Nativity of the Theotokos Church of Fredericksburg

History

The Nativity of the Theotokos Greek Orthodox Church of Fredericksburg, Virginia was founded in 1989, when Greek Orthodox Christians in the Fredericksburg area came together seeking to establish a church home in a city that had long been without one. The first Divine Liturgy was celebrated on April 9, 1989, at Saint George's Episcopal Church, a generous act of ecumenical hospitality that gave the new community its first opportunity to worship together in the Fredericksburg area. Later that year the community rented a small building in Stafford, Virginia to serve as the parish's first home.

In 1991 the parish received its ecclesiastical charter from the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America and its name, the Nativity of the Theotokos, was formally bestowed, honoring the feast celebrated each September 8 when the Orthodox Church commemorates the birth of the Virgin Mary to her parents Joachim and Anna. In 1992 land was purchased for the construction of a permanent parish building, a project that took the better part of a decade to complete. On March 12, 2000, the first Divine Liturgy was celebrated in the newly completed church at 12326 Spotswood Furnace Road, bringing to fruition more than a decade of vision, sacrifice, and communal effort.

The parish is home to the annual Fredericksburg Greek Festival, a beloved two-day celebration of Greek culture, cuisine, music, and dance that draws the broader Fredericksburg community to the church grounds each year, sharing Hellenic hospitality with the Historic District region of northern Virginia.

The Nativity of the Theotokos Greek Orthodox Church at 12326 Spotswood Furnace Road in Fredericksburg serves the Orthodox Christian faithful of the greater Fredericksburg area as a parish of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of New Jersey within the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.