SB's tradition-rich Greek church
Great event coming up that gives locals opportunity to indulge in Greek culture in San Bernardino.
Greek Food Festival of the Inland Empire
Prophet Elias Greek Orthodox Church
1035 Inland Center Drive, San Bermardino
Saturday May 3rd (12-10 p.m.) & Sunday May 4th (12-9 p.m.)
Authentic Greek Food, Pastries, Artwork, Music, Dance & Children’s Games
Church Tours & Brief Explanation of the Orthodox Faith
Click below for the story of the church's new priest, Father Timothy Pavlatos.
SAN BERNARDINO — For too long, the city was without a Greek Orthodox priest.
But Father Timothy Pavlatos, 43, has now been in town serving his parish for about eight months.
“I’m still assessing the area,” Father Timothy said. “But I’ve been told by a good friend, an orthodox priest in Riverside, that there are great opportunities to share our faith, which goes back 2,000 years.”
Father Timothy serves as priest of Prophet Elias Greek Orthodox Church in San Bernardino, a growing congregation of about 200 families that is steeped in Holy Tradition. Unlike many strains of Protestantism that have their origins after Martin Luther’s revolutionary 16th century reforms, the Greek Orthodox faith remains largely unchanged.
“The Orthodox faith is the Faith of the Apostles, meaning that the teachings of the Orthodox Church have remained unchanged since the time of the Apostles,” he said. “We are not a part of a reform, and there’s something unique in that today, especially in a time when there are more than 40,000 protestant denominations.”
Pavlatos was raised in Ohio to a German-American mother and Greek-American father, and came to San Bernardino after stints heading parishes in Eugene, Oregon and Phoenix, AZ. When he arrived the city had been without a priest for about nine months.
At the church, located at 1035 Inland Center Drive, Father Timothy delivers about 35 percent of his services in the Greek language, a change from the exclusive English he used in Eugene.
“Here, there is a larger contingency of ethnic Greeks,” he said. “But the shift to more English is inevitable, because the kids, the next generations, are speaking English.”
Father Timothy, who considers himself just an intermediate Greek speaker, said the church may be finely aged, but it’s flexible.
“The Orthodox Faith is not for any particular ethnic group, be it Greek, Russian, Serbian, Antiochian, etc. It is the One, Holy, Apostolic Faith and it is for all people of all nations. You do not need to be Greek to Orthodox.”
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