Greek Old Calendarist Seeks to Buy Historic OCA Cathedral
Holy Resurrection's parish was founded by St. Alexis Toth in 1892, but recently merged with another parish due its closing last fall.
WILKES-BARRE, PA — When the historic Holy Resurrection parish officially closed in September of last year, immediate speculation began on what the fate of the immaculate cathedral the parish had worshiped in would be.
The faithful of the parish merged with Holy Trinity Orthodox Church in Wilkes-Barre, and the decision to close the parish was brought about by two major issues: the structural deterioration of the building, which was considered unsafe by the parishioners and the Orthodox Church in America (OCA), and low parish membership.
“After thorough consultation with architects and engineers, the parish was presented with a series of proposals for moving forward,” His Eminence Archbishop Mark of Philadelphia and the Diocese of Eastern Pennsylvania wrote in a September 2024 letter. “None of the solutions presented to the parish offered a way forward that was financially within reach for the current membership.”
Under these circumstances, Archbishop Mark wrote, fixing the structural issues would exhaust the financial resources of the parish without the ability to meet monthly financial obligations. Over the years, more than $1 million had been spent to address the issues.
Now the cathedral is for sale, with one man aiming to save the structure that traces back to St. Alexis Toth, who reposed in the early 20th century and is considered responsible for the conversion of thousands of Catholics to Orthodoxy.
The man in question, Demetri Patitsas, is a member of the Church of the Genuine Orthodox Christians (GOC) of America, a schismatic Greek Old Calendarist sect headquartered in New York that is not in communion with the canonical Orthodox Church. This particular sect is sometimes known as GOC-K, which indicates that it is under the self-proclaimed Archbishop Kallinikos of the Church of the Genuine Orthodox Christians of Greece.
Demetri Patitsas was recently interviewed by FOX56 WOLF in Pennsylvania. Photo: FOX56 WOLF
Demetri has several notable relatives – his twin brother is Dr. Pete Patitsas, who is known for his promotion of the Athos Diet. Two of his uncles – Fr. Philemon Patitsas and Fr. Paul Patitsas – are canonical priests in the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America (GOARCH), and another uncle, Timothy Patitsas, has previously served as Interim Dean at Hellenic College and teaches as an Assistant Professor of Ethics at Holy Cross.
His father, Fr. Christos Patitsas, served as a parish priest in the canonical Church before “an eruption of a doctrinal disagreement” prompted his departure and alignment with the GOC, according to the Church of the GOC of America’s website. Following the repose of his wife, Presbytera Katina, due to cancer in 2018, and several more years as a parish priest, he retired to the GOC Monastery of St. John of San Francisco in Cobleskill, New York, in 2023, where he is now a priest monk under the name Fr. Chrysostom.
Demetri regularly worships at the GOC Cathedral of St. Markella in Astoria, N.Y., under the care of GOC Metropolitan Demetrius of America. Demetrius was accepted into the GOC in 2012.
In an interview with UOJ-America, Demetri spoke glowingly about his GOARCH upbringing, saying that he had every opportunity to be surrounded by church services.
“We learned early on that if you wanted to spend time with your family and parents, you had to show up to church and participate and support," he said.
In his college years, Demetri founded St. Paul’s Fellowship of Labor, a non-profit under the auspices of GOC Metropolitan Demetrius which is intended to help people stay connected to their faith.
Now living in Mountain Top, Pa., which is near Wilkes-Barre, Demetri said that he became fond of the Orthodox communities in the area. Holy Protection Monastery, a canonical monastery founded by Elder Ephraim of Arizona of blessed memory, is only 15 minutes from his house.
On May 6, Demetri received an email from an acquaintance telling him that there was a church for sale in his area. After looking into it, he reached out to the realtor and local priests to inquire into the cathedral.
Demetri alleged that a Baptist group had put in an offer for it, and that they were going to demolish the cathedral.
“It was our understanding that the Baptist church offered $150,000 with the condition of demolishing it, the (OCA) responded that they’d take $200,000, but they couldn’t come to an agreement so it dropped,” Demetri said.
UOJ-America reached out to the OCA's Diocese of Philadelphia and Eastern Pennsylvania for comment; at the time of publishing this article, we are awaiting a response.
After a meeting at the cathedral with an OCA priest and a friend of his who is a contractor, the friend assured Demetri that he would be able to fix the dome after anticipating much worse based on rumors of the church’s appearance.
Eventually, Demetri’s non-profit offered $200,000 to the diocese and said that they would fix the cathedral at their own expense and preserve it, he claimed. The goal was to use it as a place of worship and as a headquarters for their youth organization.
The offer was not accepted, as Demetri claims that he never received an official rejection, but rather that the priest wrote to them and told them that it was a dead end.
He then went to St. Tikhon’s Monastery, where he lit a candle and venerated the relics, saying that all he asked for was that “we do what we can.”
“Maybe they’re not very fond of me, or us – who we represent,” Demetri said.
With the cathedral still yet to be sold, he is holding out hope that he and his non-profit can turn the cathedral into a GOC parish with a schedule of liturgy, use one of the buildings as the youth headquarters for St. Paul’s Fellowship, hold conferences, and put the commercial kitchen to use.
After fixing the dome, Demetri believes there is no restoration that needs to be done inside on any of the iconography.
“There is a dome that has a mural of Christ,” he said. “What are we going to do, take a crane and smash through that? The saints were martyred for not stepping on a cross, so it seems really contrary.”
Fr. Joseph Suaidan of the "True Orthodox" - another Old Calendarist sect - said in a YouTube video on the “NFTU: True Orthodox News and Apologetics” channel that the Holy Resurrection Cathedral “has graced Wilkes-Barre’s downtown area since before there was an ecumenical movement, back when Russia had a tsar, and was there when the Ottoman Empire collapsed.”
He also criticized the OCA for "not selling to an Orthodox Christian” after “they had no problem selling to the Hindus.”
Previously, the Cathedral of the OCA’s Bulgarian Diocese of Toledo was sold to the local Indian community and converted to a Hindu temple.
Reports that the historic cathedral could end up in the hands of the schismatic GOC and the rumors that it could be demolished by Baptists has led to outrage online and calls for an effort of the faithful of the canonical Orthodox Church to rescue the cathedral.
The link to the listing for the Holy Resurrection Cathedral is still online and shows that the property was listed at $300,000, however, the page also states that the property is no longer available and is off the market.
Despite what the listing shows, no sale has been reported at this time.
