Our Parish History

Our Community was built by necessity, it started on a cold winter evening on the way back from church in Easton, PA when several Greek families were stranded on route 33 during a blizzard. The date was March 6, 1979. After a scary night stranded on the highway, while they made the best out a scary situation with laughter, and stories the group decided it was time to build a Church closer to where they actually lived. This strong conviction and detemination helped them achieve their goal of having a church much closer to home, Holy Cross community was born. 

They collected some 40 signatures needed as proof of the need or a community and presented it to the Metropolitan at the time, (Maximos of Pittsburgh) who then gave his blessing for a community to begin.  By the following winter, (February 18, 1980) they had raised enough money to buy and renovate, but not build an entirely new building. They found  an old Pentecostal Church for sale on Stokes Avenue. So they bought it and began celebrating services in the downstairs hall while the upstairs Church was under renovations. Two priests were instrumental in these first services Fr. Nicholas Kossis and Fr. Panteleimon Fatsis who came from neighboring parish in Easton, PA.

After renovations were completed they moved the services upstairs to the actual church and the hall became used for fellowship and meetings. The first baptism and wedding took place in September 1983. After many years and the need or more space and potential growth they also bought the adjacent lot next to the church which has a house and attached garage and use it for various organizational meetings such as Catechatical classes and Greek cultural edification classes, as well as some years it served during the week as a Christian Preschool.

For over half of the life of this parish one priest faithfully served this parish for twenty three years his name is Father Theodore Petrides, he and his family moved here in the mid-1990's and grew their family and connections. Today Father Theodore or "Fr. Ted" as he was known serves the parish of Saints Constantine and Helen, in Reading, Pa  

Currently Father Konstantinos Koutroubas serves the parish of Holy Cross together with his wife, since September of 2019. We invite you all to join us in prayer virtually via our Facebook live stream every Sunday, and to "come and see" this little secret hidden in the Pocono Mountains for yourselves.

As a community we love gathering together and feasting during our cultural festivals with the greater Monroe County community and we are well received.  However our goal has and always will be to be a place of worship as one of the Lord's holy temples and to spread the gospel of Christ in our greater community.