The Orthodox Church in America has been holding three days of prayer for peace at its churches across Alaska this week in advance of the summit between the U.S. and Russian presidents in Anchorage scheduled on Friday.

“With the leaders coming to Alaska, what is the one thing that the church can offer? That is prayers for peace,” said Archbishop Alexei of the Diocese of Sitka and Alaska in an interview with the Associated Prayers.

The first prayers, held Tuesday, sought the prayers of St. Olga of Kwethluk, an Alaska Native woman who was canonized as the first Orthodox woman saint in North America in June.

“She was known to be really a healer in families,” said Archbishop Alexei, who led in prayers to her on Tuesday at St. Innocent Russian Orthodox Cathedral in Anchorage. “And because of the great pain and hardship that is experienced.

Orthodoxy is the majority religion in both Russia and Ukraine, though it has also been a flashpoint with the Russian church’s support for the war and a deepening schism among Ukraine’s Orthodox.

The OCA, meanwhile, is the now-independent offspring of Russian Orthodox missionaries who planted the faith in Alaska when it was a czarist territory in the 18th and 19th centuries. It has about 80 parishes statewide and hundreds more across North America.