The Origin of St. Anna's

residents would travel there to attend church on Alhambra and F Streets. Sometimes, they would invite the clergy to come to Roseville for weddings, baptisms or funerals. It was such an invitation which led to the recent establishment of the first Greek Orthodox Parish in Placer County. It was in March 1989 that I called Father Dogias and asked him to conduct a 10-year memorial service at the Roseville cemetery for Danny Moustris and Shirley Stamas. At this service Father Dogias noticed a large number of Roseville Greeks who were not attending church in Sacramento and he suggested that we start a church in Roseville. Roula Karren and Paul Stamas rounded up seven of us Greeks and we met weekly at Roula Karren’s kitchen table and talked about how to start a church. We called every Greek we knew and didn’t know, we researched all Greek names in the telephone directory and talked to anyone resembling a Greek. Father Dogias came to Roseville once a month on Saturday mornings and conducted liturgy in our various homes and even in our back yards. What a blessing to see your dining room table transformed into an alter. The services in our back yards were especially memorable as we sang the liturgy, the birds joined in. Later, Saint John’s Episcopal Church offered their facility and we held church services there once a month on Saturday mornings. Father Dogias was our priest for nine years. He conducted monthly bible studies and orthodox study classes. He was our mentor, our priest, and our friend. He steadfastly led us down the long rocky road that we were destined to walk. We will always be grateful for what he did for us. If you ask Father Dogias about Roseville he will say “I am their mother, I gave them birth.” During this time our little Roseville mission had so few parishioners that when they did not attend church we went after them and asked “We didn’t see you in church, were you sick or do you have another problem that perhaps we can help you with?” The reasons they gave were that church on Saturday mornings did not work for them because they had, soccer, baseball and other activities that took priority. They said if we had church on Sunday mornings like other normal denominations, they would attend. The time had come! In May, 1998, Paul Stamas called Bishop Anthony and asked him if he could send us a priest so we can have services on Sunday morning. The Bishop, concerned if we could support a priest, replied that if we had $50,000 in the bank and thirty pledged families he would send us a priest. Paul stated we had over $50,000 in the bank but only twenty pledged families. The Bishop replied, “That’s close enough”, and on May 6, 1998 the Bishop declared the Roseville Mission an official Parish and assigned our first priest, Father Cosmas Halekakis. We rented an office space and transformed it to resemble an Orthodox Church and it was beautifully done. On Sunday morning, July 12, 1998, Father Cosmas conducted our first liturgy at 114 N. Sunrise, Suite A-1. In December 2000, Angelo Tsakopoulos donated 4.5 acres of land for our church and we broke ground in Spring of 2002. Our church is located at the corner of East Roseville Parkway and Stone Canyon Road. Today we are holding services in Founders Hall, our multi-purpose building which has been transformed into a beautiful Orthodox Church setting. Founders Hall has been dedicated to Father Dogias and his wife. We have increased from 20 families to 200 families. These families consist of Greeks, Americans, Armenians, Serbians, Russians, Arabic and Ethiopians. A variety of ethnic Orthodox people and 70% of our service is in English. We also have an active pre-school and day care. Roseville has the distinction of being the only Orthodox Church in America named Saint Anna. Saint Anna is the mother of the Virgin Mary and the grandmother of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. On June 2001, Father Cosmas was transferred and we had the good fortune to get Father Christopher Flesores from Belmont for our priest. He is definitiely the right man for our growing community and he is moving us forward in a positive way. With the establishment of our Orthodox parish in Roseville, we are now able to leave a legacy to our own children left to us by our parents – a legacy of religion, tradition and culture, and their values will enrich their lives as they did ours.show less...