Greek Community in Salt Lake City

Published by The National Herald, November 4, 2005

Greek Community in Salt Lake City 100 Years Old

SALT LAKE CITY – On Wednesday morning, October 26, at Prophet Elias Greek Orthodox Church, Father Matthew Gilbert celebrated a service of Divine Liturgy for Saint Demetrios the Great Martyr. The congregation included dozens of children from the St. Sophia parochial school, which is housed in the Prophet Elias Church.

During the homily, Father Gilbert told Demetrios' story in simple words, so the children could understand. He spoke of the bravery of this saint, who was born in the year 270 AD, and who was killed because he would not give up his faith in Christ. Father Gilbert urged his listeners to be brave, as well.

Be brave in doing what is right, even if others laugh at you, he said. Be brave enough to be a peacemaker. Be brave when you make a mistake. Ask for forgiveness and try again.

"What do you do when you make a mistake on your paper in school," he asked the children? "You erase. You ask for help." In the same way, we must ask for God's help every day, he said.

The children, even the littlest ones, appeared to be paying attention to his words. They also seemed to know the liturgy of the church. As the service progressed, they knew when to say "Lord have mercy," and when to say "Grant this, O Lord," and they knew when to say these words in English and when to say them in Greek.

Meanwhile, at the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in downtown Salt Lake, Father Michael Kouremetis was also conducting a service in honor of Saint Demetrios that morning. His congregation was older, for the most part. But the liturgy – the prayers, the responses and the hymns and the Bible readings – was the same. In fact, the same words and the same service for Saint Demetrios was said in Orthodox churches all over the world that day.

This weekend, Utah's Greek community will celebrate its 100th anniversary. People will dine and dance, and take in a history display. They'll honor the first immigrants, the men who came to work on the railroads and in the mines, and the women who married them and started families half a world away from their own mothers and fathers.

Above all, they'll celebrate their faith. One hundred years ago this month, on 400 West and 400 South in Salt Lake City, the first Greek Orthodox Church in Utah was consecrated.

Father Kouremetis says it is the Church which has kept the Greek heritage and culture alive in this state. The Church has kept the language alive and kept families united, generation after generation. "The Church is the bonding agent which kept us all together and always gave us hope, even in the darkest times."

And there were some hard times, said Constantine Skedros, who has just finished a church history called "100 Years of Faith and Fervor." The immigrants who came here at the turn of the past century came because their families were desperately poor, he said.

They probably never intended to stay. They thought they'd send some money home, perhaps help pay for a dowry so their sister could marry, or tide the family over during a year when the crops had failed. When they realized they would stay, they knew they would need to make the observances of their faith.

The 1900 Census showed three Greeks in Utah. But by 1904, there were several hundred Greek men working in and around the Salt Lake Valley. Their labor came cheap, but they worked hard and they were saving – a dime here, a nickel there – to build a church.

In 1905, 200 Greek men met and formed a corporation. They bought land near 400 West on 400 South for $1,600 and got a loan from the Walker Brothers Bank for $7,000. The first Holy Trinity Church was consecrated on October 29, 1905.

Salt Lake City, then, became the site of the 14th Greek Orthodox Parish in the United States, and the first parish to be established between St. Louis and San Francisco.

The Greek community quickly outgrew their church, Skedros said. In 1924, they built Holy Trinity Cathedral on 300 South and 300 West. They moved the altar from the first Holy Trinity, along with a reliquary containing the remains of saints, the reliquary which had been placed in the first church when it was consecrated.

In the 1960's, the community struggled over whether or not to build a second church. By this time, there were more than 1,000 children in the Sunday School and the church had gone to two worship services and two Sunday Schools every week. Everyone worried that their tight-knit community would suffer if they didn't meet in the same building each week.

Eventually, 75 percent of the members approved the proposal to build a second church on Highland Drive. Prophet Elias was finished in 1969.

Over the years, more and more English has been incorporated into the liturgy, Skedros noted. A typical service at Holy Trinity is done half in English and half in Greek. At Prophet Elias, it is done 60-70 percent English.

There's no reason for people who don't understand Greek to get lost, Skedros pointed out. The service is printed in both languages, in little books, in every pew. And the liturgy books also give an introduction to an Orthodox service. They explain what Orthodox worshippers have been doing, in a variety of languages and in a variety of countries, for 2,000 years.

It is what the children were doing that Wednesday. It is a way of worship that the Orthodox faithful hope will continue for all the generations to come, here in Utah. The description reads:

"On the verbal side of the Liturgy we hear: eloquent prayers of praise, thanksgiving, intercession and confession; litanies, petitions, acclamations, greetings and invitations; hymns, chants, psalmody and creedal statements; and intoned and scriptural readings and a homily. On the non-verbal side, we are involved with solemn processions and an assortment of liturgical gestures. The eyes are filled with the actions of the servers, as well as with the sights of the Lord and His saints gazing at us from the icons. The nostrils are filled with the fragrance of incense, and the heart is grasped by the profound silence of the Divine Presence. People touch hands gently, saying, 'Christ is in our midst,' when called upon to love one another before the offering of the gifts as a sign of mutual forgiveness and love. With one voice and heart, they recite the creed, and recommit themselves to the fullness of the truth of the Orthodox faith. Participating in Holy Communion, the faithful taste and see that the Lord is good. Worship together."
Hundreds of faithful were invited to share the 100th Anniversary Hierarchial Divine Liturgy Last Sunday, October 30, when both of Salt Lake City's Greek Orthodox congregations worshiped together at Abravanel Hall. His Eminence Metropolitan Isaiah of Denver was assisted by local and visiting clergy and the combined choirs of the Prophet Elias and Holy Trinity Churches.

The Deseret Morning News published the above on October 29. The original headline is, "100 Years: Utah's Greek Community."



Volume 7 Number 44 - Saturday, November 5, 2005	A Publication of the ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN LAITY