A word from 18th Century Russian missionary St. Macarius Glukharev

“God in his love separates us from one another temporarily, in order once more to unite us all in Christ for eternity. Let us keep silent and devoutly revere this love, which surrounds us on every side. In him we live and move and have our being. Whether alive or dead, we are all in him. It would be more true to say: We are all alive in him, for in him there is no death. Our God is not a God of the dead but of the living. He is your God, he is the God of her who has died. There is only one God, and in that one God you are both united. Only you cannot see each other for the time being. But this means that your future meeting will be all the more joyful; and then no one will take your joy from you. Yet even now you live together…it is that she has gone into another room and closed the door. Spiritual love is not conscious of physical separation.”

Macarius Glukharev lived in the late 18th and early 19th century. Ordained as a priestmonk and given the title of archimandrite, he went to a beautiful, ruggedly mountainous, but impoverished area of the expanding colonialist Russian Empire. (Russia was taking vast areas of Central Asia and Siberia during this imperial expansion, just as the U.S. did in North America – including a vast part of Mexico - in the same era.) Macarius went as a missionary to the Altai, which is part of Russia, south of Siberia at a point where Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and China meet. As in all colonizing ventures, the czarist government wanted these missionary efforts to assist in adapting the native people to Russian control and Russian culture. But the Russian missionaries, unlike many Western Christian missionaries, did not convert by force and did not try to alienate native peoples from their own languages and cultures. This was true in Alaska, where St Innocent (whose feast we will celebrate on October 6th ) required his priests to learn the native languages and translate the Gospels and services. He also cultivated native clergy. More of this when we celebrate his feast day. Macarius at first could not make any headway with the Altai people. But finding their dwellings lacking good sanitation, he decided just to devote himself to being a free cleaning service. Gradually, the people came to respect him and to open their minds to him. Slowly he brought many of them to the Faith. He also established schools where the children were taught in their own language and where the schools honored their culture. Being Christian did mean being torn from your family, your language, your culture and left traumatized spiritually and psychologically. In reading his words, we can see his pastoral sensitivity and care. He also encouraged leading roles for women and girls, and advocated reestablishing the female diaconate of the first millennium. The story of Orthodoxy in Alaska is part of a remarkable and enlightened Russian evangelization in Central Asia, Siberia, Japan, and the New World. Our Church in America is blessed to be the heir of this mission tradition.

Missionary’s Prayer by St Macarius---

O Lord, Lord! Who laid down your life for the salvation of all!

Lord of the harvest, send out many workers for the harvest.

Grant them the spirit of prayer, the spirit of your love, patience, and

wisdom.

Grant them to preach the word with much power to the fulfillment of

your glory.

To all of us redeemed by your Blood,

whether we know you yet or not,

grant the wisdom of your holy Gospel.

Hasten to call and unite all to your one flock here on earth,

to abide inseparably with you unto the ages.

in the light of your Father and our God, to whom with you and the

Holy Spirit

be glory and majesty unto the ages to come. Amen.