By Father Demetrios Swanson, Resident Priest
The very first Liturgy in the Americas was celebrated off the coast of Alaska in 1741, nearly 300 years ago. It was celebrated onboard the ship of captain Vitus Bering (the namesake of the Bering Sea) on the feast of the Holy Prophet Elias, July 20. Our beloved St. Innocent arrived in Alaska 80 years later. He traveled extensively throughout Alaska, teaching, baptizing, building churches often with his own hands, translating the Gospels and Services into the local languages which he had learned through intense study, all while keeping detailed accounts and journals.
St. Innocent was unimaginably industrious, still famous in scientific circles for his detailed studies of the natural environment in Alaska. While there, he took at least one journey down the North American Pacific Coast reaching as far as California. It is thought that his goal was to reach Mexico. He never did. Or so I said in a recent sermon here at the St. Innocent Mission, our little chapel within the walls of St. Innocent Orphanage. After the sermon I was corrected by Presbytera Carmen Sosa who said, “That’s not true. St. Innocent did make it to Mexico. We have his relics here in the church.” I wanted to cry. She is correct.
In 1995 Project Mexico received a piece of St. Innocent's bone and shortly afterwards the first Orthodox Church in Northern Mexico, our little chapel was named St. Innocent. A miracle. For almost 30 years St. Innocent Mission has been celebrating the Divine Liturgy, baptizing and communing Orthodox Christians, and sanctifying the earth within the walls of the St. Innocent Orphanage. It has been a true orphanage chapel ministering mainly to the orphanage needs. But like the treasure it is, it has also attracted hungry seekers of Christ and has seen the receiving of more than a handful of new Orthodox Christians.
Our community currently numbers about 40 members, not including the 22 Orthodox orphan boys. With this seed of a community it is now the most beautiful and perfect time to continue the work of the great missionary St. Innocent of Alaska outside of the orphanage walls, focusing attention on the local community by building a new temple in their midst.
The orphanage chapel will continue to minister to the needs of the orphanage. At the same time we hope to now build a local parish which our orphan boys can attend with their families even after they leave the orphanage and the orphanage chapel.
On the very feast of the Prophet Elias this past summer we purchased land in central Rosarito. We will build a temple on it within the next year. By God’s grace, we will soon be announcing “Blessed is the Kingdom…” from within the heart of Rosarito, echoing those same words which began the Liturgy on that ship floating in the Northern Pacific waters 300 years ago.
The mission continues. The Church grows.
St. Innocent, pray to God for us.