History

Saints Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church of Cambridge, Massachusetts was established in 1917 by Greek immigrants who had made their way to the city across the Charles River from Boston, one of the oldest Greek Orthodox communities in the country. The immigrants who founded the parish were the beneficiaries of the loosening of immigration restrictions that had brought waves of Greeks to New England in the early twentieth century, and looking to create a sense of community in their new country they simultaneously established the Greek American Political Club, located right next door to the church, to help the incoming population of immigrants from Greece assimilate to their new lives while cultivating Greek culture in Cambridge. For generations the church and the Club collaborated to host cultural events, together serving as twin pillars of the Greek Orthodox community in the greater Boston area.

Up until the Second World War, the parish was populated predominantly with families of Greek immigrants. After the war, as immigration from Greece began to wane, the population shifted toward second-generation Greek Americans who carried the faith and culture of their parents into new decades of Cambridge life. Through the following decades the church cemented its position as a hub of Greek Orthodoxy and Orthodox Christian life in Cambridge more broadly, opening its doors to faithful of all backgrounds from across Boston, with a growing presence of students from nearby Harvard, MIT, and Boston University enriching the congregation's character.

The current community at Saints Constantine and Helen reflects more than a century of this evolution: many of its faithful are third- or fourth-generation Greek Americans carrying on the legacy of their ancestors, while others come simply as Orthodox Christians, with the parish periodically hosting Coptic and Oriental Orthodox faithful as well. The parish also plays an active role in fostering Pan-Orthodox community life in Cambridge, including hosting a Pan-Orthodox young adults group and maintaining its presiding priest's chaplaincy at Harvard University as a ministry extending beyond the church walls into one of the world's great academic institutions.

Saints Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church at 14 Magazine Street in Cambridge serves the Orthodox Christian faithful of greater Boston as a parish of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Boston within the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, one of the oldest Greek Orthodox communities in the United States and a century-old cornerstone of Orthodox Christian life in the city of Cambridge.