Anchored in Tradition
The Church of the Holy Protection is a Russian Orthodox Old Rite parish nestled in the quiet beauty of Homer, Alaska. Our community is composed of faithful who strive to preserve the ancient liturgical and spiritual traditions of the Orthodox Church, while warmly welcoming all who seek the fullness of the Faith.
Originally established as a Belokrinitskaya Old Rite community, our parish entered into full canonical communion with the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR) in January 2025. This historic step united us with the wider Orthodox world while allowing us to retain the treasured rites, melodies, and customs handed down from the 17th century.
Community
Our parish building—set amid Alaska’s majestic coastal landscape—serves as a place of peace, prayer, and true Christian fellowship. Though geographically distant, we maintain strong ties with other Russian Orthodox Church communities.
We gather for services each weekend, with Vigil on Saturday evening and the Divine Liturgy on Sunday morning. Services are conducted according to the Old Rite, primarily in English with traditional Church Slavonic used in hymns and prayers. Please check our parish calendar for feast day celebrations and special services.
Orthodoxy means right teaching, correct doctrine. Orthodox Christianity is the true doctrine of Christ. When Orthodoxy came to the Slavic lands, the term was rendered as pravoslavie – right glorification, which fits the importance attached to worshipping God in beauty as well as in truth.
Christianity is concerned with man’s salvation from evil. The belief of the mind and the praise of the lips would be hollow if not joined to virtue. And so, true belief and true worship must bear fruit in right conduct, good morals and righteous actions.
In Orthodox Christianity, man’s mind, soul and body are elevated and ennobled to rise above the merely mundane and to lead what one writer has given as the very definition of Orthodoxy: “new life in the Holy Spirit.”
