WHO WE ARE
St. George Greek Orthodox Church is a congregation of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, the Metropolis of Denver, under the spiritual authority and guidance of His Eminence Metropolitan Isaiah of Denver. The Orthodox Church is the oldest church in the world. It was founded on the Day of Pentecost in Jerusalem in 33 AD, fifty days after the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It has preserved the original teachings and practices of the Apostles and their successors, until the present time.
Although all Orthodox congregations are part of the One, Holy, Orthodox, Catholic (“universal”) and Apostolic Church, St. George is called Greek Orthodox because the founders of this congregation were of Greek descent. Today however our congregation is made up of members from many different ethnic and church backgrounds.
The congregation of St. George is directly descended from the congregation in Ephesus, in Asia Minor, which is mentioned in Revelation 2:1-7. This is also the church to whom St. Paul wrote the Letter to the Ephesians. It was founded by the Apostle Paul, and the Apostle and Evangelist John lived in Ephesus in his elder years. The church of Ephesus remained active until the early part of the 20th century, when Christians in Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey) were persecuted and the church destroyed. Among the founders of St. George Greek Orthodox Church were immigrants from New Ephesus who came to America to escape this persecution. They quickly organized an Orthodox congregation and named it after the original church in Asia Minor.
The first services for the St. George community were held in 1917 on the second floor of a downtown building on Texas Street. Later, as the church grew, services were moved to St. Mark’s Episcopal Church; and then to a house which the Greek community purchased at 725 Hope Street. The present church on Creswell Avenue was constructed in 1935, modeled after the church of St. George which had been destroyed during the Turko-Grecian struggle of 1917. The sanctuary was enlarged and remodeled in 2009 and will receive new iconography in 2009-2111, decorating the church walls and ceiling according to Orthodox tradition.
Today the congregation at St. George is composed of Americans of many different backgrounds. Some families are descendants of the original Greek-American in Shreveport. Others have come to us from Orthodox churches in Palestine (the Holy Land), Russia, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Georgia, Romania, India, Ethiopia, and the Lebanon. Still others, including our priest, have converted to the Orthodox Christian faith from various non-Orthodox Christian traditions and from non-church and non-Christian religious backgrounds.
The primary language of worship is English, with ancient hymns sung in their original Greek during portions of the Liturgy. We pray the Lord’,s prayer in the original Greek, together with the various languages of our people including Arabic, Russian, Ukrainian, French, Church Slavonic, Ge'ez, Georgian, Romanian, Bulgarian, Spanish, German, Chinese and English.
Visitors are always welcome at St. George. Most visitors decide to stay! Ask for literature about the Orthodox Christian Church—the first Christians in the world—and how you can become an Orthodox Christian.
