We are committed to preserving and sharing the history of Memorial Presbyterian Church and Dr. Walter Soboleff’s ministry and to making reparations to the people and community harmed by the racist closure of the church.
Watch The Native Church, the documentary about the closure of Memorial Presbyterian Church.
Memorial Presbyterian Church was founded in the 19th century as the segregated church for Alaska Native people in Juneau. Dr. Walter Soboleff became the pastor of Memorial Presbyterian Church in 1940. Under his leadership and ministry, Memorial Presbyterian Church became a vibrant, multicultural church. The church was filled with people and community events, serving and strengthening families and the community — until the Alaska Presbytery and Presbyterian Church’s Board of Missions closed the church to benefit the white Northern Light Presbyterian Church in Juneau.
Dr. Walter Soboleff was born in 1908 in Killisnoo, Alaska. He was sent to Sheldon Jackson School when he was 11, and continued there through high school. Later, he went to Dubuque University in Iowa, where he received a degree in education and a degree in divinity.
Dr. Soboleff started his ministry at Memorial Presbyterian Church in 1940. He nurtured a thriving congregation and church until the Alaska Presbytery forced the closure of the church and assigned him to a traveling ministry in rural Southeast Alaska. From 1962-1970, Dr. Soboleff ministered to the villages from mission boats.
Dr. Soboleff retired from ministry in 1970 and continued to serve and lead the rest of his life. He started the Alaska Native Studies Department at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, served as a leader of the Alaska Native Brotherhood, was a chaplain with the Alaska National Guard for 20 years, and inspired generations.
Dr. Walter Soboleff died in 2011 at the age of 102.
In 1963, the white Northern Light Presbyterian Church in Juneau decided to build a new building. They requested a loan from the denomination, creating a pretext for the Alaska Presbytery, with the concurrence of the Presbyterian Church’s Board of National Missions, to close the Memorial Presbyterian Church in Juneau, Alaska. The racist closure of this thriving, multiethnic, intercultural church was an act of spiritual abuse committed against the Tlingit and Alaska Native people of Juneau.
Northern Light United Church, as the successor to the Northern Light Presbyterian Church, was a beneficiary of these events. Recognizing this, and the broader harms to the community caused by the racist closure of Memorial Presbyterian Church, we began the journey toward truth and reconciliation.
Beginning in 2015, under the leadership of Pastor Phil Campbell and the Native Ministries Committee, we began to piece together the true history of the closure of Memorial Presbyterian Church, the insult and injury done to Dr. Walter Soboleff, and the trauma caused to Tlingit people in our community. In 2021, we offered to the Presbytery of the Northwest Coast an overture to send to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA). The Presbytery agreed and the overture was considered at the 2022 General Assembly, where it was adopted: Overture on Directing the Office of the General Assembly to Issue Apologies and Reparations for the Racist Closure of the Memorial Presbyterian Church, Juneau, Alaska.
In 2022, the Presbyterian Church (USA) General Assembly adopted, without amendment, the Overture proposed by Ḵunéix̱ Hídi Northern Light United Church and the Presbytery of the Northwest Coast. Learn about how the Overture was created, advocacy for the Overture, and the Presbyterian Church (USA) is fulfilling its commitments.
In October 2023, the Presbyterian Church (USA) and Ḵunéix̱ Hídi Northern Light United Church offered a formal Apology and the beginning of financial reparations for the racist closure of Memorial Presbyterian Church.
Watch the services of Apology and Reparations
Ḵunéix̱ Hídi Northern Light United Church presented $100,000 in reparations to the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska during the annual Tribal Assembly in April 2024.
The Healing Task Force works in partnership and with guidance from the Native Ministries Committee, to ensure that decisions and activities are informed by and respectful of Alaska Native cultures and traditions.
Everyone is welcome and encouraged to join the Healing Task Force in its work. Learn how to get involved.