Church asks for stolen cross to be returned ‘Gladly’

Recently, members of St. David’s Episcopal Church in Wasilla noticed that a wooden cross had been taken from a beloved wood carved bear that sits just outside the lower parking lot.

The cross was part of a wood carving created when the church had cleared some trees in 2018.

“We just asked the cutter if he would leave one (tree) big enough so we could have a statue carved of a bear,” explains parishioner Michael Knazovich, who says a local wood carver came in and carved the bear, which was holding a painted, wooden cross that could be removed.

While the bear has suffered from weathering, the statue has become an integral part of the church community, and earlier this year, one of the church parishioners lovingly restored the cross and was replaced in May.

“On Election Day, I got a phone call from another parish member who told me the cross was missing.” He says that they thought the cross might have simply been knocked off or blown off, or even a do-gooder had put it up for the winter without notifying anyone, but after inspecting the grounds and the church, the search came up empty.

The bear is named ‘Gladly,’ after a popular hymn, “Gladly, the Cross I Bear,” but it also stands for the bear that is cross-eyed that is named Gladly.

“This is Gladly, the cross-eyed bear, whose cross is missing,” says Knazovich. “We don’t know why it was taken-it’s not really valuable, but it’s important to us.”

Knazovich says that the church has not called the police and that the parish just wants the cross returned, no questions asked.

“If somebody knows the whereabouts, we would really like it back, no questions asked. We would just like to restore it to its position.”

St. David’s Episcopal Church is located at 2301 N. Wasilla Fishhook in Wasilla.