{"id":1886,"date":"2020-07-21T00:43:58","date_gmt":"2020-07-21T00:43:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bi3a.com\/Catholics\/?p=1886"},"modified":"2023-08-22T19:58:06","modified_gmt":"2023-08-22T19:58:06","slug":"world-wide-monasteries-milwaukee-wi-st-george-melkite-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.melkitecouncil.com\/Catholics\/world-wide-monasteries-milwaukee-wi-st-george-melkite-church\/","title":{"rendered":"Milwaukee, WI- St. George Melkite Church"},"content":{"rendered":"

History<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the early 1900\u2019s Archimandrite John Haddad, pastor of the Melkite-Greek Catholic Church in Chicago used to travel occasionally to Milwaukee to minister to the needs of the growing Syrian community.\u00a0 In 1911 Archbishop Mesmer approved the founding of a mission parish under the patronage of St. George the Great Martyr with Father Timothy Jock as pastor.\u00a0 At the time there was only a handful of Melkite parishes in the U.S. and until an eparchy (diocese) was established, the parishes were under the protection and jurisdiction of the Latin-rite hierarchy.<\/p>\n

The parish consisted of families from the Lebanese cities of Zahle, Baalbek and the small village of Ain Bourdai.\u00a0 There were also families from the Galilee.<\/p>\n

At first the Divine services were celebrated in a rented hall.\u00a0 But by 1917, with the generous help of Archbishop Mesmer, the parish was able to move to a brand new church, designed by the eminent architect, Erhart Brielmaier.\u00a0 The church was decorated in a contemporary Roman Rite fashion.\u00a0 At the time the general opinion was that Catholics of the \u201cEastern Rites\u201d would eventually become Americanized \u2013 and therefore Latinized.<\/p>\n

There were three Liturgies every Sunday:\u00a0 two masses celebrated in Latin by Capuchin Franciscans from nearby St. Benedict the Moor, and one in Greek and Arabic, in the Byzantine Rite.<\/p>\n

By the 1960\u2019s the neighborhood of West State Street had deteriorated significantly.\u00a0 Many of the Syrian-Lebanese community moved to the suburbs and \u2013 as expected \u2013 transferred over to the Latin Rite.\u00a0 The remaining community was unable to sustain a parish.\u00a0 In fact, the church itself had deteriorated so much that it was declared unsafe for use.\u00a0 The Divine Liturgy was then to be celebrated in the church hall.<\/p>\n

Following Vatican II a new spirit arose among Eastern Catholics: pride in their legitimate traditions.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Pope Paul VI approved the establishment of a Melkite Exarchate in 1969, making it clear that the Melkites were here to stay and were not to abandon their rich heritage.\u00a0 Yet for many of the dwindling community of St. George few had an understanding of their own Eastern heritage, apart from their ethnic and cultural pride.<\/p>\n

Archbishop Joseph Tawil, a native of Damascus, was named bishop for the Melkites and immediately began a program of liturgical renewal.\u00a0 The western customs that had gradually entered our churches \u2013 use of statues, stations of the cross, rosary, recited Liturgies, etc. were to be abandoned in favor of an authentic and pure usage of the Byzantine Rite.<\/p>\n

Father Ronald Golini, an energetic young priest, was assigned as pastor of St. George in 1970.\u00a0 With the help of parishioners he refurbished the church with a new free-standing altar and iconostasis.\u00a0 At the same time he began educating the faithful in the richness of their own tradition.\u00a0 Older families began to come back, and new families joined.<\/p>\n

In 2011 we celebrated the 100th anniversary of our parish\u2019s founding.\u00a0 A beautiful new iconostasis was installed, as well as a choir stand and a beautiful new bishop\u2019s throne.\u00a0 Some of the original family names are still on the roles.\u00a0 And there are families who are more recent immigrants from the Middle East: Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria.\u00a0 In addition there are parishioners of virtually every ethnic background who have fallen in love with the rich liturgical and spiritual traditions of the East \u2013 not to mention our welcoming hospitality.<\/p>\n

Each year we host a traditional Middle Eastern dinner, participate in the Arab Word Festival, the Open Doors Milwaukee tour of churches, and several group tours of the church.\u00a0 Groups also prepare and serve meals for the poor, sick and homeless.\u00a0 Our former Bishop John Elya aptly described St. George as \u201ca parish fully nalive!\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

St. George Melkite Greek Church\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Address : 1617 W State Street<\/p>\n

Milwaukee, WI 53233<\/p>\n

Website : byzantinemilwaukee.com<\/p>\n

info@byzantinemilwaukee.com<\/p>\n

E-mail :\u00a0 PhilaretL@aol.com<\/p>\n

Phone :\u00a0 414-342-1543<\/p>\n

Fax :\u00a0 414-933-3755<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Rev. Fr Paul G. Frechette 2019\u2013present?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rev. Fr. Philaret Littlefield?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

History In the early 1900\u2019s Archimandrite John Haddad, pastor of the Melkite-Greek Catholic Church in Chicago used to travel occasionally to Milwaukee to minister to the needs of the growing Syrian community.\u00a0 In 1911 Archbishop Mesmer approved the founding of a mission parish under the patronage of St. George the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1887,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.melkitecouncil.com\/Catholics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.melkitecouncil.com\/Catholics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.melkitecouncil.com\/Catholics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.melkitecouncil.com\/Catholics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.melkitecouncil.com\/Catholics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1886"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.melkitecouncil.com\/Catholics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1886\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3682,"href":"https:\/\/www.melkitecouncil.com\/Catholics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1886\/revisions\/3682"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.melkitecouncil.com\/Catholics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.melkitecouncil.com\/Catholics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.melkitecouncil.com\/Catholics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.melkitecouncil.com\/Catholics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}