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Church History
History of Saint Odisho Church in Chicago (Click Here for Assyrian Version) After arriving in Chicago in 1983, we saw the necessity to gather our parishioners into a house of worship for God. After a period of one year we were establish a parish consisting of approximately seventy households. Although there were many obstacles in our path, it was not enough to stop us from achieving our goal. Our faith was strong that God was with us. For the first year, our religious ceremonies and rites were conducted in various churches throughout the city, and we realized that our parish was slowly growing. Meetings were held periodically for the purpose of finding and purchasing a church of our own. At these meetings, it was also decided that our church would be named after Saint Odisho because there were no churches honoring him in the United States. At this point we began searching for a location that would be suitable to perform the rites and services of the Church. With the hard work and diligence of Mr. Younadim Youkhana we found a steel factory that was for sale. Therefore, in 1984, it was decided to purchase this location for $300,000.00, whose cost was donated by our selfless parishioners. After eight months, the necessary remodeling was completed and the factory was converted into a beautiful and suitable church where all of our religious ceremonies were performed. Over the next fifteen years, our parish had grown tremendously and the church, primarily the hall, could no longer handle our community. Also, the church building had grown old and in need of continued repair. It was then deliberated in many meetings of the church committee that there was a great need to build a new, larger church. Four years later, the blueprints of the new church building were drawn and construction began in June of 1999. After many years of hard work, the construction was finally completed in April of 2002 for the total cost of $2,600,000 dollars. It is important that we show are gratitude and give special thanks to all of the hard-working and faithful members of our community that worked tirelessly to build such a beautiful house of God. We would like to show our never ending gratitude to all of those who donated selflessly to build a place where our community come and worship the Lord. Under my supervision, On behalf of His Holiness Mar Addai II, Patriarch of the Ancient Church of the East, Saint Odisho Church was officially opened on Saturday, March 27, 2002. The following day, Holy mass was performed in celebration of Palm Sunday.
Rev. Awiquam Pithyou
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