Greek church looks to Latino community for salvation in Washington Heights
Among the bodegas and Latino restaurants that Washington Heights is famous for, there’s another landmark. On Wadsworth Avenue, between 179th and 180th streets, stands one of the biggest Greek Orthodox churches in the country.
Saint Spyridon's sanctuary
But nowadays, if you hear a foreign language, it’s probably not the one spoken when Saint Spyridon Greek Orthodox Church was founded in 1931.
“I really should learn Spanish,” said Father George Passias, the presiding priest.
Washington Heights used to have one of the largest Greek communities in the country. During its heydey in the 1960’s, the community counted about 15,000 Greeks.
“Everybody was Greek here,” said Polixeni Katechis, 42, from New Rochelle, N.Y. She used to come to Greek afternoon school at St. Spyridon while growing up. “There were two Greek grocery stores on this street.”
Today, the neighborhood is more than 75 percent Latino, with only about 50 Greeks left in the area, according to Father George. On average, fewer than 100 people show up for Sunday services.
Saint Spyridon, the patron saint of the church
But this past Saturday, for St. Spyridon’s feast day, the church was full, according to Jeanne Palaigos, who teaches Sunday school. “A lot of people have moved, but they still come back for the major holidays.”
Palaigos was born and raised in Washington Heights. She now lives in Rockland County, a dozen miles north of New York City. “There is a beautiful church there, but I still come here. My roots are here, I feel very much part of the community.”
But a few loyal members can’t make up for the dwindling local community and fill the 1,000 seats in the sanctuary.
Greek families started moving to the other boroughs in the late 1970’s. The following decade’s crime epidemic in Washington Heights chased out the remaining community. Kids went off to school, married and moved away.
“There are a few people left, between 75 and 175 years old,” jokes Father George. “The 75-year-olds don’t have a lot of money, so there is not much fundraising going on.”
Candle donations
Between the service collection and the candles, he estimates the total around $1,000 on good weekends, a far cry from the church’s half-a-million dollar budget. The church also counts on donations, annual membership fees, fundraisers and renting out the community hall.
Support also comes from the St. Spyridon School. The school is now part the state funded Universal Pre-K Program, which helps the church deal with some expenses.
The school’s demographics have changed even more drastically than the church’s. Of the 160 kids, almost 100 percent are not Greek, according to the priest.
He sees it as a blessing. “If we had stayed Greek-only, the church would have closed a long time ago,” said Father George, who is working on bringing in more Latinos with the help of the school’s principal, an orthodox from Peru. “They like the ministries. They like the icons. They’re interested in our faith.”
For now, there are about five or six Latino parishioners. And maybe seven with Ebelin Rosa Mejia, 46, who came to St. Spyridon for the very first time this Sunday. “God brought me here with my daughter,” said Mejia, who has been a Catholic all her life.
Door to sanctuary
The church also welcomes orthodox from Eastern Europe, especially Georgia and Russia. And the alter boy, Sherman Chung, known as Fotis, is Chinese.
“[The priest] has done a good job of bringing in youth and new people from all over,” said Jean Harbilas, a member of the Parish Council, who lives in New Jersey. She admits some of the older parishioners aren’t too happy about the change. “I keep telling people this will never be the kind of community it was before, and once we admit that, we’ll be fine.”
Father George, who will turn 62 in a few days, is an important figure in the Greek Orthodox community. For 19 years, he was a priest in Flushing with a parish of about 3,000 families. In 1997, he became chancellor of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, one of the highest-ranking positions in the church. Four years ago, the archbishop asked him to take over the struggling church to develop the parish.
“My friends asked me, ‘What did you do to deserve such punishment,’” he jokes as he juggles calls and emails on his Blackberry.
“The archbishop thought, ‘You’re a well-known priest, you’re not retired,’ and you know, I’m not a baby, but I’m still young,” said Father George. He speaks perfect Greek and English and conducts services in both languages, pleasing the older generation and the younger one.
Father George accepted the job to prevent St. Spyridon from being sold because of bad finances, as his childhood church in Chicago was. “I thought, if I can (help) a church not to fall into the hands of another faith, I feel there’s a mission.”
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