ABSTRACT
The Orthodox Church has historically conducted missionary outreach as the geographic expansion of the gospel and the Orthodox faith itself. The mission of this local church has then historically continued by focusing on developing an authentic "national" social, intellectual and artistic tradition, inspired by and expressive of the Orthodox Christian tradition. The mission to America which arrived in Kodiak, Alaska on 24 September 1794 had departed from Lake Ladoga nearly a year earlier. Then-analysis of Native Alaskan spirituality was, positive, stating explicitly that the Americans knew the several commandments of the Torah, had a story of the worldwide flood, and believed in an all-powerful creator who governed the universe. Their assessment of the traditional shaman's positive social role should be understood in the context of the Siberian story. Native clergy assumed full responsibility for Alaskan Orthodoxy, and, for the centennial celebrations of the mission in 1894–1895, published a series of liturgical and biblical translations in Aleut, Eskimo and Lingit.
