LOS ANGELES, CA – St. Barbara Greek Orthodox Church’s 30th anniversary was commemorated by a two-day community celebration on December 3 and 4.
Metropolitan Gerasimos of San Francisco presided over the festivities, along with priests from nearby parishes. The event started with a Youth Rally led by Fr. Gary Kyriacou from St. Demetrios Camarillo. Gerasimos presided over Vespers and at the conclusion the Parish Anniversary program followed with St. Barbara priest Fr. Haralambos Fox welcoming the guests.
Gerasimos asked the parishioners to be “active participants” in matters of their faith, in church and in their community. He emphasized how important it is for the church to articulate a vision, for “without a vision for the future communities perish.”
The Greek community in Santa Barbara, an idyllic seaside town north of Los Angeles, first appeared in 1914 as the record shows that 34 Greek men lived in the county at the time, a quarter of them employed by the Southern Pacific Railroad, some restaurant owners and the remaining were peanut and popcorn peddlers.
The first church was erected years later in 1950 at 1124 Castillo Street and it became the cultural and spiritual center of the Greek community. But by the late 1970s it had become apparent that the community had outgrown the small church facilities. Parishioner Ernest Kolendrianos then spoke about the long process of building the new church that is now located in the spectacular hilltop of San Antonio Creek Road. Kolendrianos was a member of the building committee that was assigned to guide the church through the planning process, which proved to be more challenging than expected. “We went through an exhausting process that led to 17 public hearings. We had to deal with numerous conditions placed on operation permits highlighted by a 10PM curfew, a condition that no other church in the Santa Barbara county had been restricted to,” Kolendrianos said. “We had to go to court to overturn the curfew. Luckily, Superior Court Judge James Slater was a devout Catholic and he immediately recognized the unfairness of the restriction imposed by the Board of Supervisors. He rendered his decision immediately and nullified it.” Kolendrianos has written a book, To Build a House of Worship, with details of the two-year process and it is a document to the history of the Greek Orthodox community in Santa Barbara. He also provided commentary during the film presentation Down Memory Lane.
Fr. Haralambos has a unique background and an unusual path to priesthood but his story is an inspirational one. Born Robert Fox, he earned a BS in applied physics from CalTech and later earned a master’s in computer engineering from USC. Most notably, he was an atheist. All that changed one day when in a moment of reflection he realized that God wanted him to follow a different path.
He did not know Greek Orthodoxy until he met his future wife, Joann Katsiotis. She was the one who introduced him to the Orthodox faith. “God knew I was searching for answers and he sent her to me to guide me to my new path. She was God’s messenger,” he told TNH. They followed an employment opportunity in Lowell, MA that allowed him to attend seminary classes on a part-time basis initially. He chose the name Haralambos, which in Greek means glowing with joy because he said “I have never been happier in my life until I started believing in God.” He was ordained to Priesthood in 2006 and served the parish of Saint Nicholas in Northridge, California. He became a full time presbyter-proistamenos to the parish of Santa Barbara in August 1, 2015. One of the challenges in his new parish is the lack of young families. “Santa Barbara is a very expensive place to live so college graduates usually move elsewhere after graduation and the ones who do well professionally eventually come back. But we have quite few families with young kids now in the congregation and I am hopeful. We will even start a dancing group this year for elementary school children.” He says that his vision for his parish is “to bring in the church new people who will embrace our faith in the same way I did, and that we will all pray and prosper together.” After 30 years in operation the church is in need for much needed improvements.
Parish Council Treasurer George Papazacharioudakis told TNH that the parking lot needs resurfacing and expanded handicap access and lighting. Also, exterior and interior painting of the church, orthodox center and Redding Education Center are needed. “We are in the process of initiating our Capital Campaign and our immediate goal is to raise $100,000 although we will probably need close to $150,000 as we will be upgrading the kitchen equipment as well.”
They are hopeful that the amount can be raised in short time if the parishioners exhibit the same generosity as they did on the previous capital campaign when they raised $305,000 for the Redding Center in three months.
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