A Brief History of the Assumption Parish

After worshiping in various homes since 1928 and with the approval of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, the Assumption Greek Orthodox Church was established. In the spring of 1930, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North and South America issued a charter to the new Assumption Greek Orthodox Church. The first Sunday Liturgy took place on May 25, 1930, in a home on Hillger Street in Detroit. The following year, the Assumption Church relocated to a commercial building on Hart Street. By 1933, the parishioners purchased a vacant lot at Beniteau and Vernor Highway on Detroit’s near east side and completed the construction of its new church building in 1934. The 200-seat Beniteau church was consecrated in 1936.

After the Second World War, the Assumption Church had outgrown its facility on Beniteau and subsequently purchased land a block away on Charlevoix Avenue for the construction of a new and larger building. Construction of the new 450-seat edifice on Charlevoix was completed in 1959. By 1962, the tenth priest of Assumption, Fr. Demetrios Kavadas, began his four-decade tenure of distinguished service as its presiding priest. In 1972, the parish purchased 10 acres of land in St. Clair Shores for the future home of the Assumption Community that would include a church-building, hall, classrooms, and gymnasium—all of which were completed in 1983; the consecration of the 600-seat Marter Road church took place in June of 1989. After almost 40 years of distinguished service, Fr. Kavadas retired in 2001.

On December 20, 2002, a fire destroyed much of the church-building’s interior that included many large and small hand-painted icons, murals, and wood-carved furnishings. Six months after the fire, His Eminence Metropolitan Nicholas of Detroit assigned Fr. Michael Varlamos as Assumption’s twelfth presiding priest on July 27, 2003, and tasked him with overseeing the reconstruction project and the spiritual healing of the parishioners. The first Divine Liturgy in the restored church took place on December 21, 2003. Under Fr. Michael’s pastorship, the latest phase of the new iconography was completed in 2016, and the Assumption Community continues to heal and flourish to the glory of God.