History

Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Church of Roseburg, Oregon traces its beginnings to the mid-2000s, when a small group of Orthodox Christians in Roseburg began gathering for monthly Vespers services and Reader's Services, determined to establish a permanent Orthodox presence in the Umpqua Valley. In 2005, Saint George Episcopal Church opened its doors to the nascent community, offering use of its social hall on the corner of Southeast Cass Avenue and Southeast Main Street in downtown Roseburg, a gesture of ecumenical hospitality that gave the fledgling group a home for its early gatherings.

In 2008 the community suffered a setback when three of its founding members were lost and the priest who had been traveling from Ashland to serve them could no longer make the long drive. The small group pressed forward without a shepherd, continuing to meet monthly for Reader's Services, placing advertisements in the local newspaper, and accepting referrals from priests in other areas, slowly rebuilding its numbers. In September 2010, Metropolitan Gerasimos of San Francisco took the mission under the care of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of San Francisco and assigned Father Jerry Markopoulos of Saint George Greek Orthodox Church in Eugene, seventy miles to the north, to serve the community on a regular basis. Growth followed gradually, and in 2013 the parish expanded and renovated its worship space within the Episcopal building, transforming a room that had previously been used as a children's chapel into a dedicated Orthodox sanctuary.

On September 12, 2015, Metropolitan Gerasimos returned to Roseburg and formally named the mission Holy Cross, a providential naming, in the words of Father Jerry, that gave the small community its permanent identity. Just weeks later, on October 1, 2015, a gunman entered a classroom at nearby Umpqua Community College and killed ten students after they identified themselves as Christians, wounding nine others. A young member of the Holy Cross community was in the adjacent room at the time. The tragedy drew the tight-knit parish into one of the most profound moments of pastoral care in its young history.

Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Church at 1024 Southeast Cass Avenue in Roseburg serves the Orthodox Christian faithful of Douglas County as a mission parish of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of San Francisco within the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, the only Orthodox Christian community in the Umpqua Valley and a small but vibrant witness to the ancient faith in the mountains of southern Oregon.