Saint Seraphim Orthodox Cathedral
Dallas, Texas
Orthodox Church In America (OCA)
Diocese of the South
Parish History
Saint Seraphim Cathedral has been founded in 1954 by Archbishop +Dmitri (Roister) of blessed memory, by the blessing of Bishop +Bogdan (Spilka) of Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA.
Robert Roister, future Archbishop of Dallas and the South (OCA), was born in little town Teague, Texas in 1923, and was brought up as Southern Baptist.
In the age of 16, he and his older sister Dimitra, found Orthodox Faith, and were received to Orthodoxy in the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church, being perhaps, first non-cradle Orthodox youth in Dallas area. That time, in order to fully participate in the services, they have to learn Greek language.
Upon returning from military service during WWII, which Roister serve as a translator from Japanese in the camp of Gen. MacArthur in Tokyo, and getting his MA in Spanish from SMU, Robert was ordained a Subdeacon by Bp. Bogdan (Spilka)to serve for Mexican community in Dallas under Ukrainian Church of the USA.
In April 1954, Robert Roister, and Orthodox Mexican community formed first English-speaking Orthodox mission in Dallas, for which Bp. Bogdan ordained Robert as a Priest and appointed him a rector of Saint Seraphim Eastern Orthodox Church in Dallas.
In 1956, with the help of St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church (ROCOR), both communities together acquired the property at 4203 Newton Avenue, which become a seed of the future St. Seraphim Cathedral complex.
By the mutual agreement, St. Nicholas used the property one weekend of the month and St. Seraphim was using it the rest of the month. This new, English-language Church of Ukrainian jurisdiction worked closely with the Russian Orthodox Church of St. Nicholas, and the clergy often concelebrated services.
Royster recalled, “Our growth came after we moved and bought our own place and had a permanent address. We [attracted] Greeks, Lebanese, Russians, Ukrainians, Carpatho-Russians and Galetians and Serbians and converts.”
In 1958, the parish and Fr. Dmitri Roister petitioned Metropolitan of all America and Canada Leontiy (Turkevich) to join his the self-governing North American Metropolia of Russian Orthodox Church.
Father Alexander Shmemann was sent to Dallas to investigate the matter, and upon his positive report, in September 12, 1958, Saint Seraphim Parish has been accepted by Metropolitan Leontiy to the Metropolia, which, in 1970, received Autocephaly (independence) and become Orthodox Church in America (OCA).
In 1964, the small building on Newton Avenue has been replaced with larger structure, which accommodated modest Church, Parish hall and classrooms, which served us well until 1990th, when the parish decided to build proper Orthodox church, to be more visible to local Dallas community.
In 1999, more land at nearby streets was acquired, and new large Church building, designed by American architect in Russian style was finally build.
After a long selection process, Mr. Vladimir Grygorenko, experienced Iconographer from Ukraine has been invited to decorate our Cathedral with icons in 2000. Nine years later, beautiful two-rows Iconostasis and every wall of our cathedral were covered with traditional Orthodox murals and icons, making our church a true gem of Orthodox Art.
Our Building Project has been featured in multiple publications in local media, and the D-Magazine name it “The best iconography in Dallas“ in 2010.
Following the blessed repose of beloved Archbishop +Dmitry, the Resurrection Memorial Chapel has been built at South-West corner of the Cathedral, which now become the place of eternal rest of un-corrupted remains of Archbishop +Dmitry.
While in the beginning, St. Seraphim Parish consisted of few adults and first services were held in in the back room of the dentist office, today our Parish have more than 300 adult members and about eighty children.
During the years since its establishment, St. Seraphim Parish started five Missions in various parts of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, all of which now grown to full size parishes of 120+ members and were able to build their own church buildings.
By the tireless labor of Archbishop +Dmitri and many others, St. Seraphim Parish eventually become main Cathedral of the Diocese of the South (OCA) which now spans across fourteen states in USA.
Following the vision of our Founder, Archbishop +Dmitri, St. Seraphim Cathedral serves people of any ethnic background: Americans, Arabs, Bulgarians, Coptic, Greeks, Russians, Serbians, Ukrainians, and many others, who come to our doors.
In order to fulfill our missionary role, given to us by the Holy fathers of North America, we conduct all services in English.
Being faithful to the history of our Parish and appreciation to our Russian and Mexican heritage, every third Saturday of each month we celebrate a Vespers and a Liturgy in Church Slavonic and every fourth Saturday in Spanish. Confessions in Russian or Spanish are available before and after Vespers at corresponding Fridays during these weeks.
Our current Rector, Archimandrite Gerasim (Eliel) continues the footpaths which Archbishop +Dmitri has begun.
Archimandrite Gerasim joined St. Seraphim in 2015, when he has been appointed the Rector of the Cathedral and the Administrator of the Diocese of the South, and, being experienced monastic, he is loved and respected in every place where he had been serving in the past.
In addition to English, Father Gerasim is fluent in Georgian, Russian and Spanish, and hears Confession in any of these languages.
Please, come and join us for prayer and fellowship!
Pascha 2019
