Antiochian Orthodox Church 10644 Hammerly Blvd, Houston, TX 77043
  Phone: (713) 973-7001  FAX: (713) 973-7006
   
   
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Hall Rental
Various facilities are available for rental. Please visit the Hall Rental page for more information, or contact Maria Abdallah at 281-238-8890 between the hours of 7:00-9:00 pm.

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St. Silouan the Athonite - Bryan/College Station Mission
 
  About St. Joseph by Fr. Matthew MacKay

 

We are a part of the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese under Metropolitan PHILIP.  Our Bishop is BASIL of the Diocese of Wichita and Mid America.  And, we are one of seven Antiochian parishes of the East Texas Deanery.

We began as an outreach effort in 1992 to the growing west side Houston, TX & the greater Katy, TX area.  There were originally 5 families (Abdallah, Bassila, Brewer, Lukenbach & Samarni) who had come from our mother parish of St. George and wanted to try and establish an Orthodox presents in the Westside of Houston.  Fr. Joseph Shahda, pastor of St. George, agreed that their was a real need; and so, he assigned his assisting deacon, (later Bp. THOMAS), to serve this small west Houston group with Typica and Communion.  The deacon would finish Liturgy at St. George and then drive across town to our small rented community center to do services, for the six or so families.  He would literally be vesting as he walked in the front door to do Typica with communion.  Without all the loving spiritual prayer and support of the St. George parish and her clergy we would not have come into fruition as an Orthodox Parish. 

In 1994 our group had grown to about 11 families.  We had inherited an iconostasis from a long forgotten parish life conference in El Paso.  We then set that up for use in our worship space an old dance studio.  Our first 1st full Holy Week & Pascha services were served by a retired priest from the Atlanta area.  After these services, we knew that with God’s help we were going to be an Orthodox presents in the greater Houston area.

By the end of November 1994 Fr. Matthew MacKay was assigned to the west side Houston mission station; at that time we had 17 families.  After Fr. Matthew and his family arrived we were made an official Mission and were given our Name.  Our name St. Joseph the betrothed is a very great honor!  We are one of only a few Orthodox Churches with this name.  [Unlike in the Western church the name St. Joseph is not used by the East very often because the Church does not want anyone to be confused and think St. Joseph is Jesus’ biological father.]  We are blessed when we look at our iconostasis; we see the whole Holy Family; Jesus (savoir), Mary the Theotokos (mother), John the Baptist (cousin) & St. Joseph the betrothed (protector).  Because we are the only St. Joseph Orthodox church in America we like to say that we have a direct line (no waiting) when we ask for intercessional help from our patron saint. 

After 3 ½ years in our rented office park space we had grown to 30 families.  Our lease was up and we were getting crowded.  Now it was time to build our 1st building.  Land was very expensive in Houston area; but with St. Joseph’s intervention, we were able to purchase 5 and ¾ acres of land and build a metal multi-purpose building.  St. Joseph, as a carpenter, was a perfect saint to have interceding for us as we built our church.  For 4 ½ years we worshiped, taught Sunday school, catechized, did Baptisms/Chrismations, had Weddings & Funerals and held social events in our all purpose building.  Now we had grown to 50 families and it was again time to build our real Temple. 

After a one year’s worth of fund raising, blueprints and another year of building we had a traditional domed Byzantine style cruciform church.  One year after we built our church we were blessed to have our temple consecrated by Bp. BASIL.  As the Bp. said, “This is a once in a life time experience for a congregation to know that you have been blessed; be grateful not proud!”  Today we are a very grateful Pan-Orthodox congregation of about 82 families half cradle and half convert members.  It is a wonderful mix & flavor of people nationalities, ethnicities, cultures; and, our Pot-luck dinners reflect this the most: Arab, Russian, Greek, Romanian, Georgian & Tex Mex, come taste and see!  Our future hope is to be a constant and sustainable Orthodox Christian presence in the greater Houston area.  A place where you are taught the true faith, where we act out Christ’s love, are comforted by God’s Spirit and make holy memories for generations. 


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