History

Saint Nectarios Greek Orthodox Mission of Pasco, Washington has served the Orthodox Christian faithful of the Mid-Columbia Region since 1980, when the Reverend E. Anthony Tomaras, Executive Director of the Northwest Orthodox Foundation, arrived to begin missionary work in the Tri-Cities area. On February 2, 1980, the Feast of the Presentation of Our Lord in the Temple, Father Anthony served the first Divine Liturgy in what had begun as the Tri-Cities Greek Orthodox Church, a community holding monthly meetings in backyards, restaurants, community centers, and a borrowed Episcopal Church.

The mission grew steadily through the 1980s, and in June 1988 the community purchased its own building, a significant milestone that gave the faithful of the Tri-Cities a permanent home of their own. The following year, in November 1989, His Grace Bishop Anthony dedicated the chapel to Saint Nectarios of Aegina, the beloved twentieth-century monk, bishop, and theologian who reposed in 1920 and was glorified as a saint by the Ecumenical Patriarchate in 1961. From 1997 to 1998, the Very Reverend Archpriest Gregory E. Roth, a retired Air Force Chaplain, served as the mission's first full-time priest, supported in part by the Archbishop Iakovos Fund from the Orthodox Christian Mission Center. Father Anthony Tomaras returned to serve again in 1998 through the summer of 2000, offering the Divine Liturgy twice a month and on major feast days.

Through the years that followed, the mission was sustained by visiting priests from Portland, Seattle, and beyond, including Father James Retelas of Holy Trinity in Portland and Father Dane Popovic of Saint Sava Serbian Orthodox Church in Issaquah. From 2004 to 2015, His Grace Bishop Anthimos of Olympos joined the community each year for Holy Week and Pascha, a pastoral presence the faithful cherished deeply. Major improvements to the building expanded the worship area during this period, and the Deacon's wife led an effort that resulted in the installation of the large icons that now hang on the walls of the expanded sanctuary.

Saint Nectarios Greek Orthodox Mission at 627 West Bonneville Street in Pasco serves the Orthodox Christian faithful of the Mid-Columbia Region as a mission parish of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of San Francisco within the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, conducting all services in English and welcoming Orthodox Christians and inquirers of every background to worship in the ancient tradition of the Church.