History
When Walt Disney decided to build his amusement park, Disneyland, amid the orange groves in Anaheim, CA, the orange groves of Orange County in this sleepy county southeast of Los Angeles blossomed, not with orange blossoms, but with new homes. The groves quickly disappeared, and new blossoms came forth – new homes for the growing population. Many families began to exit the older Los Angeles area and relocate in the new growth area; of course this also meant Melkite families were among those who moved.
The mother Melkite Church of Los Angeles, St. Anne, begun in 1909 was quite a unique community. Its early days had around 100 families who were situated in a Middle Eastern community in Los Angeles. However in the late 1940’s and 1950’s many Melkites from the east coast and mid-west USA, from older communities began to follow the sun. Locating work, they moved into all the areas of Los Angeles County. No longer was the church building in the near vicinity of the people. A new building began in the 1960’s in the San Fernando Valley, in North Hollywood at the junction of two major freeways, practically in the east-west center of the county. By the 1970’s, the parishioners were scattered throughout the county from the Pacific Ocean and south bay, Los Angeles, the San Fernando and San Gabriel Valleys, Pasadena area and cities east of it: Duarte, Monrovia, Arcadia, etc. Families had also moved into Downey, just south of Los Angeles. With the freeway system it was not a long ride to go to the church for services or meetings in those days, but eventually the traffic would increase abundantly, making travel to the church a chore and nightmare for many.
In 1970, a newly ordained priest, Fr. Nicholas Samra, was sent to Los Angeles to work with Archimandrites Michel Bardaouil and Maximos Mardelli, to serve the growing parish. After checking with both priests he created an actual list of the Melkites in the greater area – well over 800 families. After the retirement of Fr. Bardaouil, he began discussion with Fr. Mardelli about mission expansion of the parish. As newly married couples and younger families began the movement away from the established areas, they scattered throughout the greater Los Angeles area.
The priests began looking at the possibility of mission extensions of St. Anne Church into several areas. After a full census was made, they looked at future extensions in the San Gabriel Valley and Pasadena area, west side of Los Angeles from Santa Monica to south bay area, and Orange County. Each of these areas could eventually develop other outreach missions in their areas with the growing number of Melkite families.
The west side of Los Angeles and Orange County looked the most promising in 1973. There were families on the west side coming to St. Anne Church, however many new immigrants were settling there and approximately 100 families were not active at the mother Church. About 30-35 families on St. Anne’s list lived in Orange County which meant there were most certainly more. So in 1973 two missions were born: St. Paul on the west side of Los Angeles served by Fr. Mardelli and Holy Cross in Orange County served by Fr. Samra.
The writer of this early history of Holy Cross Community must admit that the clergy that followed Frs. Mardelli and Samra did not have the same focus for mission extension and the St. Paul center on the west side was allowed to arrive to near death, believing that the people should come to the mother church. No other missions in the greater Los Angeles area were started, until very recently in the San Gabriel Valley. On the other hand, with persistence, the Orange County extension grew into a full time parish.
Parish History 1989-2011-Father James arrives:
In November of 1989, Father James Babcock arrived having been reassigned from Pastor of St. George Mel kite Parish in Sacramento to Holy Cross. Upon his arrival he was greeted by a large number of men who helped him unload his belongings from his rented U-Haul truck. (Gone were the days when the new priest would arrive on a streetcar with only one suitcase).
He quickly realized that this was an Arabic speaking community. He had learned Arabic in the seminary but had little opportunity to use the language in either of his previous assignments in Akron, Ohio or Sacramento. Eight years had passed and he realized that some remedial work was in order. He appealed to Georgette Azzam for help and she graciously responded.
The community was so proud of their newly renovated church. Still, Fr. James noticed that it was already too small and that people were lining up outside along the windows trying their best to participate in the liturgy being celebrated inside.
It was reasonably easy for Fr. James to adjust to Orange County inasmuch as he had grown up not far away in the San Gabriel Valley city of Monrovia. He knew where all the cities were and so driving around came quite natural to him. Liturgically, additional help came from Deacon Lou Mirandi who had retired from the Latin Church but still wanted to serve even past the age of 75.
New church for Holy Cross:
The search for a better facility continued through the years when in 1998, the parish revisited a church in Placentia that had originally been listed for $2,000,000. The price had been reduced to $1.5 million dollars. Negotiations were opened and an offer was made that was immediately rejected by the seller. The parish countered and after an entire evening of offers from each side a final price of $975,000 was agreed upon. The sale of the old church brought in $500,000 and a no interest bond drive was established which was well received by the parishioners which brought in another $300,000. A loan was arranged with Cedars Bank for the remaining amount and the church at 451 West Madison in Placentia was ours.
The first liturgy was on a hat one hundred degrees-plus September morning with no air-conditioning. Fr. James who is loath to cut parts of the liturgy for expediencies’ sake, speeded up the liturgy that Sunday for reasons of survival in the one hundred degree-plus weather. As quickly as possible the church was Byzantinized. The chandeliers from the old church were installed in the new church and the iconostasis was brought over and miraculously fit within one inch into the new church. In time new festal icons were painted and installed on the walls along with new icons across the top of the icon screen and a new set of royal gates were added with new icons. One year later, His Excellency, Bishop John Elya came and consecrated the new church.
Holy Cross Melkite Church
Address : 451 West Madison Avenue
Placentia, CA 92870
Website : www.holycrossmelkite.org
Facebook page : https://www.facebook.com/holycrossmelkite/
E-mail : office@holycrossmelkite.org
Phone : +1 714-985-1710
Rev. Fr. James Babcock
Tel. Residence: 714-308-6573