History

By 1896 four Greeks had arrived in the city of Newport, all from the island of Skiathos in the Aegean Sea. Drawn by the lure of the sea, they saw that they could make a living in Newport's small but thriving fishing industry, and many more Greeks soon followed. The early settlers were mainly from Skiathos, though later arrivals from the island of Lesbos outnumbered them, and despite their regional differences and preferences, all identified with the Greek Orthodox Church.

In Newport the Greeks began gathering at the Friends' Meeting House in 1914, and the following year held services at the United Baptist Church on Spring Street. Through the efforts of Stanley C. Hughes, the rector of Trinity Church, the oldest Episcopal church in Rhode Island, Kay Chapel at 27 High Street was made available and became the principal place of worship for the community until it purchased a church of its own. On September 14, 1915, the State of Rhode Island granted the community a charter empowering them, as the Hellenic Orthodox Community of Newport, to organize and maintain a church. Anthony Salonikios, Apostolos B. Cascambas, Christos P. Petropoulos, Stamos Salonikios, Demetrios Damaskos, and Lambros Brown elected Nicholas Mitchell as their first president and together signed the articles of incorporation. After the establishment of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North and South America in 1922, the Newport Greeks were the first of the three Rhode Island communities to receive recognition from the new Archdiocese.

In 1924 the community purchased its own church building, ending a decade of worshipping in borrowed spaces. Through the decades that followed the Newport Greek community navigated the wartime years, the growth of mixed marriages, the shift toward English in liturgical life, and the sustained work of passing the faith to new generations. In 2002 the parish received a landmark bequest of one million dollars from James Protulis in memory of his parents Efstratios and Arhontoula Protulis, a gift intended to be visionary and forward looking for the long-term benefit of the community. The church was formally consecrated on September 17, 1989.

Saint Spyridon Greek Orthodox Church at the corner of Thames and Brewer Streets in Newport serves the Orthodox Christian faithful of Aquidneck Island as a parish of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Boston within the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, the only Eastern Orthodox church on the island and the spiritual heir of the fishing community that planted the Orthodox faith on the shores of Narragansett Bay more than a century ago.