Orthodox Alaskan native language texts now on-line

HAMILTON, ON, CANADA [OCA Communications] — The parish of All Saints of North America here recently launched a new on-line resource detailing the rich linguistic history of the Orthodox Christian mission in Alaska at www.asna.ca/alaska.

“With the blessing of His Grace Bishop Seraphim of Ottawa and Canada and His Grace Bishop Nikolai of Sitka, Anchorage, and Alaska, this ambitious project has been inaugurated to digitize all historic biblical, liturgical, and catechetical Orthodox texts in the original Alaskan languages,” according to the Rev. Geoffrey Korz, rector of All Saints of North America parish. “Currently, almost 70% of all known published texts have been digitized in PDF format. The texts are in the Aleut, Alutiiq (Kodiak dialect), Tlingit, and Yup’ik languages, in the original Cyrillic alphabets. Many of these texts were authored by Saints Innocent Veniaminov and Jacob Netsvetov.

“These are pieces of Alaska’s rich Orthodox Christian heritage which are being preserved for the present and future generations,” Father Korz added. “In this way, the Orthodox Church continues to show the faithful and the world at large that Orthodox Christians have always taken the lead in defending the interests of the native peoples of Alaska in proclaiming the true faith. The vision of Saint Herman and the brethren of the original Valaam mission to America inspires this work today.”

Work on the project began in May 2005. The linguistic contributions of the Very Revs. Paul Merculief and Michael Oleksa, both of Anchorage, AK, have been critical to the success of this project.

Seven additional texts will be released on-line in 2006 and 2007.

“It is the belief of the transcribers that Saint Herman is praying for the success of this project,” Father Korz said. “Many more historic texts exist in unpublished manuscript form; hopefully they will form the basis of a similar project in the future.”

Comments, questions, and corrections relating to this project may be directed to Father Korz at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).