‘He was one of those guys that came to Alaska to serve all of Alaska’: Orthodox archbishop dies at 68

The leader of the oldest Christian community in Alaska died Friday evening at the age of 68 after a battle with cancer.

Sterry David Mahaffey Jr. had served as the Archbishop of the Diocese of Sitka and Alaska of the Orthodox Church in America since 2014. Mahaffey was raised Methodist and born in Pennsylvania but later joined the Orthodox faith after marrying his late wife, according to an obituary published by the Orthodox Church in America.

If there were a way to sum up Mahaffey’s legacy among the clergy and community of Alaska, it would be “unconditional love,” Archpriest Innocent Dresdow, chancellor of the Diocese of Sitka and Alaska, said Saturday.

“He just loved us,” Dresdow said.

Mahaffey always made the effort to see members of the Orthodox community throughout Alaska.

“It didn’t matter how remote the village, it didn’t matter how hard it was to get there,” Dresdow said. “And he suffered greatly physically, especially these last few years — his body was not allowing him to do what he wanted to do.”

Mahaffey left Alaska in the fall to seek treatment for cancer and to be with the rest of his family in Pennsylvania, which is where he died, said Subdeacon Thomas Rivas, who serves as secretary of the Diocese of Sitka and Alaska and also served as personal assistant to the bishop.

The Orthodox Church was the first form of Christianity in Alaska and is still practiced today, including by many Alaska Native people in the state, Rivas said. The Alaska diocese is also the oldest Orthodox diocese in the nation, and Mahaffey was in charge of its roughly 90 parishes.

Alaska’s Orthodox community is grieving and praying after the archbishop’s passing, Rivas said, and Mahaffey was the type of person people didn’t forget after meeting.

“He was one of those guys that came to Alaska to serve all of Alaska,” Rivas said.

Since 2014, Mahaffey traveled to as many villages as he could, Rivas said. He was a “stability and an anchor” in Alaska, Rivas said.

“He was what this diocese needed,” Rivas said. “God definitely provided the diocese with the person that they needed.”

Dresdow and Mahaffey met at seminary in 2000, and when Mahaffey arrived in Kodiak on a trip to Alaska in 2013, Dresdow — who was already serving in Kodiak — was there to greet him with an embrace.

Dresdow said Mahaffey’s commitment to the entire state was exemplified by his willingness to visit Russian Mission in September and award a priest there, even after Dresdow told the archbishop he shouldn’t travel given his health.

“He very lovingly said, ‘Yes, I understand Father, thank you for being concerned about that. I’m going,’” Dresdow said Saturday as he was traveling to Mahaffey’s funeral service in Pennsylvania. “And he made the trip.”

Among Mahaffey’s priorities was to make sure the clergy in Alaska made time for spouses and families, Dresdow said. In the past, married clergy sometimes felt a conflict between their commitment to the church and their commitment to their families.

Mahaffey brought those two things together, Dresdow said, and that brought a lot of healing to the church.

And in the past year, Mahaffey began to point out that most of the church’s clergy are first responders of sorts in communities that do not often have a large law enforcement presence. Mahaffey recognized that they needed more support.

“Who gets called when there’s a suicide? Who is the first on the scene of a snowmachine accident or another tragedy? It’s our priests,” Dresdow said.

The church plans to continue with Mahaffey’s initiatives meant to support the well-being of clergy and their families as well as their communities, Dresdow said.

Rivas said he and Mahaffey spent a lot of time with each other and traveled together.

“Since March, I spent pretty much every day with him, and towards the end really, you know, tried to take care of him,” Rivas said.

Mahaffey performed the sacrament of marriage for Rivas and his wife earlier this past summer and was close with his family. When Mahaffey left Anchorage, Rivas said he took him to the airport and helped him check his bags. Saying goodbye was the hardest thing he’s ever done.

“The very fact that we had an opportunity to get to know each other the way that we did was a true gift from God,” Rivas said. “There’s no other way to put it.”