From the scorching deserts of Sinai to the frozen tundras of Siberia,
Orthodox Christianity has a history of building its churches and
monasteries in inhospitable places. But only a few can rival Trinity
Church on King George Island. The southernmost Orthodox church in the
world, Trinity was built near Bellingshausen Station, Russia's permanent
outpost in Antarctica.
In the mid-1990s Patriarch Alexius II of Moscow gave his blessing for
this audacious project. The church was constructed in Russia and
transported by a supply ship to its present location. One or two monks
from Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra -- considered the most important Russian
monastery as it is the spiritual center of the Russian Orthodox Church
-- volunteer to man the church year-round.
While most of buildings on this continent are built to hug the ground
in order to reduce their exposure to the polar wind, this church
proudly stands 50 feet tall. It is a wooden structure built from
Siberian pine and carved in the traditional Russian style by master
carpenters of Altay.
The priests manning the church take care of the spiritual needs of
the staff of nearby Russian, Chilean, Polish, and Korean research
stations. Their obligations include praying for the souls of 64 Russians
who lost their lives in various expeditions, and the very occasional,
very chilly, baptism.
While the church is large enough to accommodate 30 visitors, it is
rarely filled to capacity. In 2007, however, the church performed its
first wedding -- the first wedding ever celebrated in a church in
Antarctica -- between Chilean and Russian researchers.
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