The Greek Orthodox Church

After the American Civil War, there was an influx of Greek citizens who emigrated to the United States. The Greek Orthodox faithful who settled in New Orleans, Louisiana, were comforted by each other in their faith, and a church was badly needed in the city by 1850. In 1864, a businessman and consul of the Royal Government of Greece, along with a few local cotton merchants, founded the first United States Greek Orthodox Church in New Orleans, Louisiana. It was not until 1866 that enough money was collected to construct a permanent structure to hold services. Today, the Holy Trinity Church in New Orleans is a living testimony of the early immigrants who founded the church.

The second Greek Orthodox Church in the U.S. was established in 1891 in New York. At the time, there were about 500 male Greeks and 20 female Greeks in New York. As the religious community in the city grew, a permanent Greek Orthodox Church was acquired in 1904. In 1927, the original structure burned down, and a new church was built in 1932. It has been extensively renovated since then, and is still a place of worship for many of New York’s Greek Orthodox community.

By 1898, a Greek Orthodox Church was opened in Chicago, and by 1910, thirty-five parishes had opened around the country. During the 1930’s, 286 congregations were established in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and South America.

Today, there are over 600 Greek Orthodox congregations in North and South America. Sixty percent of those churches were founded by original Greek immigrants in the early nineteenth century.