Archdiocesan Cathedral of the Holy Trinity

The Archdiocesan Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, at 319–337 East 74th Street on the Upper East Side in New York City, New York, is a Neo-Byzantine-style Greek Orthodox church. It serves as the national cathedral of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, and as the episcopal seat of Archbishop Elpidophoros of America.

Established in 1891, and at its present location since 1932, it was the second Greek Orthodox church in the Americas, the first in New York City, and the largest Eastern Orthodox church in the Western Hemisphere.

Activities

The cathedral is the home parish for 800 families, and hosts dignitaries and visitors. It offers regular worship (which is broadcast on television), Sunday school, afternoon school, the Cathedral School (grades N-8), Bible study, and various ministries and fellowship organizations.

History

In 1891 the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox parish's first home was in part of an Evangelical church on West 53rd Street for $50 per-month ($ in current dollar terms). It was the second Greek Orthodox church in the Americas and the first in New York City.

In 1904 it was purchased and moved to a Gothic Episcopal church at 153 East 72nd Street. In 1927, the East 72nd Street church burned down, and two years later land was purchased and a new church was built for $577,000 ($ in current dollar terms) in Byzantine style. Eleanor Roosevelt laid the cornerstone of the cathedral on September 14, 1931. Holy Trinity moved to its current location on March 4, 1932. Patriarch Athenagoras I of Constantinople, later Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, consecrated the cathedral on October 22, 1933. He called it: "The Cathedral of all of Hellenism in America". In 1949, it established the Cathedral School. It was designated the archdiocesan cathedral in 1962.

On September 18, 1999, Archbishop Demetrios was enthroned at the cathedral as primate of the Greek Orthodox Church in America. The cathedral's dean, the Rev. Robert Stephanopoulos, had been demoted and relieved of responsibilities at the cathedral in January 1999 by Archbishop Spyridon of America, but by late 1999 had regained his position. Stephanopoulos retired in 2007, after being dean for 25 years, and Frank Marangos was named the new dean. Since June 2012, the dean has been Fr. Anastasios Gounaris.

Opera singer Maria Callas was baptised at the church in 1926, in 2001 television journalist and former political advisor George Stephanopoulos and comedian Alexandra Wentworth were married there, and in 2011 Christopher Nixon Cox, grandson of President Richard Nixon, and heiress Andrea Catsimatidis, daughter of Gristedes billionaire John Catsimatidis, were married there.

Architecture

The exterior is Romanesque Revival red brick and limestone. The cathedral's architects were Kerr Rainsford, John A. Thompson, and Gerald A. Holmes; they later designed Hunter College Uptown, which is now known as Lehman College. The interior has Byzantine mosaics, botticino marble for the walls, columns, and altar, and imported Italian stained glass. The iconography on the dome was created by Georgios Gliatas, a student of iconographer Fotis Kontoglou. The church sits down the block from the Bohemian Gothic Revival Jan Hus Presbyterian Church.

References

External links

Cathedral websitegoarch.org

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Churches in Manhattan
Upper East Side
Cathedrals in New York City
Greek Orthodox churches in New York City
Greek Orthodox cathedrals in the United States
Churches completed in 1932
Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America
Religious organizations established in 1891
1891 establishments in New York (state)
Church buildings with domes