Emblem of Annunciation-Evangelismos Greek Orthodox Church Annunciation · Evangelismos Greek Orthodox Church Εὐαγγελισμὸς τῆς Θεοτόκου Elkins Park, Pa. · Founded 1901
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The church's copper dome and bell cross against a blue sky, above the brick and stone facade.
The dome, 1972 — blessed by Archbishop Iakovos the year it opened.

Why 125 years matters

From a rented room on Chestnut Street.

Founded in 1901 by Greek immigrants who arrived with little more than their faith, ours was the sixth Greek Orthodox parish established in America and the first in the Philadelphia region. From a rented room on Chestnut Street, to a converted church on South Twelfth Street, to the sanctuary that rises today in Elkins Park, it has served the Delaware Valley without interruption for a century and a quarter.

In those first years, before there was a church of our own, our faithful were sustained at the altars of our Russian Orthodox brethren. This was the first Greek Orthodox church established in the region and the seed from which every Orthodox parish in the Delaware Valley has grown — Saint Demetrios of Upper Darby began as her own satellite — rooting the family of thirteen sister parishes that today reaches from Trenton and Flemington to the Jersey Shore. Every Orthodox Christian in this region can trace the roots of their faith in this city back to these walls.

The parish is bound in one further way to the wider Church. Of the sixty years since the Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate were founded in 1966, National Commanders drawn from this parish have led for forty-one of them.

Every building this community has occupied was paid for by people who gave from modest wages so that an altar, an icon, or a set of doors might be set in place.

  1. 1901 814 Chestnut Street, fourth floor

    Archimandrite Nathaniel Sideris gathers scattered immigrants who had been bringing priests down from New York. They rent a floor, arrange it for Orthodox worship, and celebrate the first Divine Liturgy. Demetrios Diamantopoulos chairs the first Church Council.

  2. 1905 247 South Sixth Street

    The community outgrows the rented floor within four years.

  3. 1908 745 South Twelfth Street — “Old Evangelismos”

    An Episcopal church is purchased for $35,000 and converted, at roughly the same cost again, into the Church of the Annunciation. It serves as the spiritual and cultural centre of Greek Orthodox Philadelphia for more than sixty years.

  4. 1907–1916 Father Raphael Morgan

    A convert from Jamaica, ordained at the Ecumenical Patriarchate, serves this parish as the first Black Orthodox priest in America.

  5. 1963 Elkins Park

    A general assembly votes to follow the parishioners into the suburbs. Saint Demetrios becomes its own parish in Upper Darby; Evangelismos moves north.

  6. 1968–1972 The present complex

    Construction begins on the Hellenic Cultural Center in June 1968, led by Fr. John A. Limberakis and Dr. Anthony Borden. The church opens for worship on November 19, 1972 — a single copper dome rising over the sanctuary in the Byzantine style of Ravenna, alongside a fellowship hall, a dozen classrooms, and a library. George and Lopi Pavlis unlock the doors.

  7. 2001 Consecration

    Archbishop Demetrios of America consecrates the church on October 6 and 7, coinciding with the community's centennial.

  8. 2026 One hundred twenty-five years

    The anniversary is marked at the Crystal Tea Room on October 10. The campaign is the part that outlasts the evening.

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