History

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, thousands of Greeks came to northern Utah seeking opportunity, finding work in the mines and on the railroads, clearing land, laying tracks, building roads, and extracting minerals and ores. The Ogden Greek community was built on those roots, and by the 1920s and 1930s many of these immigrants had become innovative businessmen who helped turn Ogden into a vibrant entrepreneurial city, while others on the outskirts turned to agriculture to forge their future. By the 1940s, the second generation had started families of their own and begun building the foundations of the present society, and the community began establishing itself more firmly after World War II as families grew in numbers.

In the spirit of pioneers, approximately 120 hopeful planners dared to dream of friends and family housed in a church of their own. On January 14, 1951, the first elected committee of the Board of Trustees began their momentous task, a significant turning point for Ogdenites who found themselves united in a common goal. The official charter for a non-profit organization was registered in 1955 with the State of Utah, and a twelve-person committee led the effort to its culmination with groundbreaking on July 6, 1963, attended by Bishop Demetrios of Los Angeles, Utah Senator Frank Browning, South Ogden Mayor Fred Montmorency, and clergy from Salt Lake City. As the building process began, parishioners lent their diverse talents, from architecture and engineering to farming and ranching, and after the exterior was complete, members built the iconostasis, the Royal Doors, and the church cross with their own hands. Throughout the building process the AHEPA, Daughters of Penelope, and Philoptochos raised funds to outfit the interior.

On October 18, 1964, parishioners witnessed Father Spyros Diavatis performing the Divine Liturgy for the first time in their own church in the city. At the naming banquet the following month, Transfiguration was chosen as the name for the Ogden parish, a symbolic choice that would forever remind the congregation of the transformation that had occurred at the foot of the Wasatch Mountains, more than sixty years after the first Greek immigrants had stepped foot in Ogden.

Transfiguration Greek Orthodox Church at 674 42nd Street in South Ogden serves the Orthodox Christian faithful of northern Utah as a parish of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Denver within the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.