Orthodox Churches in North Carolina

Orthodox Christianity became established in North Carolina through Greek and Russian immigration, which increased between 1900 and about 1920. NCpedia places the first Orthodox church, a Greek one in Asheville, about 1905, though that city's Holy Trinity parish dates its founding to 1922. In Charlotte the first Greeks settled around 1910, and the parish was organized on September 23, 1923. In Raleigh, Gus Vurnakes, recognized as the first Greek immigrant to settle in the city, arrived in 1885, and the Greek community completed its first purpose-built church in 1938. By the early 2000s Greek Orthodox churches also stood in Burlington, Durham, Fayetteville, Greensboro and Wilmington.

In Pender County, the farm colony of St. Helena was begun in 1905 and first stocked with Italians; between 1923 and 1932 thirty families from the area now called Ukraine joined it. The congregation formed there in 1932, Saints Peter and Paul, was for many years the only Russian Orthodox church in the South, according to NCpedia. By 2006 Russian Orthodox congregations also stood in the Piedmont and the mountains, including St. Nicholas in Fletcher.

Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Charlotte opened its East Boulevard building in 1954. In Troy, Panagia Prousiotissa Monastery was established in 1998 through Elder Ephraim of Philotheou, and its nuns came from a monastery on Thasos. The state's Greek Orthodox parishes belong to the Metropolis of Atlanta; parishes of the Orthodox Church in America, the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia and other jurisdictions now stand beside them.