Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Church
We are located just off Interstate 80 in the Pocono Mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania near the New Jersey border; we are 90 minutes due west of New York City and 45 minutes north of Bethlehem, PA.
We are a community of Orthodox Christians struggling to 'work out our own salvation with fear and trembling' (Philippians 2:12). We are Greeks and non-Greeks, American converts to the Orthodox Christian faith and their children, immigrants, children and grandchildren of immigrants.
We worship according to the traditions (cf. II Thessalonians 2:15) of the ancient, apostolic churches of the eastern Mediterranean evangelized by the Apostles in the first century AD, as documented in the New Testament book of The Acts of the Apostles.
We worship in both Greek and English: Greek, so as to preserve and celebrate the lingua franca of the ancient world used by the inspired authors of the New Testament and in the dogmatic definitions of the Church’s Ecumenical Councils (dogmas shared by Orthodox, Roman Catholics and most Protestants to this day); and in English, the common tongue of the diverse peoples of North America and the world today, in obedience to the biblical commands to “teach all nations” and to “pray with understanding” (Matthew 28:19, I Corinthians 14:15).
Our parish was founded in 1979 and dedicated to the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross. We are under the authority of our bishop, His Eminence, Metropolitan Maximos (Aghiorgoussis) of Pittsburgh. Our diocese, the Metropolis of Pittsburgh, is a part of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, which is a provincial synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, the modern day city of Istanbul, Turkey.
(Constantinople - also known as New Rome - was founded in 324 by the Emperor St. Constantine the Great on the site of the ancient Greek city of Byzantium as the new, Christian capital of the Roman Empire, which endured until Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453 - long after 'Old Rome' and the Western Empire had fallen to the Goths, Vandals, Franks, etc.)
We are one Church, in full communion with the Orthodox Churches of Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, Russia, Greece, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, etc. The Orthodox Church is the second largest Christian communion in the world behind the Roman Catholic church - which the Orthodox are not in communion.
Our Parish Feast: The Exaltation of the Cross
Our church is dedicated to the Feast of the Exaltation of the Venerable and Life-Giving Cross (September 14), which commemorates the rediscovery of the Cross upon which the God-man, Jesus Christ, was crucified.
The Reading for our patronal feast day tells us: "Saint Helen, the mother of Saint Constantine the Great, when she was already advanced in years, undertook, in her great piety, the hardships of a journey to Jerusalem in search of the cross, about the year 325. A temple to Aphrodite had been raised up by the Emperor Hadrian upon Golgotha, to defile and cover with oblivion the place where the saving Passion had been suffered. The venerable Helen had the statue of Aphrodite destroyed, and the earth removed, revealing the Tomb of our Lord, and three crosses. Of these, it was believed that one must be that of our Lord, the other two of the thieves crucified with Him; but Saint Helen was at a loss which one might be the Wood of our salvation. At the inspiration of Saint Macarius, Archbishop of Jerusalem, a lady of Jerusalem, who was already at the point of death from a certain disease, was brought to touch the crosses, and as soon as she came near to the Cross of our Lord, she was made perfectly whole. Consequently, the precious Cross was lifted on high by Archbishop Macarius of Jerusalem; as he stood on the ambo, and when the people beheld it, they cried out, "Lord have mercy." It should be noted that after its discovery, a portion of the venerable Cross was taken to Constantinople as a blessing. The rest was left in Jerusalem in the magnificent church built by Saint Helen, until the year 614. At that time, the Persians plundered Palestine and took the Cross to their own country (see Jan. 22, Saint Anastasius the Persian). Late, in the year 628, Emperor Heraclius set out on a military campaign, retrieved the Cross, and after bringing it to Constantinople, himself escorted it back to Jerusalem, where he restored it to its place."
The Orthodox Church
The Orthodox Church today, numbering over 250 million faithful worldwide, is a communion of self-governing Churches, each administratively independent of the other, but united by a common faith and spirituality. Their underlying unity is based on identity of doctrines, sacramental life and worship, which distinguishes Orthodox Christianity. All recognize the spiritual preeminence of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople who is acknowledged as primus inter pares, first among equals. All share full communion with one another. The living tradition of the Church and the principles of concord and harmony are expressed through the common mind of the universal episcopate as the need arises. In all other matters, the internal life of each independent Church is administered by the bishops of that particular Church. Following the ancient principle of the one people of God in each place and the universal priesthood of all believers, the laity share equally in the responsibility for the preservation and propagation of the Christian faith and Church (cf. the response of the Eastern Patriarchs to Vatican I and its pronouncements on the papacy).
Orthodox Christianity in North America
Before the establishment of a Greek Orthodox Archdiocese in the Western Hemisphere there were numerous communities of Orthodox Christians. In 1794, a small group of Russian missionaries, including Sts. Herman and Juvenaly of Alaska, arrived in Russian Alaska (sold to the U.S. in 1867) to serve Russian workers and to bring the Orthodox Christian faith to the Native Alaskans (Aleut, Alutiiq, Tlingit, Yup'ik, Eskimo and Athabascan Indian), many of whom remain Orthodox to this day (see Orthodox Alaska). Under the authority of the Church of Russia and her bishops in the New World, parishes were established beyond Alaska in San Francisco and New York City as eastern Rite Catholics converted back to the Orthodox faith (see the life of St. Alexis Toth) and as immigrants from Eastern Europe and the Middle East came to the New World bringing their Orthodox faith with them.
Among the leaders of the Orthodox Church in North America at this time were Sts. Innocent and Jacob of Alaska, Patriarch Tikhon, Raphael of Brooklyn, Alexis of Wilkes-Barre & Minneapolis, Alexander Hotovitsky of New York and John Kochurov of Chicago - their lives may be found here.
History records that on June 26, 1768 the first ethnically Greek immigrants landed at St. Augustine, FL, the oldest city in America. The first religious community of Greek Orthodox Christians in the Americas was founded in New Orleans in 1864 by a small colony of Greek merchants; and the first permanent Greek Orthodox parish, what is now the Archdiocesan Cathedral of the Holy Trinity and the seat of the Greek Orthodox Archbishop of America, was founded in New York City in 1892.
Especially following the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution in Russia the various Orthodox immigrant communities in America sent home for priests and bishops leading to the various 'ethnic' jurisdictions of Orthodox Christians in North America - all of whom were and remain in full communion with one another. The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North and South America was incorporated in 1921 and officially recognized by the State of New York in 1922.
The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America
Today the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America is composed of an Archdiocesan District (New York) and eight Metropolises (New Jersey, Chicago, Atlanta, Detroit, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Boston and Denver). It is governed by the Archbishop and the Eparchial (provincial) Synod of Bishops. The Synod of Bishops is headed by the Archbishop and comprised of the Bishops who oversee the ministry of the Metropolises. It has all the authority and responsibility which the Church canons provide for a provincial synod.
There are 540 parishes, 800 priests and approximately 1.5 million faithful in the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. The Archdiocese receives within its ranks and under its spiritual aegis and pastoral care Orthodox Christians, who either as individuals or as organized groups in Metropolises and Parishes have voluntarily come to it and which acknowledge the ecclesiastical and canonical jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
The 'Reading' for the feast courtesy Holy Transfiguration Monastery, Brookline, MA. ‘The Orthodox Church’, ‘Establishment’, and ‘The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America’ are adapted from About the Archdiocese on the website of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.
