Houston has at least a dozen Orthodox churches spread across the metro area. That’s a lot for Southeast Texas, and it means folks from Beaumont who need to head into the city for work or medical appointments can usually find Divine Liturgy on Sunday morning.
The Antiochian parishes include St. George, St. Joseph on Hammerly Boulevard, and St. Anthony the Great up in Spring. St. Joseph’s been around for decades and serves a mix of cradle Orthodox and converts. If you’re visiting Houston and want to experience worship similar to what we do here at St. Michael’s, any of these will feel familiar. Same liturgy, same theology, same smell of incense and sound of Byzantine chant.
The Greek Orthodox community is strong in Houston. Annunciation Cathedral downtown is the oldest Orthodox parish in the city, going back to the early 1900s when Greek immigrants came through Galveston. St. Basil the Great out on Eldridge Parkway is another large Greek parish. The services are in English now, though you’ll hear some Greek. Don’t let the ethnic label throw you. These are fully Orthodox churches, not ethnic clubs.
Several Romanian parishes serve Houston too. St. Mary of Magdala and St. Andrew the Apostle are both under the OCA’s Romanian Episcopate. They’re smaller missions but growing. The Romanian tradition has its own musical style, a bit different from what we sing, but the liturgy’s the same. Christ is still Christ whether you’re singing in English, Greek, Arabic, or Romanian.
Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR) has St. Vladimir on Tidwell Road and St. Jonah up in Spring. ROCOR parishes tend to be more traditional in practice, longer services, more Church Slavonic, stricter fasting expectations. They’re not unfriendly, but the culture can feel different if you’re used to a convert-heavy Antiochian parish.
Here’s what matters for someone exploring Orthodoxy: all these parishes are canonical Orthodox churches. We’re not in communion with Rome, but we’re in communion with each other. A baptized Orthodox Christian can receive the Eucharist at any of them. They all confess the same faith, celebrate the same mysteries, and hold to the same apostolic tradition. The jurisdictional divisions, Antiochian, Greek, OCA, ROCOR, reflect immigration patterns and old-world politics, not theology. We’re working toward the day when there’s just one Orthodox Church in America, but that’s not here yet.
If you’re visiting Houston and want to attend Liturgy, orthodoxhouston.org lists all the parishes with addresses and service times. Most serve Liturgy Sunday mornings around 9:00 or 10:00, though you should check. Some parishes do Saturday evening Vespers too.
Why does this matter for someone in Beaumont? Because Houston’s close enough that you might end up there on a Sunday. Maybe you’re working a turnaround at one of the plants. Maybe you’re at MD Anderson for treatment. Maybe your kid’s got a tournament. It’s good to know you can find the Church. We don’t take a Sunday off just because we’re traveling. The Eucharist is our life, and Christ meets us at the altar whether we’re in Beaumont or Spring or halfway across the world.
One other thing: if you’re inquiring into Orthodoxy and you live closer to Houston than Beaumont, visit a few parishes before you decide where to land. Each has its own personality. Some are more convert-friendly, some more ethnic, some more traditional, some more relaxed about fasting. The theology’s the same everywhere, but the culture varies. Find a place where you can put down roots and actually become part of the community. That matters more than driving an extra twenty minutes to find the “perfect” parish.
