AK: Keeping the Faith

Sat, April 12, 2008 
Posted in AK

This week on AK, we’re Keeping the Faith. We’ll visit the Mt. Bether Bible Center, a farm community outside Hoonah, and check into the turmoil in the Russian Orthodox Church. Sing along with Anchorage’s multicultural church choirs, dip into a little Zen, and ask, when it comes to Passover, why is this state different from all other states? All that and more this week on AK, heard statewide on local APRN stations statewide.


Mt. Bether Bible Center
Mt. Bether Bible Center, a cousin to the Dry Creek community near Dot Lake, and Covenant Life out of Haines, was founded in Southeast Alaska in 1975. Since then, the farm community has been home to more than 300 people and countless animals. AK’s Scott Burton stayed on the farm and was shown around by community president Bob Clark, and his wife, Judy.

Klukwan Beliefs
Klukwan elder Joe Hotch says teaching children a strong belief system is an important part of Tlingit culture. He shares one particular story with Ann Kaiser.

Passover on the Last Frontier
Just around the corner is the Jewish holiday of Passover, commemorating the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt, and liberation from slavery. AK host Rebecca Sheir explores Passover traditions around the state - from halibut gefilte fish in Homer to do-it-yourself seders in Bethel.

Anchorage Zen Community
For nearly 25 years, the Anchorage Zen Community has been offering silent meditation sittings, book discussion groups, even a film series. Anchorage writer Jonathan Bower’s renewed interested in silent meditation recently brought him back to the group, in its new home, where he met its new resident priest, Koun Franz.

Faith-Based Initiatives
The Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives was established in 2005. Michael Curran is a project coordinator there. He told AK’s Scott Burton that much of his job involves connecting different groups so they can share resources to provide services. One initiative links Anchorage’s homeless population with a wide array of resources.

Russian Orthodox Turmoil
In mid-March, the highest leader in Alaska’s Russian Orthodox Church, Bishop Nikolai, was asked to voluntarily step down while church leaders back east investigated complaints against him. Since then, he’s been removed from his post, and reinstated again. Ralph Gibbs of the Kodiak Daily Mirror has been watching the issue closely; he speaks with AK host Rebecca Sheir.

Multicultural Choirs
In the Roman Catholic Church, music has long had a place in the liturgy. The American Catholic Bishops even have guidelines for a choir’s part in the Mass celebration - though they don’t specify how the choir’s music is culturally expressed. On a recent Sunday, AK’s Ellen Lockyer attended Our Lady of Guadalupe and St. Benedict’s to hear some of Anchorage’s faithful lift their voices, and their spirits.

Poetry Out Loud: Continued
For National Poetry Month, we’re airing selections from the statewide “Poetry Out Loud” recitation contest. Today: John McCullough of Petersburg High School, with Edgar Allen Poe’s “Alone,” and Juneau Douglas High School’s Scott Schuler, with “Sonnet 18″ by William Shakespeare.

 
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Comments

2 Comments to “AK: Keeping the Faith”

  1. abdus sammie on April 12, 2008 at 12:35 pm

    Just caught a portion of your fun drive, and it so exemplified all that is wrong with KSKA that I thought, this is an opportunity. Grew up here, went on to Maryland, stuck around as a G man in the arts. KSKA is culturally tone deaf in a horn of plenty. My time in D.C. exposed me to people who desired knowledge from me of Alaska, the Atabaskan, the Aleut. But I had none. One of the most profound moments came when on a visit here a friend dragged out an old yearbook, and there were Natives that went to school with me. They were invisible.

    So that is where you come in. One of the best tv shows ever is Heartbeat Alaska, all about invisible people. And something you can’t get any where else! A show like AK is as the producer said, a fly by, find a bartender & he tells her what’s up. Another was her search for Jews in Alaska. Basically yupps staring at their belly fuzz.

    I’m suggesting that you include people just off the road system. Also, you would be investing in programming like Hearbeat AK, you will be providing the community with an education. Plus all the natives and people like me will shower you with money.

  2. John Proffitt on April 12, 2008 at 5:51 pm

    Abdus — Thanks for the comment. I’ll pass it on to KSKA for their own reflection and possible response (this is the APRN site, not the KSKA site).

    While I would agree there’s not typically wall-to-wall hard-core Native off-the-road-system stories in AK or on KSKA, it’s only fair to point out that KSKA is based in Anchorage. KSKA is chartered to serve this area first and foremost, not the smaller bush communities around the state. Most of those communities have their own local public radio stations that specifically serve their needs and do a very good job. Further, there’s a second public radio station in Anchorage itself — KNBA — and they are Native-owned and intend to serve the Native perspective and community more than KSKA.

    There have been discussions within KSKA, even recent ones, about our lack of participation in the rich cultural heritage of Alaska Natives — despite the factors noted above. My own understanding, having been at the station just a few years, is that KSKA has been actively discouraged by outside players from pursuing content along those lines because that’s considered territory delegated to others and we should let them handle it.

    AK — an APRN production, not a KSKA one — does reach beyond the road system, as much as it can, to bring stories from across the state. Do we cover it all and from every perspective? Of course not. But let’s be realistic — AK has about 4 employees with a smattering of independent producers and reporters all over Alaska that occasionally submit pieces for the show. If we could more easily capture stories that were more in-depth or Native or off-road in style or nature, that would be great!

    I would encourage you to put folks in touch with the AK crew to suggest stories or even produce stories. Share ideas. Encourage. You’ve got a great start here — sharing both concerns and encouragement. Let’s keep that going. AK can always do better, always grow and evolve and learn.

    In the mean time, check out the back catalog of shows that AK has done since the fall of 2003. There’s a ton of education about rural Alaska in there, lots of cultural pieces that share the special world of remote Alaska and Native Alaska with a wider audience. We need to do more, always more, but we also need credit for the job well done to date.

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