Church of Alaska in 2022. In May, he made his first visits to some of the farthest-flung parishes in his large, statewide diocese, including St. George in the Pribilof Islands, and then Atka and Unalaska in the Aleutian Islands.

A photo essay following Bishop Alexei of the Orthodox Church of Alaska on his first visit to Atka, one of the westernmost communities in the United States. St. Nicholas Church is one of the oldest Orthodox parishes in Alaska, founded in 1825. There, Bishop Alexei performed the Hierarchical Divine Liturgy, which is only served when the bishop is present, as well as St. Nicholas service for the church's patron saint.