History

Saint Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church of Baltimore County was born from a directive and a dream. During a pastoral visit to Baltimore, Archbishop Iakovos encouraged Christopher Makres and the young Greek Orthodox faithful of the city to move out where the people were and plant a new parish in the suburbs. That conversation set in motion a chain of events that would unfold with remarkable speed and determination.

Several preliminary meetings led to the first general assembly of November 29, 1969 at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Gabriel Pantelides, where it was agreed that a third Greek Orthodox church would be founded to serve the faithful of the Baltimore suburbs. Following a meeting with Archbishop Iakovos in New York on February 3, 1970, a pledge drive was launched. Within thirty days, signatures from 102 families and pledges totaling over $100,000 had been gathered. The Ecclesiastical Charter was granted on May 15, 1970, giving the community official life. The first Divine Liturgy was celebrated on November 29, 1970 at Cromwell Valley Elementary School, exactly one year after that founding meeting, complete with choir and cantors.

For the next several years the parish was mobile, worshipping primarily at Parkville Senior High School while setting up and dismantling an altar, icons, candles, and all the furnishings of church life each week. In October 1971, a thirty-acre property on Cub Hill Road was purchased for $90,000, giving the community its permanent home. On May 11, 1974, the parish received its patron saint's name at a banquet at the Hunt Valley Inn, becoming Saint Demetrios. Ground was broken the following day in the rain, a meteorological detail the community came to regard with affectionate humor as a recurring feature of its major milestones. Construction on the first building began February 10, 1975, and on January 4, 1976, the final Divine Liturgy was celebrated at Parkville Senior High School before Opening Day services were held at the new Saint Demetrios Educational Wing Chapel. The fifteen-year construction mortgage was liquidated in an astonishing six years and four months, accelerated by a $100,000 gift from the Paterakis and Tsakalos families matched by the community.

The parish then set its sights on a permanent main church. The groundbreaking was held April 10, 1983, and on August 28, 1984, the church doors were opened and the faithful entered their new house of worship. Over the following decade, every major appointment of the interior was gifted by parishioners, from the altar table and baptismal font to the Pantokrator icon and dome, the Bishop's throne, and the iconostasis, completed in 1995. The Saint Kyriaki Chapel was dedicated in 1989, and the parish cemetery was consecrated in 1985.

Today, Saint Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church stands high on a hill on Cub Hill Road in Baltimore County as a parish of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of New Jersey, a beacon of faith built by the vision, sacrifice, and devotion of the young Greek Orthodox families who answered a call more than five decades ago.