History

The Greek Orthodox Church of the Resurrection was established in 1971 as the second Greek Orthodox parish in Alameda County, created to serve the growing Orthodox Christian population of the East Bay and the Tri-Valley region south and east of Oakland. The parish's very first Divine Liturgies were celebrated in the Snow Building at the Oakland Zoo, a characteristically spirited beginning that set the tone for a community that has always found ways to make do and press forward. After gathering in various temporary locations, the parish purchased its home on Center Street in Castro Valley in February 1973, giving the community its first permanent address.

The sacrifices and hard work of the founding families shaped every aspect of parish life in the decades that followed, building up a community of faith, love, and humility that grew steadily through the late twentieth century. As the demographics of the Bay Area continued to shift and the population of the Tri-Valley region expanded dramatically, it became clear that a new and larger home would eventually be needed. In 2017 the parish launched its Building the Body of Christ project, an ambitious initiative to identify new property and construct a proper Byzantine-style church in the Tri-Valley area. Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, as the parish itself describes it, escrow closed on the purchase of 4.3 acres on Dublin Canyon Road in Pleasanton on April 14, 2022, the future site of the Resurrection Greek Orthodox Church in the Tri-Valley.

In November 2021, the parish gathered to celebrate its fiftieth anniversary with a weekend of festivities that honored the past, celebrated the present, and looked toward a new and exciting future. A time capsule was filled with current-day memorabilia and the predictions of the next generation of parish leaders, to be opened in 2071.

The Greek Orthodox Church of the Resurrection at 20104 Center Street in Castro Valley serves the Orthodox Christian faithful of the East Bay and Tri-Valley as a parish of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of San Francisco within the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, a diverse community of cradle Orthodox Christians and adult converts from many backgrounds who gather together in the faith that Christ is risen and with Him, all things are possible.