History

Evangelismos Tis Theotokou Greek Orthodox Church of Jersey City, New Jersey was incorporated on April 25, 1935, the vision of twelve committed men who organized a new church for the Greek Orthodox faithful of Hudson County at a time when Greek immigrants were arriving in large numbers, yearning to worship in their own language and faith and to pass their heritage to future generations. The founding twelve were Anthony Dedopoulos, Ernest Lailas, Theodore G. Lappas, and nine others whose sacrifice and foresight gave Hudson County its first Greek Orthodox parish. The new community was housed in a small frame structure on the corner of Montgomery Street and Summit Avenue, a single building that served as house of worship, community center, and Greek school all at once.

As the years passed the parish grew into the spiritual and social center for the Greeks of Hudson County, sustaining the faith and cultural life of a community whose roots lay in the villages and islands of Greece. In 1955, through the commitment and personal sacrifice of parishioners Charles Didymos and Theodore Lappas, who signed for the mortgage of the new edifice, a beautiful permanent church was completed, giving the community the house of worship that stands to this day. In the early 1960s the parish acquired adjacent property that had formerly housed a Borden's milk factory, and on that land a Community Center was built, completed and opened in 1979, providing a home for the Greek school, a sports center for the youth, and a gathering hall for the community's many events and occasions.

The parish celebrated its ninetieth anniversary in 2025, the presiding priest noting that a few decades earlier, thousands of Greeks had lived in Jersey City itself, and that the younger generation, though spread across other areas of New Jersey and New York, carried the values and morals they had learned at Evangelismos with them wherever they went.

Evangelismos Tis Theotokou Greek Orthodox Church serves the Orthodox Christian faithful of Hudson County as a parish of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of New Jersey within the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.