Daily Archives: December 2014

Multicultural Anchorage parish set to embrace co-cathedral role

Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in Anchorage will take on an important new role when it is elevated to a co-cathedral on Dec. 12, the feast day of its patroness. It has been a long road for the diverse faith community, from its early days as a parish without a building, founded in a much-smaller Anchorage in 1970. Mass was held then at Turnagain Methodist Church. Later, the parish constructed a building which was intended to serve as both worship area and multi-purpose room until a church could be built. It took 30 years to bring that dream to fruition. Today parishioners worship in an expansive Spanish mission style church, with two bell towers, dedicated in 2005.

Anchorage’s Holy Family Cathedral celebrating 100 years

Established on Sept. 15, 1915 the parish became the first church built in Anchorage. The humble, wooden structure was replaced in 1947. Christmas that year was celebrated in the basement of the present church. It would take more than ten years for the cathedral, built in an art deco style, to be completed. In its earliest days, Jesuit priests provided for the pastoral needs of railroad workers and their families who hailed primarily from Eastern Europe. The Jesuits were responsible for much of the vast territory of Alaska. With statehood in 1959 and attention focused on Anchorage following the 1964 Good Friday earthquake, Rome announced, in 1966, the creation of the Archdiocese of Anchorage.

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