Orthodox Churches in Montana

Orthodoxy arrived in Montana with immigrants who followed the railroads and mines. In 1897, thirty-five families in Butte attended the first Serbian Orthodox services, and by 1910 the city's Serbian population exceeded 4,000. The first Holy Trinity church was built in 1905 and dedicated in 1906 by Archbishop Tikhon, who headed the Orthodox Church in the United States. One survey of first parishes by state names Butte's Serbian parish as Montana's first. The present church, consecrated in 1965, holds frescoes painted between 2003 and 2006 by iconographers from Serbia.

Billings began as a railroad hub where Greek, Serbian and Russian families settled; St. Elijah, a Serbian parish there, has since closed. A new Billings parish formed in 1988 under the Greek Archdiocese entered the Orthodox Church in America in 1994 and is now St. Nicholas Orthodox Church. The Greek Orthodox Community of Billings holds services once a month. Annunciation Greek Orthodox Christian Church in Missoula was chartered in 1956. In Bozeman, where Orthodox Christians had driven two hours to Billings or one hour to Butte, St. Anthony was recognized as a mission in 1999.

St. Nicholas in Billings draws people from across Montana and northern Wyoming, some driving about three hours to services. Holy Trinity in Butte is now Pan-Orthodox, with members from many backgrounds, while St. Nicholas reports an increasing number of converts and St. Anthony describes its members as mostly converts. Other parishes meet in Clancy, in the Helena area, and in Great Falls and Kalispell.