“They were not used to women priests, so it was always ‘Father’,” said Anna, who is now the native missioner and archdeacon of the interior for the Episcopal Diocese of Alaska, based in Fairbanks. “I had to work through that, and I’m still working through that. A lot of the villages really don’t accept women yet, but one of the gifts I got from God was patience, so I could wait.”

Then there’s the church mandate of self-sufficiency that pulled all the paid priests out of the villages.

“In the ‘50s, we used to have missionary priests come into the villages, and they were paid priests,” she said. “When they said, ‘You are going to be self-sufficient, they took all the priests out and asked the locals to start having churches. A lot of them were not trained in that, so a lot of the churches just kind of … almost, the doors closed. Somehow or another, we kept it going.”

Part of Anna’s job is to fly around between villages and perform baptisms, marriages and funerals, almost like a circuit-rider priest. She also assigns priests and other clergy to perform ceremonies in villages that have no clergy. And she is responsible for handling any problems such as drug, alcohol or sexual abuse in village churches.

On this day, she is conducting church business, instructing the clergy, and administering the Eucharist in street clothes, one ear tuned to the sound of the commuter plane that will take her back home to Fairbanks.

Some villages, like Kivalina, have very active congregations and have everything ready when she gets there, she said. Other congregations come to a standstill without an outside priest.

Part of the reason, says Anna, is cultural. “A lot of the villages have their own spiritual beliefs, in the native way of believing,” she said. “We have our Athabaskan values. We have our Unupiak Values. And so the native people live by those, and that’s their spirituality.”

Respect, humor, honesty, love, and sharing are part of those values ingrained from childhood, she said.

Even though people may be very spiritual, they may not feel comfortable taking on a leadership role in the church, she said. For example, native elders often were taught that the area around the altar is sacred. They had no formal training and didn’t feel comfortable at the altar.

The result is that visiting clergy are sometimes told the only thing they have to do when they get to a village is perform the Eucharist but often end up doing much more.

“The people expect you to get up in the morning, build a fire in the church, have the church service, everything,” she said. “You practically become the priest there, the clergy in charge.”

Anna said she has preached everywhere from large churches in the lower 48 states, including the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., as well as all over the villages.

In the larger churches with their soaring ceilings, ornate murals, and stately pillars, she feels a connection between herself and God. In the smaller churches, such as those she visits in the villages, she said she feels a connection with the people.

There is a warmth there, a sense of community.

Some issues for the village churches are different – or more magnified – in smaller remote communities with limited resources.

“Alcohol and drugs, high rate of suicide, are the biggest problems we have here in Alaska,” said Anna. “We have to deal with that. When you have alcohol and drugs, other things come along with it, like child abuse, sexual abuse, domestic violence and all that.”

Homosexuality, a huge issue for the Episcopal church in general, is not even on the radar screen in an Alaskan village like Kivalina.

The issue in remote areas is primarily financial, she said. Travel between cities and villages can cost $600 or $700. Many villagers suffer from unemployment and low-wage jobs and can’t contribute much if anything to the local church.

“Here, all we worry about is getting oil for these burners,” she said. “Pay the light bill, that’s the issue. Getting people to come to church, shoveling the snow away from the door… .”

Those practicalities come with the role of spiritual teacher, of helping lift people up who don't have the emotional, mental or spiritual strength.

"Everyone that's on this earth does something," said Anna. "Sometimes, it's not always good, but it's up to us to turn that around. That's where the spiritual life comes in. When your spiritual life and your faith are strong, you can help that person who feels weak continue walking."