History

Orthodox Christian life in Burlington, Vermont traces its roots to 1905, when the first faithful in the Champlain Valley began gathering for services including baptisms, weddings, funerals, and the Divine Liturgy in private homes. As the community grew, Saint Paul's Episcopal Church, then located at Saint Paul and Bank Streets in Burlington, demonstrated extraordinary generosity by making its facilities available for Orthodox worship. For several decades the Burlington faithful held their services there, a testament to the ecumenical goodwill that has characterized the parish's relationships with other Christian communities throughout its history.

In 1958 the community moved to its present location, a church building at 600 South Willard Street that had been built in 1914 by Mr. L.C. Clark as a memorial to his wife Marian. Originally named All Saints Chapel, the building had been donated by Clark to the Protestant Episcopal Diocese of Vermont and was used by the Episcopalians only once a year. Between 1958 and 1961 the Orthodox community rented the chapel, and by 1961 the parish was able to purchase it outright. The parish was chartered and incorporated that same year. On May 29, 1966, Archbishop Iakovos presided at the official opening of the church under its Orthodox name, Koimisis tis Theotokou, the Dormition of the Mother of God.

Less than a year later, on the eve of Palm Sunday, April 23, 1967, the interior of the church went up in flames. Once again the Episcopal community came to the community's aid, offering the use of the new All Saints Protestant Episcopal Church on the corner of Spear and Swift Streets while repairs were made. The restored church has served the community ever since, its founding families drawn from Greece and the former Christian lands of the Ottoman Empire, its present membership expanded to include faithful from many Mediterranean and Eastern European backgrounds as well as American-born converts.

The Dormition of the Mother of God Greek Orthodox Church at 600 South Willard Street in Burlington serves as the only Orthodox Christian community in the Champlain Valley, a parish of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Boston within the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.