History

In September 1968, a young dentist named Ted Preovolos met Charles Patrinellis, an attorney and legal editor, and discovered they shared a common interest: helping form a Greek Orthodox parish in Marin County. They began reaching out to other Greek Americans they knew personally or whose names they found listed in the phone book. The meetings that followed drew together a small core of interested families, among them Peter Kavantjas, George Orologas, Stan Sarganis, Stella Mamalakis, Parashos Kalogiannis, Victor Gavallos, Markos Perivolaris, John Cosmas, and Peter Tsigelatos. Bishop Meletios was contacted and promised the services of a retired priest if the community could gather the fifty signatures required to apply for a church charter, though only twenty-five families were present at the founding meetings.

The Parish of the Nativity of Christ was formally organized and established in 1969, worshipping in temporary facilities during its earliest years. In March 1972, after a narrow vote of approval at the Parish Assembly, the community purchased a 5.14-acre site in Ignacio, the property that would eventually become its permanent home. To raise the funds needed for construction, the parish began sponsoring an annual Greek Festival at the Marin Civic Center, a tradition that grew into the beloved Marin Greek Festival still celebrated today. By 1975, parish membership had grown past one hundred families, and more than $80,000 had accumulated in the building fund. A Building Planning Committee, chaired by John Papadopoulos, took up the work of designing the future church. The community formally incorporated in 1976 as the Marin Greek Orthodox Church, and in 1979 chose its permanent official name, the Nativity of Christ Greek Orthodox Church.

In 1974, while construction plans developed, the parish found a semi-permanent home at Saint Vincent's Church and School for Boys in Marinwood, where it remained until its own church building was completed in 1980 on the Ignacio property. The Fellowship Hall was completed in 1992, rounding out the complex of sanctuary, offices, classrooms, and gathering space that serves the parish today.

Nativity of Christ Greek Orthodox Church at 1110 Highland Drive in Novato serves the Orthodox Christian faithful of Marin County as a parish of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of San Francisco within the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, a community built from a chance meeting between a dentist and an attorney and the phone-book canvassing of a small group of determined Greek-American families.