History

Kimisis Tis Theotokou Greek Orthodox Church of Racine, Wisconsin was founded in 1916 by Greek immigrants who had settled in Racine and sought to establish a spiritual home for their community. The first Divine Liturgy was celebrated on November 19, 1916 in Moose Hall. The following year, a house at 723 Grand Avenue was purchased and converted into a church, and additional lots on either side were acquired in 1918 and 1920 to expand the property. A proper Orthodox church was then built on the Grand Avenue site and opened on November 26, 1925, consecrated by Bishop Philaretos Joannides on July 21, 1929.

The community persevered through the hardships of the Great Depression and through the lean years of the late 1930s and early 1940s, when the parish shared a priest with St. Demetrios Church in Waukegan, Illinois. The mortgage on the Grand Avenue church was paid in full in the mid-1940s. By the 1960s the parish had outgrown its original home, and a new church was built at its present address. The community moved to 1335 South Green Bay Road in 1965, and the original Grand Avenue building was eventually demolished to become the parking lot of the Acklam Funeral Home.

The parish takes its name from the Dormition of the Mother of God, Kimisis Tis Theotokou, and celebrates its feast day each August 15 with a Great Vespers and Procession of the Epitaphios on the evening of August 14 followed by the Festal Divine Liturgy, drawing visiting clergy, chanters, and faithful from sister parishes across southeastern Wisconsin and northeastern Illinois.

Today, Kimisis Tis Theotokou Greek Orthodox Church serves approximately 200 families from Racine and Kenosha counties, the Lake Geneva area, Lake County Illinois, and South Milwaukee, as a parish of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Chicago within the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.