By Sentinel Staff
After 33 years as the pastor of Grace Harbor, Paul McArthur will lead his final service before retirement this Sunday.
McArthur and his family have lived in Sitka since 1987. A longtime pastor, McArthur pastored churches in Oregon before coming to Alaska in 1981, and lived first on the Kenai Peninsula.
Carolyn and Paul McArthur. (Photo provided)
The service at 10:30 a.m. Sunday, May 31, will also be the first in-person service at Grace Harbor since the pandemic began.
McArthur told the Sentinel that Grace Harbor has recorded services for years, but has recently upgraded recording equipment in response to social distancing requirements which forced churches around the world to shut their doors.
“We do have a video recorder that records from the sound booth on the balcony. However, during this time we have upgraded equipment for the recording,” McArthur said.
He added that the in-person service will look somewhat different than before.
“As we start here, we are going to observe sanitation recommendations at the stations and the extra cleaning. Masks are optional, and we said even before we had to suspend if you’re sick not to come,” he said. “Communion will be a little bit different in that we will have people with latex gloves to hand the bread to them rather than using their own hands.”
McArthur said that after he came to Sitka, Grace Harbor held services both on the Sheldon Jackson campus and in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, but in 1991 moved into the current building at 1904 Halibut Point Road, across from Sea Mart.
He added that in recent years, Grace Harbor has embarked on a million-dollar expansion project, funded entirely by the congregation.
“Because God provided through the giving of our people, we never had to stop for lack of funds,” he said. The church undertook no debt in the project, he said.
“I am grateful that we have been able to do this,” he said.
McArthur described Sitka as “extended family.” He played city league basketball for a time, but now watches his grandson Wes Urias play for the Sitka Wolves.
Though he and his wife Carolyn will spend much of their retirement in Los Barriles, Baja, he said that he plans to venture north in the summer time, as well, to watch Wes compete.
