About Us
Our community was founded in 1993 by Orthodox Christians who found it hard to travel to Leeds every Sunday. Although most of the founding congregation were English, the church quickly became home to Russian and Greek residents of York who also found it hard to get to their nearest Orthodox church on a Sunday - especially on restricted public transport systems. We first began to meet in the Anglican church of All Saints on North Street, but moved into the Anglican church of St Mary's, Bishophill Junior the following year as this was a more suitable building. The tower of St Mary's certainly pre-dates the Great Schism of 1054, and other parts of the building were probably built in the 12th century, so we think it is a very appropriate building for Orthodox worship!
Our first Priest was Archimandrite Ephrem Lash, who wrote the English translation of the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom which we use today. But we don't use this translation simply because we like Fr Ephrem as much as we do! It is widely recognised as an extremely accurate translation, while at the same time sensitive to the needs of singers (who have to make the words fit a tune) and people whose first language is English. Many very direct translations ignore the real purpose of Liturgy, which needs to be easily sung and understood, and lose the sense of the words by using an exact substitute for a word or phrase which does not mean the same in English as it does in the original Greek. Fr Ephrem's translation is authorised for use in the Oecumenical Patriarchate, and has a forward written by Archbishop Gregorios.
When Fr Ephrem moved home, the parish was ably served for a time by Fr Samuel from the Greek Church in Leeds. The community is still served from Leeds; our priest, Father David, is based at the Three Hierarchs; but the community has somewhat evolved since its early days. From four or five English people, we now have a mix of regular and itinerant members of all sorts of nationalities who are permanently or temporarily resident in Yorkshire.
A link to the website of The Three Hierarchs Greek Orthodox Church has been put in the box below.