About the Archdiocese of Anchorage

Missionary Cooperative Plan

When traveling in the Archdiocese of Anchorage, one must consider first the vastness of the land. Encompassing a territory of 138,985 square-miles, the diocese is larger than the six states in New England and New York combined. Also consider the elements that can hamper travel at any given moment. Snow storms, heavy fog, high wind, flooding rains, and sub-zero temperatures are a reality that all missionaries in Alaska can face on any given day.

Of the 29 parishes in the archdiocese, 21 are located outside metropolitan Anchorage and most are in rural parts of the state, and since the road system is so limited, many are accessible only by airplane or boat. Only 8 of the 21 parishes and missions outside of Anchorage have a resident priest.

The diversity and small size of its parishes is perhaps the most striking aspect of the Archdiocese of Anchorage. A tiny congregation of only 20 people meets regularly in the remote village of Clark’s Point in Bristol Bay on the Bering Sea Coast. Our Lady of the Snows Mission of 60 families in Girdwood has just recently completed the construction of their own building after several years of sharing with another denomination. The new building will be dedicated in the summer of 2006. In Unalaska on the Aleutian Chain, Masses are celebrated in the mission’s own facility but also in the conference room of a fish processing plant to accommodate workers who get little time off from their jobs at the height of the fishing seasons.

Despite the many challenges facing the archdiocese, God’s Word is still being spread to parishioners in these communities large and small. Those faith communities without a resident pastor host a “supply” priest on an average of twice per month. Every weekend, these traveling priests are dispatched by the archdiocese for Mass, sacraments and other pastoral needs to those sites without a resident priest. Travel to these communities is usually by small aircraft on commercial or charter flights and is very expensive.

A number of these smaller parishes and missions do not have the means to financially support themselves because of the small number of parishioners and the lack of a strong economic base in these communities. The archdiocese therefore provides monthly financial assistance to several parishes and missions to maintain basic needs such as heat and lights. God has blessed the Archdiocese of Anchorage in many ways. Some of the expense for this rural ministry - supporting supply priests, travel to rural sites, and mission subsidies - comes from the support of the Catholic Church Extension Society and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on the Home Missions . In addition, through participation in Missionary Cooperative Plans of other diocese, supporters from across the United States have helped in this important ministry to bring, maintain, and strengthen the Church in the farthest flung reaches of the Alaska frontier.