History

The first Greek immigrant thought to have settled in the Amarillo area was John Yianitsou, who arrived from Borger, Texas around 1924 and established a hardware store. He and his brother Gus became the main organizers and most significant contributors to the Greek Orthodox community of Amarillo, joined by families who had come from Thessaloniki, including Peter and George Georgantonis. As was the pattern across America, the first Greeks who settled in Amarillo opened restaurants, creating a visible Greek presence in the commercial life of the Texas Panhandle.

The community formed sometime in the mid-1940s and gathered wherever space could be found to worship together, with Father Methodios Papappostolou thought to be the first priest to serve them. A groundbreaking ceremony for a first church building was held in 1948, with the Right Reverend George H. Quarterman, the Episcopalian Bishop of Northwest Texas, joining the Orthodox faithful in blessing the new endeavor. By 1949, the small number of families had built a modest clapboard building near downtown Amarillo that served as their first house of worship. That building was taken by the State of Texas in the mid-1960s under eminent domain for the construction of a segment of Interstate 40, displacing the congregation and requiring them to find a new home.

The parish relocated further west to its present site, a small building with a community hall and a parish house, where it has continued its ministry to the Orthodox faithful of the Texas Panhandle ever since. Over the decades the congregation has grown increasingly diverse, with members of Ukrainian, Belorussian, Armenian, Ethiopian, Lebanese, Cossack, and Arab heritage worshipping alongside the descendants of the Greek founders, a reflection of the universal character of the ancient Orthodox faith.

Saint John the Prodromos Greek Orthodox Church at 1101 Bell Avenue in Amarillo serves the Orthodox Christian faithful of the Texas Panhandle as a parish of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Denver within the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, a small but faithful community named for Saint John the Forerunner, the prophet who prepared the way of the Lord.