Michael Oleksa

Michael James Oleksa, Ph.D., is an archpriest in the Orthodox Church in America and a historian of the Orthodox Church in Alaska.

Oleksa is a native of Allentown, Pennsylvania and a graduate of Emmaus High School in Emmaus, Pennsylvania. He attended Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., where he graduated in 1969. He then went on to do graduate work at Saint Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary in Crestwood, New York.

He went to Alaska in 1970 from St. Vladimir's at the invitation of Old Harbor, an Alutiiq village on Kodiak Island. He served as an Orthodox priest in more than a dozen Alaska native villages over the next few decades. He earned his doctoral degree in 1988 from the Orthodox Theological Faculty in Prešov, Slovakia, focusing on native Alaskan history during the period of Russian imperial ownership (1741–1867).

He is the author of a number of books and articles pertaining to native life in Alaska, particularly regarding the life of the Orthodox Church there. He also produced a four-part series for PBS called Communicating Across Cultures. He also teaches at the University of Alaska and Alaska Pacific University.

External links

• Official website

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