Where We Worship
Greek Orthodox congregation traces its Hawai'i roots to 1800s
By Mary Kaye Ritz
Advertiser Staff Writer
Name of the church: Saints Constantine & Helen Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Pacific.
Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser
Our denomination: Eastern Orthodox Christian Church (Greek Orthodox).
Dean Kouldukis is pastor of the Makiki church. The Greek Orthodox branch of Christianity separated from the Roman Catholic Church in the 11th century.
Where we are: 930 Lunalilo St., Makiki, just below Punchbowl.
Our numbers: 100 stewards, or 180 people. One stewardship unit is assigned per family. About 80 people attend the Sunday service.
Our pastor: The Rev. Dean W. Kouldukis
What we believe: "Jesus Christ is our lord and savior, and the second person in the trinity," he said.
"Jesus as God came to earth to save us from our sins," said Kouldukis. "Through death and resurrection, he bestowed forgiveness of sins as well as eternal life."
Our history: The church has been in Hawai'i since Orthodox Christians arrived in the late 1800s, but it didn't organize into a eucharistic community until the mid-1950s. By the early 1960s, the church was incorporated, and the first priest was assigned.
Members used to worship in Episcopal churches until they bought a home on Old Pali Road. They've been at the current location since 1988.
As for the church itself, Kouldukis said Jesus established it in A.D. 33.
"There has been an unbroken continuity since then with apostles," he said, starting with the first bishop, St. Andrew the Apostle.
In A.D. 1054., a split came with the Roman Catholic church over the power of the pope and the Nicene creed, a statement recited during the liturgy that proclaims the basic beliefs of the church.
The Eastern Orthodox church is run more like a bishop democracy, though hierarchical — bishops in form of synods make decisions, and, to continue the analogy, there is no pope who serves as president.
And Greek Orthodox priests can marry; Roman Catholic priests do not.
Orthodox became the predominant religion of Greece, Eastern Europe and Russia, and in the 1800s, it was brought to the United States through immigration.
Greek Orthodox fast on Wednesdays and Fridays, abstaining from meat, fish, dairy products, wine and oil. On Fridays and Wednesdays when liturgy is required, however, wine and oil are allowed.
What we're excited about: Advent season, celebrating the period that leads to Christmas. The most exciting liturgical event in the life of the Eastern Orthodox, however, is Great Lent, leading to Easter, "what we call Pascha," said Kouldukis. "Christmas would take a second place to that."
Their church community raises money to bring ill Neighbor Island children to O'ahu for treatment.
What's special about us: "We believe we have maintained the faith of the apostles of Jesus Christ in unbroken continuity," Kouldukis said, referring to the church's stance that it is the original church of Jesus.
Contact: 521-7220.
