History

The Greek Orthodox community of Charlottesville, Virginia traces its roots to 1903, when the first Greek immigrants arrived in the city. For the first half century of their presence in Charlottesville, the community held services in various venues without a permanent church of their own, relying on visiting clergy to celebrate the sacraments and sustain the liturgical life of the faithful gathered in the shadow of the University of Virginia.

By the early 1950s the community had grown sufficiently to pursue a permanent home. Groundbreaking services were held in 1953, and the church was given its formal dedication as Metamorphosis Soteros, meaning Transfiguration of Our Savior in Greek, the name that has identified the parish ever since. On December 20, 1953, the families of the Greek community participated in the cornerstone laying ceremony, placing in the cornerstone copies of the constitution and by-laws of the Archdiocese, the charter and by-laws of the local American-Greek Community, the charter of the Ladies Progressive Society, and a copy of the local newspaper, The Daily Progress. On October 30, 1954, Archbishop Michael, head of the Greek Orthodox Church in North and South America, formally dedicated the completed church, and the Reverend Bartholomew A. Karahalios became the first resident priest of Charlottesville.

Through the decades that followed, the parish built relationships with students and faculty at the University of Virginia, welcoming Orthodox Christians from Russia, Bulgaria, Ethiopia, Serbia, and Ukraine alongside the Greek and Greek-American founding families, evolving into the diverse Pan-Orthodox community it has been for many years.

The Transfiguration Greek Orthodox Church at 100 Perry Drive in Charlottesville serves the Orthodox Christian faithful of central Virginia as a parish of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of New Jersey within the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, more than seventy-five years of Orthodox Christian presence in the city that Thomas Jefferson built.