History

Saint Andrew the Apostle Greek Orthodox Church of San Luis Obispo, California holds the distinction of being the first Greek Orthodox church in San Luis Obispo County. Its story begins on Pascha, 1984, when the founding members of the community gathered at the ranch of Tony and Marsha Dritsas in Paso Robles and voted to form a Greek Orthodox congregation in the county. The first service was a house blessing performed by Father Constantine Raptis at the Paso Robles home of Terry and Dimitra Dritsas that fall, with Father Constantine traveling from Saint John the Baptist Greek Orthodox Church in Salinas to serve the new community. The first Divine Liturgy was celebrated in December 1984 in a borrowed Pentecostal church in Paso Robles.

For the years that followed, the growing community held services in churches around San Luis Obispo County under the care of visiting priests. With the formal assignment of Father Mark Vinas, who celebrated the Divine Liturgy twice a month on Sundays, Metropolitan Anthony proclaimed the community a Mission parish. The parish eventually acquired property and, after six years of using it as rental housing to generate funds, broke ground on a permanent chapel. Tony Dritsas served as contractor and was assisted by many willing hands from the parish family. A pivotal benefactor, Constance Nightingale, made the church's completion possible through her generosity, and a mosaic of Saint John the Evangelist made from pebbles gathered from local beaches was installed on the eastern wall of the chapel in her memory. When Ms. Nightingale later left her home and land to the mission, the sale of the property allowed the parish to retire its mortgage and the personal loans several parishioners had taken out to fund the chapel's construction. The iconostasis was a gift from the Metropolitan of Gordinia and Arkadios in Crete, with the icons painted and shipped to San Luis Obispo commissioned in memory of his parents.

In 2006, the parish purchased a larger building formerly occupied by a Unitarian Church just down East Foothill Boulevard, completing renovations and moving into the new home in mid-2007. The annual fundraiser An Evening in Greece has brought Greek culture, food, dance, and fellowship to the citizens of San Luis Obispo County for more than two decades.

Saint Andrew the Apostle Greek Orthodox Church at 232 East Foothill Boulevard in San Luis Obispo serves the Orthodox Christian faithful of San Luis Obispo County as a parish of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of San Francisco within the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, a Pan-Orthodox community welcoming faithful of Greek, Armenian, Lebanese, Romanian, Russian, and many other backgrounds to worship together in the ancient faith.