From July 30 through August 10, 2015, Hierodeacon Herman (Majkrzak), director of Chapel Music and lecturer in Liturgical Music at St. Vladimir's, was a guest of the Diocese of Alaska of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA). With the blessing of the Right Reverend David, Bishop of Sitka and Alaska, he travelled to Napaskiak, a village of about five hundred residents on the Kuskokwim River. There he took part in the Kuskokwim Deanery Conference, an annual gathering of clergy and laity from several villages of the region.
The conference was organized this year by the parish of St. James in Napaskiak, led by its rector and assistant priest, the Reverend Vasily Fisher and the Reverend Ishmael Andrew, both former students of Fr. Herman's from his time at St. Herman's Seminary ten years ago. Father Herman gave two scriptural and catechetical meditations, one for acolytes and one for church singers and choir directors. The conference concluded with a festal Vigil and Divine Liturgy on the feast of the Glorious Prophet Elijah, Sunday, August 2 (July 20 on the old calendar), at which His Grace presided.
The following week, Fr. Herman travelled to Kodiak, returning to St. Herman's Seminary for the first time since he moved away in 2007. On Saturday, August 8, he participated in the annual St. Herman Pilgrimage to Spruce Island, organized by the Very Reverend Innocent Dresdow, dean of Kodiak's Holy Resurrection Cathedral. At Divine Liturgy at Ss. Sergius and Herman of Valaam Chapel at Monks' Lagoon on Spruce Island, Fr. Herman directed a choir comprising faithful from several parishes in Alaska. An ad hoc rehearsal was organized the night before, and their hard work at rehearsal was rewarded the following morning, when they sang with much attentiveness and beauty.
On the feast of St. Herman on Saturday evening and Sunday morning, August 9, Fr. Herman was among the clergy who served with His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon at Holy Resurrection Cathedral, where the relics of the venerable elder have been enshrined since his glorification on that date in 1970.
"It was a great gift to return to one of my most beloved homes and to celebrate there the feast of my patron saint," Fr. Herman remarked. "As the birthplace of Orthodoxy in America and the land of St. Herman's ascetic labors, Kodiak is a place of immense grace — and therefore also a place of hard spiritual warfare. Being away for eight years, I saw much growth and fruit in the life of the Church there. Despite trials and temptations, God is generous and faithful, and St. Herman's prayers are strong."
