Located in beautiful Ventura County, California, St. Demetrios has served the surrounding area for over 25 years.  The St. Demetrios community has 165 Orthodox families. 

The church hosts  weekly meetings for Bible study sessions, baking groups, Boy Scout and Cub Scout troops, a women’s group, potlucks and barbecues   to create a family atmosphere. “Everyone here is  related somehow through blood or through a spiritual relationship,” Kyriacou said.That doesn’t mean church members are all Greek, he said. In fact, fully Greek families are a minority, with the majority consisting of blended Greek members and individuals who aren’t Greek in heritage. “Being Greek is not the important part here,” he said. “Loving Christ and being Christian is the important part. ”Church and state are not separate in Greece, so the culture and religion are intertwined, he said. For example, the Greeks incorporate symbols of the circle in their dancing and daily life because of the spiritual significance of eternity. When dancing, Greeks will often circle something three times to represent the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. “The culture and faith go hand in hand,” Kyriacou said. “Like the fingers on a hand, you can’t separate them.”After the Western Catholic Church of Rome broke apart from the Eastern Orthodox Church in 1054, the differences between the Catholic and Greek Orthodox faiths became more engrained. For example, unlike Catholics, followers at St. Demetrios believe the Virgin Mary is holy but still born of sin, use icons to enhance prayer but do not worship them and don’t believe one person such as the Pope can have ultimate authority. Greek Orthodox priests can also have a wife and children if they are married before they’re ordained. “We’re established on Scripture and tradition, and it’s a Christcentered church,” Kyriacou said. “We invoke saints but don’t worship saints. We ask them to pray for us as we would ask anyone to pray for us."

 St. Demetrios was founded in 1970 as the Greek Church of Ventura County and found a home in 1977 by purchasing the Oxnard Air Force base chapel at the Camarillo Airport.The parish became the St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church in 1980, and in 2004 members purchased land to build a new church, a meeting hall and chapel on a 4-acre parcel near Santa Rosa and Woodcreek roads.

The Camarillo City Planning Commission recently approved the building design, and construction is set to begin in fall 2012.