New Things to Do -- Nutaraq Piicirkaq

IN 1970, when the diocese of Fairbanks, Alaska, decided to train Eskimo deacons to minister in remote Alaskan villages, it was difficult to find Yup'ik words that described the concept. The phrase finally chosen was Nutaraq Piicirkaq — New Things to Do.

The deacon training program was, indeed, something very new — both for the Church and the people. The number of Jesuit priests available to serve the Yup'ik people could no longer cover all the villages. Finding local men willing to serve their community as deacons seemed the best solution. The past 34 years have been a sometimes difficult learning experience for everyone involved. But, today, there are 21 deacons who serve ten villages in the Yukon-Kuskoquim Delta, providing sacraments in communities that may see a priest only every two to six weeks.

The seven Jesuits now serving that region are, for the most part, itinerant ministers, traveling from village to village. Fr. Paul Cochran, SJ, is the visiting priest for the villages of Chefornak and Newtok, on the western edge of the state. At the end of his visit, before departing for the next village, Cochran regularly consecrates a supply of hosts for the tabernacle. But by the time he is able to return, he may find that the deacons are reduced to breaking crumbs to share during the village's communion services.

Fr. David Anderson, SJ, rotates between three villages on Nelson Island, located just off the coast in the Bering Sea. The Eskimos there are predominately Catholic, living the traditional subsistence lifestyle. There are no roads there, no cars. Travel in the summer is by boat, and in the winter by snowmobile. Anderson spends two weeks at a time in each village, hearing confessions, celebrating mass, offering the sacraments. Two of the three villages, Nightmute and Toksook Bay, have deacons. Tununak has only Eucharistic ministers. So when the priest is elsewhere, one of the four deacons in Toksook Bay travels across the hills to conduct baptisms, funerals, and weddings for Tununak. Village life continues, whether or not a priest is present. Babies are born, people die, and couples want to marry. In the priests absence, it falls to the village deacon to provide the baptisms, funerals, and weddings for his community.

What started out as something very new in 1970 is now considered vital for the Church's presence in some of Alaska's most remote villages.

Fr. Brad Reynolds, SJ, a frequent contributor to Company magazine, has been visiting and photographing Toksook Bay since 1973.

Joe Asuluk, a deacon in Toksook Bay on Nelson Island, Alaska, assists at a liturgy during a retreat Bp. Donald Kettler of the Diocese of Fairbanks conducts for the deacons and their wives. Jesuits have been heavily involved in the training of Joe and many fellow deacons in western Alaska since 1970. "Our deacons have given tremendous help making the Church present while we moved from a time when the priest was always in the parish to a time when he can be present only some of the time," says Kettler.

Joe Asuluk, seated on that 4-wheeler, chats with Greg Charlie, another Toksook Bay deacon, on the village airstrip. Toksook Bays four deacons take turns traveling to the one village on the island with no deacon, whenever a baptism, funeral, or wedding requires it. In winter they travel by snowmobile or plane; in summer they take a boat around the island or head straight over the hills on a 4-wheeler.

When Winnie and Moses Julius of Toksook Bay lost their baby late in pregnancy, Deacon Asuluk assisted the grieving family by organizing a liturgy in the family's home for relatives and friends and leading them in prayers at this small grave at the village cemetery.

Asuluk is often asked to plan a funeral or wedding for village members. Bonds are close and tight in these communities, which number only two or three hundred people. Joys and sorrows alike are known and shared throughout the village. Birthdays and anniversaries are widely celebrated; deaths mourned by everyone.

Joe Asuluk proclaims the Gospel in Yup'ik, his native language, but switches to English if a large number of white people are present. Most deacons in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta are bilingual, but their homilies are almost always in Yup'ik. When priests are there, a deacon or someone else will translate for the congregation.

Language differences are factored into deacon training; translators are on hand for classes and workshops. Most presentations and materials are in English, but small-group sharing is usually in Yup'ik.

Joe Asuluk (white shirt) is a drummer and dancer for Eskimo dances in the community hall when he's at home in Toksook Bay, where he also serves as president of Nunakauiak Yup'ik, the traditional council. His job as an officer for the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife often takes him outside the village. In February, Joe celebrated his fifteenth anniversary as a deacon. Joe was first approached in 1981 by village elders who thought he would make a good deacon. But it was not until 1985, after his wife, Pauline, told him that he ought to consider it, that he began the program.

Chris Tulik (above left), a first-year deacon candidate from Nightmute, plays guitar during a liturgy with deacons Bart Agathluk of Emmonak and Denis Sheldon of Alakanuk and his wife, Winnie. With the bishops permission, liturgies incorporate native drums and music. Masses in Toksook Bay usually include Yup'ik hymns, accompanied by the organ or guitars. On one wall of the church hangs a Yup'ik mask carved to look like Jesus. For vestments, the deacons and priest wear the traditional Eskimo quspek; a sweet-smelling tundra grass, ayuk, is used as incense.

"The kids love to sing," says Joe Asuluk (below), who begins catechism class with song. "They'd just keep singing if I let them." After several songs, he delivers his lesson in Yup'ik, switching to English for words and concepts that dont readily translate. He gives advice about prayer and respecting parents in Yup'ik, about avoiding bad shows on cable and staying away from drugs and alcohol in English. There are few organized activities for young people outside of school, so catechism class draws most of the sixth-through twelfth-graders in the village.

Because Albert Therchik, 95, and his daughter, Sophie, are housebound, deacons bring communion. When it is Joe Asuluk's turn, his wife, Pauline, assists. As much as possible, deacons wives join husbands in ministry.

Villagers themselves select the men they want as deacons. They evaluate the candidates after a year of ministry and report to the deacon training program director. With the bishops approval, apt candidates go on for up to five years of training before ordination.

During their annual retreat last November, the deacons and their wives prayed over Agnes Teeluk and Marie Tyson (lower right), widows of deceased deacons Henry Teeluk and William Tyson. A deacon's wife is his partner in ministry; she must give consent and promise support before he becomes a candidate. Program director Fr. Mark Hoelsken, SJ, says that the wife's cooperation is crucial. "If a man enters the deacon training program, then he is not available to do all the things for his family that he did before. Both the man and his wife make great sacrifices."

On Good Friday, St. Peter the Fisherman is packed with most of the villagers, twelve of whom have their feet washed by deacons. Though the oil furnace makes the small church hot and stuffy, only babies' cries and an occasional cough disturb the silence of this liturgy, conducted with the dignity and solemnity that you would find in any cathedral.