Farewell and Happy Retirement, Father Scott

Reverent Scott Fisher has decided to retire after serving for 40 years in Alaska, 24 of those as rector of St. Matthews. Some nice tidbits from the Minor News article:

With long hair, unruly sideburns and colorful Converse sneakers, he’s been known to many as the “hippy” priest. That was the first impression Rev. Anna Frank, a longtime colleague and friend of Fisher who remembered seeing Bishop Gordon fly into her village as a child, when she met Fisher...

St. Matthew’s has long been a mixed congregation, bridging the Native and non-Native communities. Frank said Fisher has lived up to that.

“I still remember that first 24 hours when I flew into Fairbanks in that October,” he said. “Some of that I still remember in the sense that Fairbanks always seemed more like a jumping off place, more so than Anchorage. When I run into tourists, I’ll usually take them out in front of the church and point at those hills and say ‘half of the state, north of you.’ My suggestion is any way you can, go north. Get out of here, get out of town, see what it’s really like.”

Here is a lovely slideshow.

Here are photos from his farewell potluck at the tribal hall.

I made cranberry bread:


There was quite a crowd:


And a loooooot of food. Only the very next day after Thanksgiving! I refrained from overindulging.








The Young Native Fiddlers played a few songs, and the wee people took to dancing: