History

The first contact the Greek immigrants of Wilkes-Barre had with a Divine Liturgy in their own language came on January 27, 1908, when they invited the retired Reverend Father Demetrios Petrides from the Evangelismos church in Philadelphia to celebrate the Liturgy at the Russian Orthodox Church of the Resurrection. For years before a Greek church of their own existed, the Greek immigrants of the Wyoming Valley had worshipped at Russian Orthodox churches to meet their sacramental needs, their hearts longing to hear the Kyrie, eleison in their own tongue.

On March 20, 1912, Father Joseph Xanthopoulos, the Syrian Orthodox priest in the area who was of Greek descent and fluent in Arabic, Greek, and French, called a general meeting of all Greeks in the area for one purpose: to establish a Greek Orthodox community. The community had been renting the Lutheran church at 452 Main Street in Wilkes-Barre for occasional services, with Father Petrides traveling from Philadelphia to serve them. The first Divine Liturgy in that rented church was celebrated on March 25, 1912, which that year also coincided with Easter, a doubly auspicious beginning for the new parish. In 1915 the community purchased a house at 176 North Main Street, holding worship services on the second floor and providing the first floor as a residence for Father Xanthopoulos and his family.

The parish hired its first permanent priest, Father Petros Kaisaris, as the Greek population of the Wyoming Valley continued to grow. In 1923 the community drew up its first set of by-laws and established a Greek school for the children, reflecting the founders' determination to preserve the language and traditions of their homeland. The community weathered the Great Depression with characteristic tenacity: when Miner's National Bank foreclosed on the church in 1932 due to missed mortgage payments, the parish council negotiated a rental agreement for fifty dollars a month and continued services without interruption.

Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church at 32 East Ross Street in Wilkes-Barre serves the Orthodox Christian faithful of the Wyoming Valley as a parish of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Pittsburgh within the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, a community of more than a century's witness to the ancient Orthodox Christian faith in northeastern Pennsylvania.