Orthodox Churches in Massachusetts

Orthodox parishes in Massachusetts date from the late nineteenth century, when immigrants arrived in the state's industrial cities. Syrian-Lebanese families reached Lowell in the mid-1880s, and Greek immigrants came to work in its mills in the 1890s, about 200 by 1895. Lowell's Holy Trinity parish was started in 1893; its church, dedicated in 1908, has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1977. Boston's Annunciation parish was started in 1899, and in Lynn, a center of shoe making, Greeks clustered around St. George Church. Holy Trinity Orthodox Cathedral in Boston was founded in 1910 by immigrants from the Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires.

In Boston, the parish that became St. George Albanian Orthodox Cathedral was organized in March 1908, after Fan Noli celebrated the first Divine Liturgy in Albanian on March 22. Archbishop Platon, head of the Russian Orthodox Church in the United States, had ordained him on March 18. Albanian parishes later formed in Worcester and Southbridge.

Greek Orthodox parishes are spread across the state, with cathedrals in Roxbury (Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral of New England), Springfield (St. George) and Worcester (St. Spyridon). Other traditions include Antiochian parishes in Lowell, Lawrence and Cambridge, Romanian parishes in Andover and Chelsea, and Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia parishes in Ipswich and Methuen. St. Sava Serbian Orthodox Cathedral is in Cambridge. Holy Trinity Orthodox Cathedral, part of the Orthodox Church in America's Diocese of New England, reports that over half its adult members are converts.