History

Saint George Greek Orthodox Church of Piscataway, New Jersey is the largest Greek Orthodox congregation in the State of New Jersey, its roots reaching back to Sunday, October 15, 1916, when a group of Greek families gathered on the third floor of Eagles' Hall at the corner of Church and Neilson Streets in New Brunswick for the community's first Divine Liturgy. The nearest Greek Orthodox church at that time was in Newark, and as the community around New Brunswick grew, its members recognized that they needed a parish of their own. The Greek Orthodox Community of New Brunswick was legally incorporated in New Jersey on July 19, 1917, operating under a Constitution ratified on April 6, 1924, and the community celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2016.

In 1962, the present Saint George Greek Orthodox Church, along with a Community Center and Greek and Sunday School classrooms, was built at its current location in Piscataway, relocating the parish from New Brunswick to the township that has been its home ever since. An expansion completed in 1988 added a gymnasium known as the AHEPA Hall, significantly increasing the parish's capacity for community and cultural life. The parish has described its campus with pride as its own Acropolis of Saint George, with the church as its Parthenon.

Through more than a century of parish life, the Saint George community has counted among its members a member of the Academy of Athens, a member of the United States Congress, New Jersey politicians, five volunteers at the 2004 Athens Olympics, seven priests, and four Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. The Annual Saint George Greek Festival, held each May and drawing upward of 15,000 visitors, has become one of the most beloved and well-attended Greek festivals in New Jersey, a celebration of Hellenic hospitality, homemade food, traditional dance, and community spirit that has been a central New Jersey tradition for more than five decades.

Saint George Greek Orthodox Church at 1101 River Road in Piscataway serves the Orthodox Christian faithful of Middlesex County as a parish of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of New Jersey within the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, a community that has helped shape Greek Orthodox life in central New Jersey for more than a century.