wfn.org | Tiny Church Meets Variety of Needs in Alaska Village

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Note #5899 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

16-May-2000
00196

	Tiny Church Meets Variety of Needs in Alaska Village

	For nearly a century, Presbyterian mission outpost has been a source of
warmth

	by Evan Silverstein

ANGOON, Alaska -- In the land of the Raven and Eagle, Gilbert Lucero and his
wife are well acquainted with the hardships of ministry in the remote
Tlingit island community of Angoon, Alaska.

	The town of 700 has retained much of its native heritage. In one section
residents live close together in rustic, wood-framed homes  identified by
markings of the owners' clans -- the Killer Whale, the Bear, the Beaver, the
Dog Salmon. In this coroner of southeastern Alaska, the Frances Johnson
Memorial Presbyterian Church is an "anchor in a changing tide" for a village
grappling with a legacy of abuse -- sex, drug and spouse. There also is a
long history of alcoholism, unemployment and a kind of seclusion that
invites despair.
  
	"We take care of the church the best we can," Gilbert Lucero said,
referring to himself and his wife, Gail Tharpe-Lucero, who are elders at the
church and lay ministers in training who have led worship at Frances Johnson
Memorial for the past three years. "We worship together and pray together.
We support each other. In this small of a town, you have to, if you don't
want any arguments. We try to lift people up."

	The pulpit of the nearly century-old church has been vacant for about three
years. It  didn't have an ordained pastor until about 1975. Since then there
have been five others.

	Angoon resident Peter Jack Sr. also helps with services some Sundays.

	"Just keeping it going over the years has been a struggle," said Lucero, a
California native who has been a member of Frances Johnson for 17 years.
"The church itself was literally stopping. We had few people coming, four or
five people at the most. There was a long struggle here."

	Angoon, in an area where brown bears outnumber people, is the only
permanent settlement on Admiralty Island. Its harbor is on a sheltered cove
along Chatham Strait, about 60 miles southwest of Juneau, Alaska's capital.
The other side of the village has a view across the strait of Baranof
Island, with its impressive snow-capped mountains.

	You can reach Angoon only by boat or sea plane. Poor weather often shuts
down travel to and from the island. It was by sea plane that Moderator Freda
Gardner of the 211th General Assembly, and Floyd Rhodes, her vice-moderator,
traveled to Angoon on May 4 during a 10-day, four-state tour of
Presbyterian-related mission sites in the nation's Northwest.

	"In this small community, a lay leader and his wife somehow battle to keep
this church in some form of good health," Gardner later told church and
presbytery officials gathered at Inglesia Presbiteriana Hispana Church in
San Diego, Calif.

	In Angoon, the term ‘good health' is relative. The village's five churches
are more like community centers, ministering to the general population, not
just to a traditional roll of parishioners. While Frances Johnson Memorial
has only seven Presbyterian members, it averages 25 to 30 worshipers each
Sunday, many of whom don't belong to any congregation. In Angoon, churches
don't compete; they share, rotating duties and sometimes huddling to find
solutions to village problems.

	"It's really a much different ministry on the village level," said the Rev.
Bob Carter, who served as pastor of Frances Johnson Memorial from 1987 to
1992. "You work much, much, much closer with the Assembly of God or
Salvation Army (churches) than you would anyplace else, because, as we say
‘We are all fighting the same battle.' It's a community church, more so than
a denominational church."

	Carter and Tharpe-Lucero agreed that many residents look to the church not
only for spiritual nurture, but for help with social needs ranging from
personal counseling and youth outreach to praying for sick villagers.

	"For a lot of people, it's an anchor in a changing tide," said Carter, who
led the moderator's party on a tour of  Sitka, Alaska, where he is pastor of
First Presbyterian Church. "When you're in a storm, a boat goes to a harbor,
and you try to find a place where you can anchor up, where the anchor will
hold, and you can ride out the storm. That's the analogy best for churches
in a village."
 
	Tharpe-Lucero mirrored those words: "We just try to make it an avenue where
they feel like there's somebody who cares about what is happening to them.
It's not in a formal setting; it's more of an informal thing."

	The close-knit Angoon church is not typical of congregations today, said
Rhodes, the vice-moderator.

	"It's what it (the church) used to be in most of the communities in the
United States, but not now," said Rhodes, who is interim executive for the
Synod of South Atlantic. "In present cities we don't have it; it's not an
anchor anymore. There's so many other things to do in the city."

	Greater involvement by young people has given Frances Johnson Memorial a
major lift in recent years, according to Tharpe-Lucero, who spearheads the
congregation's youth ministry.

	"I think it's the focus on trying to involve the youth in the services,"
she said. "We involve all youth in different programs that we do, whether
they go to the church or not. My main focus is working with the young people
to make them the future leaders of the church."

	Tharpe-Lucero said many young churchgoers participate in scripture
readings, youth choir and family night visits for fellowship and worship.
There are annual Christmas programs, and a sleep-over for youngsters was
held at the church before Easter. "Certain church members and elders try to
see what we can do to meet those needs," Tharple-Lucero said.

	Gardner and Rhodes started their May 3-13 "Presbyterian Mission USA" tour,
sponsored by the National Ministries Division of the PC(USA), in Alaska,
moving from there to the Seattle, Washington area. Gardner preached at First
Presbyterian Church, a church re-development project in Quilcene,
Washington, toured a ministry for homeless women in Seattle and met with
pastors of a new-church development called Seattle Community Church.

	The moderator then worshiped with a Native American Nez Perce congregation
in Kamiah, Idaho, before visiting a young-adult volunteer ministry and
taking part in discussions with racial-ethnic and immigrant church
development pastors in Los Angeles. The trip continued to San Diego for
similar meetings and a visit to the proposed site of a Sudanese church.

	Back in Angoon, Mayor Floyd Kookesh said Frances Johnson Memorial Church
has played a significant role in the lives of the Tlingit tribe for
generations.

	"The Presbyterian Church is not negative, they're very positive," said
Kookesh, 45, who met Gardner and Rhodes during their visit. "We've had
different kinds of denominations that were temporary that created problems,
but the Presbyterian Church, they go back to even before I was born. They go
back to my father's time, when he was a young man. They played a vital role
in the community then. Churches were especially important in the beginning."

	Lucero said he thinks the church has survived by becoming a place of
genuine spirituality.

	"With all my heart, I believe it's just faith," he said. "Not backing down.
Not being afraid. Not letting any of the outside world and friction in the
village and politics interfere. And (it's) that the doors are open for
everyone and anyone. ‘It's your church, and you're welcome to come in.'
That's the bottom line, loving the good Lord."

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