North Texas Parish Advances Toward New Church Building

Photo: St. Maximus Building Project/Vimeo

DENTON — A growing Eastern Orthodox parish in Denton’s historic district - St. Maximus the Confessor Orthodox Church - began nearly 25 years ago with just a handful of faithful. Now, having outgrown its original space, the parish has raised more than $1 million toward a new church building.

The parish began in 2001 when Archbishop Dimitri of Dallas, of blessed memory, sent Father Justin Frederick to Denton to start a mission. It is the only canonical parish in the Western Hemisphere dedicated to St. Maximus the Confessor.

Civil engineering plans have been approved by the City of Denton, with $2.7 million still needed to move forward with construction. The community seeks continued prayers and support to build a new temple to serve the faithful of north-central Texas.

From the parish fundraising website:

Our parish wants a design that would look Texan as well as Orthodox, and welcoming to people of both American and ethnic backgrounds. The historic district required the new church to have a sensitive relationship to the Greek-Revival house on the property, and not block its visibility from the street. This limits the design to a compact footprint, necessitating a spacious wraparound loft to accommodate the congregation. Such lofts are a common feature in the compact urban churches built under the Ottoman Empire, but are rarely seen in new construction. The vertical proportion of the space and tall iconostasis will make for an impressive and dramatic liturgical space, while the red brick trim and timber ceilings contribute a warm American aesthetic.

A fundraiser for the parish's new building, which is in the OCA's Diocese of the South, can be found here.

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