Reflections after the Akathist for St. Herman of Alaska Eve, at St. John’s Russian Orthodox Mission Church in Winfield, PA, Dec. 11, 7533 (Dec. 24, 2024, on the civil calendar–Christmas Eve on the Western Julian “new” calendar).

From out of seeming shadows of the past, from out of seeming margins of history, help is on the way.

Across the starry snowy fields of rural Winfield, God’s angels are with us.

Help us, save us, have mercy on us, we pray to our Lord in our services.

And He has helped us.

We stand in this new House of God, which He has provided for us, ready to go forth, giving thanks to Him Who made all things.

And tonight we stand inspired by the example of Herman of Alaska on the eve of his feast.

A monastic in the Russian tradition, illumined by hesychastic practices renewed in Russian monastic life in his lifetime, he set forth from Valaam Monastery near Finland, to come to Alaska, first apostle to America of the Orthodox Church in modern times.

Tonight as many in the world celebrate the coming of Jesus Christ, the majority of Orthodox Christians worldwide patiently still fast and wait for His coming on the ancient calendar of the Church, waiting for what is known historically in America as Appalachian Christmas or Old Christmas.

Our ancient calendar was once known here, and is now again, highlighting the sacred time of the Church calendar and our liturgical worship, touching God’s beyond-time by His grace.

Here amid our own Appalachian hollows, on a road whose landscape looks like a small-scale view of the Blue Ridge Mountains, we wait, apart from the commercialism and idolatries of self that mark this season in the secular world. Like the Angels and the Magi, we scan the sky. But ,most importantly, we have a little more time to repent before we celebrate His birth for us, the greatest Christmas gift of all time.

The Herods and precursors of the Beast and the Whore of Babylon may stalk about in the dark.

But on this night, in the quiet light of the new home of our Church family as we gather for an Akathist to ask the prayers of the grandfather of our mission, holy father Herman, may the Lord arise and His enemies be scattered. In fact, the Holy Herman’s recognition as a saint in Orthodoxy worldwide proceeded directly from the work of our patron St. John, with the brotherhood of St. Herman of Alaska, including Hiermonk Seraphim Rose of blessed memory and others in ROCOR.

In the bringing of the dawn of the Orient, the Son of God in the true Orthodox Church, to Native Alaskans, Saint Herman showed the way for peaceful evangelism of North America for the one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, Christ’s Body.

Now let us go forth as missionaries, inspired by St. Herman’s example, to strive for purification, illumination, and contemplation in our prayer of the heart by God’s uncreated grace. In this way, knowing Christ is the way, the truth, and the life, let us pray each day to be missionaries to the natives of northern Appalachia, ourselves included.

And in this to follow St. Seraphim of Sarov, a contemporary of Saint Herman, who said, “Acquire the Spirit of peace, and thousands around you will be saved.”

Amen