The Fall 2017 House of Bishops meeting is being held in Fairbanks Alaska this year. Held in Fairbanks is sort of a misnomer. We’re spending part of our time in Fairbanks, and the main meeting site is in Fairbanks, but Alaska being Alaska, we’ll be spending time away from the city – far away – too. Some of the bishops are going to be loaded on to mail planes I’m told, to fly out to villages along the Yukon that are only accessible by air, and will visit small Episcopal congregations to worship and talk with the communities they serve.

We’ll be talking about climate change and how it is creating pressures for the people in Alaska. We talk about the same topic in Rhode Island, and are even thinking about which church building will be imperiled over the next few decades, but what we’re facing in RI is nothing like the major dislocating changes that are coming the Artic region and the people who live around the Artic Sea.

The Episcopal Café has some pretty good background published on their site if you’re looking for more information.

I’ve never been to Alaska – and never imagined that my first visit would be as far north as Fairbanks. I admit to hoping for clear skies and an active solar magnetosphere. (I’ve never seen the Aurora Borealis.) I wish I had found space to bring my good camera with me. (I’ll try to make do with the camera in my cell phone.) Keep us all in your prayers this week as we listen and learn and pray.

I’ll post pictures as I get them – and impressions as I receive them.