| Summary: | His Diocese Big As Half Europe. HIS DIOCESE BIG AS HALF EUROPE By Associated Press. ANCHORAGE, Alaska, Aug. 9.— Slight, gentle and with a silver patriarchal beard, Alexy Pontelaief, Greek Orthodox Catholic bishop of Alaska, is completing a diocesan tour which started last September 1 and which has taken him over an area equal to several European countries. His year-long journey had taken him by dog sledge, boat, steamship, train, airplanes and afoot into isolated settlements where the announcement of his coming brought in adherents of the ancient Russian faith from even more isolated sections. His headquarters is at Sitka, home of one of the most noted Greek Catholic cathedrals in America. It contains the noted "Ikona," for which a collector once offered $25,000, and many other sacred paintings, and is the "capital" of a religious empire which numbers but 8000 adherents despite the immense distances its bishop must cover to visit his flock. Bishop Alexy's diocese contains 80 churches and most of the members are natives—Eskimos, Aleuts, Kenaites and Sitka, Hoonan and Thllnget Indians, many of them descended from the early Russian explorers and traders.
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