St. Demetrios Orthodox Church

St. Demetrios Orthodox Church Discover the ancient faith
We are a Greek Orthodox parish in Waterloo, IA. Matins is held Saturday morning at 9, followed by Divine Liturgy at 10. Come and see!

Services are in English.

06/22/2026

A video from Ryan and Rebecca Uhlenhopp’s Orthodox wedding on June 13th.

On Saturday, June 13, Ryan and Rebecca Uhlenhopp were married in the church. May God grant them many more years! Congrat...
06/22/2026

On Saturday, June 13, Ryan and Rebecca Uhlenhopp were married in the church. May God grant them many more years! Congratulations to our dear Ryan and Rebecca!

05/12/2026

🌸May is Maternal Mental Health Month 🌸

Motherhood is not only physical—it is spiritual, emotional, and deeply human. Many mothers silently carry anxiety, grief, exhaustion, intrusive thoughts, birth trauma, infertility, miscarriage, or postpartum depression while still trying to appear “strong.”

In the Orthodox Church, suffering is never meant to be carried alone.

Even the Theotokos knew fear, uncertainty, sacrifice, and sorrow while carrying and raising Christ. Yet she remained faithful—not because she was untouched by hardship, but because she continually entrusted her struggles to God.

📖 “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” — Galatians 6:2

This month, may we continue building communities where mothers are prayed for, supported, listened to, and compassionately connected to care—without shame or stigma. Mental health struggles are not a failure of faith.

🙏 Theotokos, intercede for all mothers—grieving mothers, expectant mothers, and those silently struggling in the postpartum season.

🔗 Learn & Find Support:
• Understanding PMADs: https://youtu.be/ZIUAbjcwNpc?si=6zSNaNzTWD-V1fo5
• Postpartum Support International:
https://postpartum.net/get-help/psi-online-support-meetings/
• https://agape-wellnesscollective.org/

Today we went to Panache Tea Boutique to celebrate Danielle’s Baby Shower. It was a beautiful time and we are so excited...
05/03/2026

Today we went to Panache Tea Boutique to celebrate Danielle’s Baby Shower. It was a beautiful time and we are so excited to meet the newest member of the congregation in June!

04/27/2026

The apostles would later preach to the nations, but before they preached, they first had to hear the good news brought by a woman:

“I have seen the Lord!” - St. Mary Magdalene

This should humble us.

It should especially humble us when we encounter the un-Orthodox, subservient views of women in marriage that some are trying to carry into the Faith. The Church does not give us the Myrrh-Bearing Women as decorations around the apostles. She gives them to us as witnesses. As courageous disciples who loved when others fled.

One distortion is not corrected by embracing another. Children are a blessing. Homemaking is holy work. A woman who pours herself into the life of the home is not “less than.” But neither is a woman who works, teaches, serves, creates, studies, provides, or labors in the world somehow “less Orthodox.”

There is danger when good things become measuring sticks for a woman’s holiness or worth without considering one's vocation. Having children is good. Treating a woman as though her value is dependent upon the number of children she bears is absurd. Homemaking is good. Speaking as though a woman’s proper value is found only inside the home is not.

Indeed fathers and husbands are called to lead their families toward Christ. But that leadership must look like Christ. It must be cruciform. It must never shrink the spiritual life of a woman into mere obedience, as though she exists beneath a husband, rather than beside him in the yoke of salvation.

The last time I served a wedding, the crowns were not placed as though one wore the crown of a bishop and the other the crown of a servant. Indeed they wore the same crowns.

Both are crowned, and called to martyrdom of the self.

Orthodoxy is no costume shop for imported Protestant nostalgia. The strange lust for importance in marriage based on rank without effort has nothing to do with our faith and we need to call it what it is.

- Fr. Jonathan
Sunday of the Myrrh-bearing Women

04/22/2026

Did you know what the Orthodox Church says about other religions?

Orthodox Christianity teaches that the fullness of truth and salvation is found in Jesus Christ and in His Church. Christ Himself says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). For this reason, the Church believes that the complete revelation of God is given through Christ and preserved within the life and the teachings of the Orthodox Church.

On the other hand, Orthodox Christianity acknowledges the presence of a natural phenomenon evident in every human being. Throughout history and in any culture, people have always been looking for God, trying to understand why we exist, why there is evil and suffering in the world, why injustice happens, and how one should live. This wish to look for God has been present in our nature forever, and because of such honest attempts, there are moments of spiritual inspiration, moral knowledge, and sincere search for God, even in other religions.

The Holy Fathers speak of these as “seeds of truth.” Saint Justin the Martyr says that it is possible to find some truths even outside of Orthodoxy, where people seek wisdom and justice, since every human being was created in the image of God. Nonetheless, the Orthodox Church differentiates between partial truth and the fullness of truth; while partial truth can be seen in other religions, the fullness of truth lies in the Orthodox Church because God fully revealed Himself only through the incarnation of His Son, through His Crucifixion and Resurrection.

This perspective does not lead Orthodox Christians to reject or despise people of other faiths. On the contrary, the Gospel calls us to approach every person with humility, respect, and love. Saint Paul says that God “desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4).

Therefore, dialogue with other religions for Orthodox believers means sharing the Gospel gently and respectfully, acknowledging other religions' honest search for God in their hearts.

• • •

→ Click for your downloadable, shareable, printable DRE 1-pager: www.goarch.org/departments/religioused/didyouknow

DID YOU KNOW? is your go-to source for concise answers to a wide range of queDepartment of Religious Educationaith. DYK? equips Gen Z and millennials with facts they can trust and easily absorb while scrolling. Clergy, religious educators, and parents can share these nuggets of knowledge with the faithful, students, those inquiring about Orthodoxy, and loved ones.

04/13/2026

When Christ gives the disciples His peace, He shows them His hands and His side and says to them once more,

“Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.” Then He breathed on them and said: “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

In this way, the Lord empowers them for the ministry that lies ahead and gives them apostolic authority to forgive sins.

→ Subscribe for free to the Department of Religious Education (DRE) to learn more about the Greek Orthodox faith: www.religioused.goarch.org

📸 Department of Religious Education (DRE)

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613 West 4th Street
Waterloo, IA
50702

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