History

The story of Saints Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church of Reading, Pennsylvania begins with the first Greek family to settle in the Reading area, the Hollis family, William, Milton, Themis, and Despina, who arrived from Mytilene on the island of Lesbos around 1890. They started with a small candy-making business and had grown into the largest manufacturer of confectionery in eastern Pennsylvania by 1910. As news of their success reached friends and relatives in Greece, others followed, and the Reading Greek community gradually took shape from several distinct points of origin across the Greek world.

Among the founders were immigrants from Mani in the southern Peloponnese, from the village of Vlahokerasia near Mani, from the island of Kos, and from the area of Aretsou near Constantinople. It was George Thomas who brought a priest from Philadelphia to baptize his daughter on May 20, 1908, and this priest was persuaded to remain and celebrate the first Divine Liturgy in Reading on May 28, 1908, in the home of Costas Lambros at 28 Lemon Street. Despite the community's hopes, their meager finances at the time prevented them from immediately establishing a formal church. The parish was formally organized and became active in 1914, and in the more than a century since, it has grown into a community of both Greek and non-Greek descent united in the ancient Orthodox Christian faith.

The present church at 1001 East Wyomissing Boulevard in the Wyomissing suburb of Reading represents the culmination of that long and remarkable history, a parish whose Heritage Room preserves the genealogical and immigration records of the founding families that carried the Orthodox faith to southeastern Pennsylvania more than a century ago.

Saints Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church at 1001 East Wyomissing Boulevard in Reading serves the Orthodox Christian faithful of Berks County as a parish of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Pittsburgh within the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.