Syosset, New York, March 15, 2022
Met. Tikhon (left), Bp. Alexis (right). Photo: oca.org
Following the latest session of the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Orthodox Church in America, it was announced that the jurisdiction will enthrone a hierarch for its Diocese of Sitka and Alaska.
His Grace Bishop Alexis, who will be enthroned at St. Innocent of Irkutsk Cathedral in Anchorage on Sunday, March 27, the Sunday of the Cross, has been administering the Diocese as its Locum Tenens since His Eminence Archbishop David reposed in the Lord in November 2020.
A special Diocesan Assembly then nominated Bp. Alexis to fill the vacant see last August. On Tuesday, March 15, the Holy Synod “canonically elected His Grace Bishop Alexis, formerly Bishop of Bethesda and Auxiliary to the Metropolitan for Stravropegial Institutions, Bishop of Sitka and Alaska.”
The enthronement in Alaska will be presided over by His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon of Washington and All America and Canada.
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Bp. Alexis is a Great-schema monk who returned from Greece to the United States on His Beatitude, Metropolitan Tikhon’s invitation and with the blessing of his abbot, Archimandrite Philotheos, in order to serve the Orthodox Church in America.
He was received into the Orthodox faith at the St. Tikhon’s Monastery where he became a monk and lecturer in Patristics. After 10 years at the monastery, he went to the Monastery of Karakallou on the Holy Mountain in order to deepen his experience of the monastic life. There, he immersed himself in the life of community and was ordained to the holy priesthood. He also wrote In Peace Let us Pray to the Lord, translated several Greek books into English, and edited other books in both Greek and English for publication.
For health reasons, he was transferred to a women’s monastery that was also a dependency of Karakallou. There, the local bishop blessed him to be a spiritual father for the community that also served as a parish for many Greeks in the area. At this time, he completed his doctoral dissertation in Greek at the University of Thessaloniki which was later published in Greek and English as Ancient Christian Wisdom and Aaron Beck’s Cognitive Therapy. He has also engaged in further studies in clinical psychology, but his chief work has been pastoral, building up the parish growing around the monastery and offering one-on-one assistance to those in need through the mystery of holy Confession and counseling.
Since 2019, Bp. Alexis has been in residence at St. Tikhon’s Monastery. He was consecrated as the Bisho of Bethesda, auxiliary to Met. Tikhon, on January 25, 2020.
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