History

Saint Barbara Greek Orthodox Church of Toms River, New Jersey began with a gathering of vision and faith on November 30, 1972, when approximately fifty men and women with strong religious convictions met at the Parish Center of Christ Episcopal Church on Washington Street in Toms River to discuss establishing a Greek Orthodox Church in Ocean County. Their vision became reality on January 7, 1973, when the Greek Orthodox Community of Ocean County celebrated its first Divine Liturgy at the Chapel of Christ Episcopal Church, with the Reverend Dr. Demetrius Constantelos serving as interim priest. The Reverend Dr. Constantelos would serve the community for nearly a decade as its founding spiritual leader, and services continued at this borrowed Episcopal location while the parish worked toward permanent facilities.

On February 14, 1974, ten acres of land were purchased on Church Road in Toms River as the permanent site for the church complex. In September of that year Father James Moulketis was assigned as the parish's first full-time priest, giving the community its first resident pastor. In May 1978 the parishioners elected the name of the church, choosing to honor Saint Barbara the Great Martyr, the third-century noblewoman whose refusal to renounce Christ earned her the crown of martyrdom and whose feast day on December 4 became the patronal celebration of the Toms River community. Construction of the community center began on September 14, 1981, was completed in eleven months, and on August 15, 1982, the Feast Day of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, the first Divine Liturgy was celebrated in the new facility.

On October 24, 2010, Metropolitan Evangelos of New Jersey presided over the Consecration of the church, a milestone that completed the canonical standing of a community that had grown steadily from fifty founding members to one of the most active parishes in the Metropolis of New Jersey.

Saint Barbara Greek Orthodox Church at 2200 Church Road in Toms River serves the Orthodox Christian faithful of Ocean County as a parish of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of New Jersey within the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.