Parish History

In 1905, Services such as Baptisms, Weddings, Funerals and the Divine Liturgy were held in people’s homes.  These services were officiated by neighboring Greek Orthodox clergy. 

As we began to grow, St Paul’s Protestant Episcopal Church, which at that time was located downtown at Saint Paul and Bank Street, demonstrated great generosity by making her facilities available. The first priest to serve the spiritual needs of our Parish on a regular basis was Father Nicholas Salamis of Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in Montreal, Quebec, who commuted to Burlington to hold services.

For several decades, the Burlington Orthodox faithful held services at St Paul’s until we moved to our present location in 1958.Our present church was built in 1914 by Mr L.C. Clark as a memorial to his wife Marian. The church was named All Saints Chapel and had been donated by Clark to the Protestant Episcopal Diocese of Vermont. The chapel was used once a year by the Episcopalians.  

Between 1958 and 1961, our community rented the All Saints Chapel.  By 1961, our parish was able to purchase All Saints Chapel.  On May 29, 1966, His Eminence Archbishop Iakovos presided at the official opening of the church, named for the Most-Holy Panagia as “Koimisis tis Theotokou - Dormition of the Mother of God” that day.

Sadly, just a year later, on the eve of Palm Sunday, April 23, 1967 the interior of the church went up in flames.  Thanks again to the generosity of our Episcopalian friends; we were able to use the new All Saints Protestant Episcopal Church on the corner of Spear and Swift Streets in South Burlington, for our Divine Services until we could rebuild the destroyed interior of our own church within the year.

As the decades passed, we decided to build an addition to this church.  In 1985, we built the Metropoulos Community Center, which is directly connected, to the Church.  We use the Community Center each week for our Sunday Church School and Coffee Hour, and also for receptions, meetings and other functions.  In 2002, we enlarged and modernized the kitchen. There is also a rectory on the parish campus for the use of the Priest and his family.
 
Priests (* men were subsequently removed/resigned from the priesthood) who have served our community:
  • Alexander Fasoulas*
  • Fr Evangelos Georgiadis
  • John Zannidakis*
  • Fr Anthimos Panagiotopoulos (currently Metropolitan Alexios of Atlanta)
  • Fr Nicanor Kutelas
  • Fr Thomas Heath
  • Fr Arthur (Athanasios) Baron
  • Emmanuel Koveos*
  • Fr Robert Athas
  • Ephraim Ehrs*
  • Fr Andreas Papayiannis