Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church

Bluff City, TN

The Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church serves the Orthodox faithful of the immediate area called the Tri-Cities which includes the cities of Kingsport, TN; Johnson City, TN; and Bristol, which lies in Tennessee and Virginia. Holy Trinity resides on five acres of donated land and expects to increase its land area in the future. The Church Hall is currently being used for all services until a church building is built in the future.

Before Holy Trinity was organized, the Tri-Cities faithful had to travel 100 miles to St. George Greek Orthodox Church in Knoxville, TN, or ninety miles to Holy Trinity in Asheville, NC. Approximately ten Tri-Cities families decided to organize a Greek Orthodox Community in December of 1989. Fr. Jim Carellas, the priest from Knoxville, visited the Tri-Cities three or four times a year on Saturdays in order to minister to the Orthodox families and to celebrate services. Fr. Gregory Wingenbach from Louisville, KY, also ministered to the Tri-Cities families in a similar manner. Eventually, various local churches allowed the families to use their facilities and two Liturgies were celebrated every month by Frs. Gregory and Jim alternately.

Holy Trinity supported its growing needs by holding many fund-raising events such as bake sales, cookie festivals, rummage sales, Greek Night dances, and yard sales.

In 1993, Fr. Michael Eaccarino celebrated Liturgy twice a month in a hall only a mile from the Church’s present location. Then in September 1994, Fr. James Mihalakis was assigned to Holy Trinity of the Tri-Cities as the first, permanent, full-time priest. The first President of the Parish Council was Andreas Papas followed by Pantelis Hatzikazakis, Stephen Yallourakis, Nick Livaditis, Darryl Addington, Georgia Georgiou, and Stephen Yallourakis. Thus, Holy Trinity of the Tri-Cities became a fully-recognized community under the Bishop of Atlanta. Mr. Jim Kalogeros donated three acres to the community in 1995 and the Church Hall was built in 1996. Fr. Mihalakis retired in October 1998 was succeeded by Fr. Louis Scoulas and then by Fr. Kevin Millsaps.

At the present time, there are approximately 50 families and a dozen singles who are official members of the community. Some members live 50 miles away or more in North Carolina, Virginia, and even Kentucky. They include people originally from Greece, Ukraine, Russia, Romania, Syria, Serbia, and Egypt. Services are conducted mostly in English and Greek, but the Lord’s Prayer is recited usually in English, Greek, Arabic, Ukrainian, Russian, Romanian, and other languages at some Liturgies.

The mission of the Parish is to keep, practice, and proclaim the Orthodox Christian Faith, pure and undefiled.

To visit the parish website, please click here.