GIRDWOOD AND EARLY CHURCH HISTORY
View of "the mountain" from "downtown" -- May 2003Girdwood
is a mountain community of 2000 or so people in Alaska, located about
35-40 miles South of Anchorage—although still part of the Anchorage
Municipality. We have a ski area that attracts tourists year-round. We
have winter skiers and summer hikers and tour groups. Most of the
people are heavily involved in outdoor activities and sports. It is a
young community with a very high cost of living. Many of the adults
work in Anchorage because of the lack of available jobs locally. There
is an Elementary-Jr. High School and, beyond that, youth in 9th grade
or higher are bussed into Anchorage.
Girdwood Chapel has been a part of the community for since 1951. Presently, it is the only church building in the community and its pastor, Jim Doepken, is the only pastor in the community. Our Lady of the Snows Catholic Congregation is served by priests from Anchorage and has been worshipping at Girdwood Chapel for many years and there is a Mormonn congregation as well. The Roman Catholics will be building a facility at Alyeska Resort.
For the first 45 years of our church’s existence, it was supplied a pastor on a large circuit, an associate pastor from an Anchorage church, or was assigned a local pastor. In 1996, the first full-time pastor was made appointed here. This was made possible through Advance Special Gifts. At that point the church began to grow from approximately ten in worship to the seventy-three it has today.
As stated, Girdwood Chapel has been a part of this community since 1951. The present church building was
Church in old location -- May 2003
built around 1964 and served its purpose well at the time. It is a 31’
x 31’ diamond with a port-a-potty outside. As the church has grown,
this space has proven to be less than sufficient. We even had to move
to two Sunday services in 2000 because, as we approached an average of
50 persons in worship, we were getting too crowded on some Sundays.
In 1997 and 1998 plans were made to build a church, on land donated by the local ski resort, with the Catholic congregation. The lease agreement offered by the resort was not acceptable to Girdwood Chapel as it would have limited the use of the building for certain ministries and would have, potentially, led to conflicts between the goals of the church and the goals of the resort. Therefore, Girdwood Chapel remained on its land (1/8 acre with a creek running down the middle--effectively making it 2/16ths of an acre) and prayed for other land in a community where available land is at a premium.