It started in their homes.

The initial meetings of the group seeking to build a new Orthodox church in Rochester were held at individual homes, including the home of Martin and Dorothy Staschak at 13 Phyllis Lane, shown here. This is a recent photo of the home where in February 1964 the decision was made to make a formal petition to the Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church, as the Orthodox Church of America was then known.

Having received the blessing of Metropolitan Leonty in April of 1964 to start a new parish, the members, who numbered 63, met first for worship first at the Colgate Divinity School chapel, and then from 1965 to early 1967 they worshipped at the Albanian church that was on East Avenue at the time. It was a very small congregation, with no priest, and the new parish of St. John's could supply that lack because they were supplied with a priest coming in each week from the church of Sts. Peter and Paul in Syracuse. Father Warnecke was the priest there, and he was instrumental in aiding in the start of the new parish, in supplying not only general guidance, but priests to celebrate the liturgy, and later in providing church furnishings such as icons.

By the winter of 1966-1967 they had raised sufficient money through fundraisers and amongst themselves to purchase a Lutheran church that was for sale on South Goodman Street, where we still worship today. The first service was held there on January 22, 1967.