Our Parish History
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 of Houston, TX and 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 presence in the West side of Houston. Fr. Joseph Shahda, pastor of St. George, agreed that there was a real need, 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. 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 full Holy Week and Pascha services were served by a retired priest from the Atlanta area. After those services, we knew that with God’s help, we were going to be an Orthodox presence in the greater Houston area.
By the end of November 1994, Fr. Matthew MacKay was assigned to the 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 (because unlike in the Western church, the name St. Joseph is not used by the East very often since 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 entire Holy Family: Jesus (Savior), Mary the Theotokos (mother), John the Baptist (cousin), and 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. It was time to build our first building. Land was very expensive in the Houston area, but with St. Joseph’s intervention, we were able to purchase 5 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. By then, we had grown to 50 families, and it was time to build our real Temple.
After one year’s worth of fund raising and 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 bishop 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 95 families: half-cradle and half-convert members. It is a wonderful mix and flavor of people, nationalities, ethnicities, and 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.