Transfiguration Of Christ Greek Orthodox Church of Mattituck

History

The Transfiguration of Christ Greek Orthodox Church of Mattituck, New York was born from the determination of the Greek and Cypriot immigrant community of Long Island's North Fork, who in the late 1960s recognized the need for a Greek Orthodox church in their corner of Suffolk County. The driving force behind the effort was Theofan Kyvernitis, a Cypriot immigrant and businessman who served as the church's first president, acquired the land, and donated it for construction. The property had been a potato farm belonging to Stanley Sledjeski, a local farmer and real estate broker who sold it below market value at the suggestion of his wife Helen, a religious woman. Harry Stavrides paid for the foundation, James Moraitis donated the bell, and architect Steve Tsontakis donated his services to design the building. Much of the funding was raised through modest means, including weekly cake sales that brought the community together around a shared purpose.

On October 11, 1969, groundbreaking ceremonies took place on Breakwater Road, with the Reverend John Malouris and the Reverend Dr. John Poulos of Saint Demetrios Church in Astoria present for the occasion. While the church was being built, liturgies were conducted at the nearby Church of the Redeemer in Mattituck. The first Divine Liturgy in the new church was held on August 6, 1970, the Feast of the Transfiguration, the very feast for which the church is named. The first annual dance hosted by the North Fork Greek Community Association was held on September 5, 1970, at the American Legion Hall in Greenport, drawing more than six hundred people. By September 1973 the community had formally evolved from the North Fork Greek Community Association into the Transfiguration of Christ Church. The Consecration of the Church was performed on August 8, 1976, by Archbishop Iakovos, Primate of the Greek Orthodox Church of North and South America, with the deposition of the Holy Relics of Saint Theona and Saint Iakovos the Monk.

In November 1984 a disastrous fire struck the church, a moment of mourning for the entire community. Rather than surrender to the loss, the faithful rallied. Cleo Tsounis, who had donated her services as church secretary for twenty-two years, served as Parish Council President from 1986 to 1987 and spearheaded a fundraising drive that rebuilt the church within two years without a mortgage. In 1988 a hand-carved Byzantine-style iconostasis forty-five feet wide and nine feet tall was commissioned, the iconography completed in the Cretan style by Theodore Filippakis, and icons donated from Greek monasteries by parishioners enriched the restored sanctuary.

The Transfiguration of Christ Greek Orthodox Church on Breakwater Road in Mattituck serves the Orthodox Christian faithful of Long Island's North Fork as a parish of the Direct Archdiocesan District of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, the only Greek Orthodox community on the North Fork and a home-away-from-home for generations of Greek and Cypriot families who found in Mattituck their Greek village in America.