A Parish on High Street, Anchored in the Blackstone Valley
St. Mary Antiochian Orthodox Church sits at 249 High Street in the heart of historic Pawtucket, Rhode Island, just off Route 95. It is a parish of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America, belonging to the Diocese of Worcester and New England, and it is one of the oldest continuous Middle Eastern Orthodox congregations in the Blackstone Valley. The building, the parish center across the way, the cemetery, the choir, the ladies who bake the bread, all of it grew from a single Divine Liturgy celebrated on March 13, 1910, by Father Alexandros Atallah of Boston, the first Orthodox priest to serve the Syrian and Lebanese immigrants who had begun arriving in Rhode Island in 1895.
More than a century later, the parish remains rooted in the rhythm of Orthodox life. The Sunday Divine Liturgy is celebrated in English, with Byzantine chanters and a parish choir leading the congregational singing. A monthly Arabic Liturgy is offered on the first Saturday of each month at 6 PM for those who worship in the language of the founding community. Visitors are welcomed warmly, and Coffee Hour follows each Sunday Liturgy in the Parish Center.
Sunday Worship and the Rhythm of the Liturgical Year
The Sunday cycle begins at 9 AM with Orthros, the Matins service. The Divine Liturgy follows immediately at 10 AM and is celebrated by Father Elie Estephan with the parish's chanters and choir. After receiving Holy Communion, children and teens up to age 17 gather for Sunday School. The Liturgy is sung in English in a fully traditional Byzantine style, with the congregation following the prayers and readings as they have been prayed in the Orthodox Church for centuries.
The Liturgical year at St. Mary moves through the full cycle of the Orthodox calendar. The Great Lenten season opens with the Sunday of Orthodoxy and the Forgiveness Sunday (Cheesefare), continues through the Sundays of the Prodigal Son, the Last Judgment, the Veneration of the Cross, and culminates in the Fifth Sunday of Lent. Holy Week services, including the Service of the Lamentations on Holy Friday evening and the Paschal Rush Service on Holy Saturday night, move the parish from darkness into light as the congregation processes around the church with candles and proclaims the Resurrection.
After Pascha, the parish celebrates the Sundays of Thomas, the Myrrh-Bearing Women, the Paralytic, the Samaritan Woman, and the Blind Man, then moves through the Sundays after Pentecost, the Feast of the Transfiguration, the Dormition of the Theotokos, the Elevation of the Holy Cross, the Sundays of the Forefathers, the Nativity of Christ, and the Theophany of Christ. The annual bulletin, archived in a long running PDF library, follows this calendar faithfully, with hymns and Scripture readings printed week by week.
A Parish Center, a Cemetery, and a Gathering Hall
The main church building on High Street is the original worship space of the parish. In December 1981, the parish completed the construction of St. Mary Parish Center, a separate building located at 60 Saint Marys Way (also addressed as One Saint Mary Way). The Center is the hub of parish life: it houses the Sunday School classrooms, hosts the Coffee Hour after every Sunday Liturgy, and provides a 3,000-square-foot banquet hall used for the annual Holiday Bazaar, weddings, funerals, senior celebrations, and parish gatherings. Many of the meals served there, including kibbee, sfeeha, grape leaves, and pastries, are prepared from scratch by the women of the Ladies Society in the Center's commercial kitchen.
The parish grounds include a cemetery that is still under the care of the parish's Cemetery committee. The church itself is equipped with a chair lift for persons with disabilities, making the sanctuary accessible. The Parish Center is fully handicap accessible and offers free off-street parking. The Facilities and Maintenance committees keep both buildings in good repair, and the church office is open Tuesday through Friday from 9 AM to 1 PM.
Fr. Elie Estephan, Ph.D., and the Pastoral Succession
The pastor is V. Rev. Fr. Elie Estephan, Ph.D., an Archpriest of the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese who came to Pawtucket in 2013 from Saints Peter and Paul Antiochian Orthodox Church in Potomac, Maryland. Born on November 21, 1966, in Hekr Elcheikh-Taba, Akkar, in northern Lebanon, Fr. Elie was ordained a deacon in 1994 and a priest in 1996 by His Eminence Boulos, Archbishop of Akkar-Lebanon, and was raised to the rank of Archpriest in 2002. He holds a Bachelor in Theology from the University of Balamand, a Bachelor in Philosophy from the Lebanese University, a Master in Semitics and a Ph.D. in Semitics from the Catholic University of America, and completed one year in Islamic Philosophy at the University of St. Joseph in Lebanon.
Before coming to Pawtucket, Fr. Elie served parishes of the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch in Brazil for nearly a decade, in Curitiba-PR and in Goiania-GO, and taught theology at the Catholic University of Goias. He is fluent in Arabic, Portuguese, and English, with basic Spanish, and reads Koine Greek and Syriac. He is married to the former Rouba Makhoul, and they have three children: Tala, Chadi, and Bassam.
The pastoral succession at St. Mary traces the long arc of the parish's history. After the founding Divine Liturgy by Father Alexandros Atallah in 1910, a series of visiting priests, Fathers John Kirshee, George Dow Maloof, Moussa Hyder, George Kattouf, and Slemon Fernaynee, served the community. Father Abraham Zaine became the first permanent pastor in 1918. The cornerstone of the original basement church was laid on December 9, 1917, and the upper church was completed in 1926 at a cost of $65,000, financed in part through the patronage of the industrialist Lyman B. Goff. Father George Habib Nahas, ordained in 1919, led the building campaign during the day and solicited donations in the evenings until the mortgage was burned in a ceremony officiated by Metropolitan Archbishop Anthony Bashir in November 1944. Father Nahas served for 28 years until 1946. Father George Koury, called from Syria, served from 1948 to 1960. Father Athanasius Saliba served from 1960 until he was called to be a bishop in Damascus in 1980. Father Timothy Ferguson succeeded him and served until 1997. Father Leonard Farris served from 1997 to 2001. Father Isaac Crow served from 2001 to 2013. Father Elie Estephan is the current pastor.
Sunday School, Teen SOYO, and the Bible Bowl
St. Mary Sunday School serves students from age 3 through high school, gathering in three to five classrooms separated by grade level after the conclusion of the Divine Liturgy on Sunday mornings during the school year. The director is Megan Duncan. Throughout the year the children celebrate a Fall Harvest party, a Christmas pageant in which all students participate in a re-enactment of the Nativity of Christ, and special activities during Great Lent. The annual Christmas pageant is a parish-wide tradition in which every child in Sunday School takes a role in the story of the Nativity.
Many of the parish's Sunday School students have spent a week at Camp Saint Joseph of Damascus, the Diocese of Worcester and New England's official summer camp held in Lenox, Massachusetts. The camp combines classic summer fun with daily Orthodox prayer and fellowship.
The teens of the parish are organized as Teen SOYO, the Society of Orthodox Youth Organizations, whose four pillars are Worship, Witness, Service, and Fellowship. SOYO meetings integrate teens into the full liturgical life of the Church while fostering service projects, social bonds, and a deeper commitment to the Orthodox faith. Teen SOYO competes annually in the Bible Bowl, a Bible trivia tournament held at the Parish Life Conference. In 2026, the teens of St. Mary won first place at the Bible Bowl held at Saint George Church in Lowell, Massachusetts, on June 20, where the competition focused on the Book of Exodus, and they advanced to represent the Diocese at the national competition at Antiochian Village in July. Two teams of three competed, with Nicholas, Addison, and Yosiah taking first place, under the coaching of Keith Marshall and the pastoral guidance of Fr. Elie.
The Annual Holiday Bazaar: Rhode Island's Premier Arabic Food Festival
Each November, the parish hosts its Annual Holiday Bazaar in the Parish Center on Saint Marys Way. The bazaar has been a parish tradition for 45 years and has grown into a major community event. The Friday night opening runs from 5 PM to 8 PM, Saturday runs from 10 AM to 9 PM, and Sunday runs from 11:30 AM to 5 PM. Admission is free, parking is free in the Parish Center lot, and the event is fully handicap accessible.
The menu showcases the Arabic food heritage of the founding families. Combo plates feature sfeeha, kibbee, grape leaves, rice, Syrian bread, yogurt, and salad. Saturday adds kabab plates and baked stuffed chicken; the village market offers braided cheese, olives, pickles, nuts, and homemade jams; and the salad bar is built around hummus, tabouleh, mjaddarah, fool, and cucumber-yogurt salads. The pastry tables include baklawa, maamool with dates or walnuts, namoura, ka'ak, and graybeh, alongside American favorites such as toffee nut crunch, dark chocolate turtles, and chocolate almonds. Raffles include a Main Cash Raffle with $1,000, $500, and $250 prizes, a 50/50 cash raffle, a silent auction of electronics, toys, sports tickets, restaurant gift cards, jewelry, and home décor, and a Penny Social featuring nearly 30 themed gift baskets. Every dish, dessert, and basket is prepared by the parishioners themselves.
Outreach to Pawtucket and the Blackstone Valley
The Outreach Committee of St. Mary works cooperatively with Blackstone Valley Tourism, the Pawtucket Housing Authority, the Pawtucket Soup Kitchen, and the Home to Hope Program of the Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless. Each month the parish distributes boxed lunches, health and hygiene products, winter wear (coats, hats, scarves, gloves, boots), bus tickets to the Home to Hope Program, blankets, and backpacks. The committee is exploring the establishment of a community food bank. The committee grounds its work in Matthew 25:35-36: "For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me."
Many of the people remembered in the parish's Charitable Gift Program were themselves devoted to outreach in their lifetimes. John A. Massiwer, founder of the Discount Mart on Dexter Street in Central Falls, was known as the "Mayor of Dexter Street" and rose early several times a week to pick up surplus baked goods to distribute to elderly neighbors who might not have eaten otherwise. Adele and Frederick Shwaery, lifelong members of St. Mary, mentored countless young people in the community and were pioneers in advocating for children with developmental disabilities, helping to grow a basement group of mothers into what is now the ARC of Blackstone Valley. Sophie Hallal served on the Parish Council, in the Ladies Society, and through the local senior center, the American Red Cross, and ministries to the homeless. Their stories remain central to the parish's sense of mission.
The Charitable Gift Program: An Endowment for the Next Generation
The Charitable Gift Program is the parish's endowment fund, established in 1994 by the Parish Council to safeguard the financial future of St. Mary Church. Gifts to the principal are never spent; instead, they are invested under the guidance of a registered fiduciary financial advisor, and the earnings are distributed each year to support the Church's ministries, maintenance, and charitable mission. In 2024, on its thirtieth anniversary, the committee raised the minimum gift from $5,000 to $10,000 to restore its original value and keep pace with inflation.
Gifts may be made as lifetime gifts, as memorial gifts honoring a loved one whether or not they were parishioners, or as estate gifts naming St. Mary as a beneficiary in a will, trust, life insurance policy, or retirement plan. Spouses may each contribute in their own names, and anonymous gifts are fully honored. Every donor, living or departed, is remembered annually on the third Sunday of May with Trisagion prayers during the Divine Liturgy, followed by a coffee hour luncheon hosted by the Charitable Gift Program Committee. Personalized online tributes for departed supporters are published on the parish's In Memoriam page.
The Charitable Gift Program Committee is chaired by Keith Marshall, with members Maureen Gurghigian, Paul Gurghigian, Mirna Nakhoul, Dr. Joseph Samra, and Marlene Samra. The pastor and Parish Council President serve ex officio. All contributions are fully tax-deductible.
A Living Liturgical and Musical Tradition
The musical tradition of the parish is Byzantine chant sung by the choir under the direction of experienced chanters and, in recent years, with guest conductors from across the Orthodox world. On November 1, 2025, the St. Mary's Choir was honored to participate in the Pan-Orthodox Sacred Music Festival hosted by SS. Sahag and Mesrob Armenian Orthodox Church in Providence, presenting four hymns that highlighted the parish's musical heritage.
The Ladies Society, the Coffee Hour team, the Holy Bread bakers, the Hufli Planning committee, and the Altar Servers are all central to the liturgical life of the parish. Sunday School teachers, Bible study leaders, and Adult Education leaders help carry the catechetical work. The Parish Council and Finance, Stewardship, Vestry, Legal, and web committees keep the parish's institutional life functioning.
Stewardship, Giving, and the Pledge Program
Parish stewardship is rooted in the conviction that every Christian is called to give of time, talent, and resources for the life of the Church. The parish's giving program accepts one-time donations and pledges, with payments accepted online through credit, debit, or ACH. Annual Digital Pledge Cards are made available at the start of each stewardship year. Donations support the operating budget, the Charitable Gift Program, the ministries of the parish, and the diocese.
Visiting St. Mary
The church is located at 249 High Street in Pawtucket, just off Route 95. Parking is available on site, and the building is equipped with a chair lift for persons with disabilities. Sunday Orthros begins at 9 AM and the Divine Liturgy at 10 AM; Coffee Hour follows in the Parish Center at 60 Saint Marys Way. The first Saturday of each month brings the Arabic Liturgy at 6 PM. Visitors are warmly welcomed at all services. Those preparing to visit for the first time may call the parish office at (401) 726-1202 between 9 AM and 1 PM, Tuesday through Friday, or email office@stmarypawtucket.org. Fr. Elie is happy to speak with anyone seeking to learn more about the Orthodox Christian faith or to become involved in the life of the parish.