St. Thekla Orthodox Church began in the fall of 2014, as The Eastern Shore Antiochian Orthodox Mission.  At that time George M. Cody placed a notice in the local newspaper highlighting the need for an Orthodox church on the mid-shore and suggested that interested parties meet to discuss how this might happen.  The first meeting was attended by a small group of Orthodox Christians, unknown to each other at the time, who met for the very first time in a classroom at St. Mark’s United Methodist Church in Easton.

Father Boniface Black of St. Andrew’s Orthodox Church in Lewes, Delaware represented The Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America at that meeting.  Having previously started six mission churches; Fr. Boniface was able to share valuable in-sight into how we should proceed with this endeavor. Under his guidance we became his seventh mission church.

Ultimately this group of Orthodox Christians decided to work at establishing a mission and notified the Antiochian Archdiocese of our interest and commitment.  The Archdiocese sent Bishop THOMAS (Joseph) who met with us and gave his blessing to our endeavor.  In less than two months, on December 3, 2014, we had our first Divine Liturgy with 33 people in attendance.

Divine Liturgy was conducted monthly in the Chapel of St. Mark’s Methodist Church.  However, those monthly services were conducted on a weekday since the chapel was not available to us on a Sunday morning.  One year later the mission began to have Liturgy one Sunday a month at a local hotel.  Eventually, we met twice a month until the 2020 Covid pandemic, which unfortunately mandated the cessation of all in-person church worship. In the summer of 2020, the state lifted the prohibition on in-person gatherings.  At that time, we were blessed to find that the Talbot Evangelistic Church in Trappe had a hall of approximately 2000 square feet, which our parish was able to lease. This enabled the group to meet weekly. It also afforded us the opportunity to worship in a true Orthodox manner, complete with our Iconostasis, altar, and icons in place.  This location served as our temporary church home from 2020 to 2025.

September 26, 2021 was a monumental day for the newest Orthodox Christian church on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. On this day we were blessed to be visited once again by Bishop THOMAS of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Diocese. Until now, we had been known simply as the “Eastern Shore Orthodox Mission”. His Grace bestowed upon us the name St. Thekla Orthodox Christian Church. The naming of a mission is an indication of stability and growth. We are excited to be blessed with our saint’s name as we continue to grow.

St. Thekla is a very appropriate name for our parish. She was one of the first females and missionaries to preach Christianity to the population of that time and our Eastern Shore Orthodox Christian Church offers us the opportunity to do the same. Since our formation we have more than doubled in size as people hear about us and find our congregation to be a warm and welcoming community of faith that practices the Christian faith handed down to us from the Apostles.

St. Thekla’s parish is now comprised of members throughout the Eastern Shore from Cambridge to Chestertown and from Tilghman Island to Georgetown, DE.

We are pleased to share with you that on January 31, 2025, St. Thekla Orthodox Church closed on the purchase of property and buildings that became our permanent home.  The property that we purchased was the site of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Hillsboro, Maryland, located at the corner of Maple & Church Streets.  In addition to the church building the purchase also included the existing retreat house.

The existing church building is an historic Episcopal church that features a board-and-batten Carpenter Gothic-style structure set on a brick foundation. Its design is based upon a book of plans and sketches published in 1852 by Richard Upjohn.

St. Paul’s Church Hillsboro was established in 1748, and a church was built in 1768, but fell into decline in the early 19th century. The current church building was constructed in 1856-1857 and consecrated in 1858.  Rev. George Beaven was the first Rector who served for 52 years until his death in 1909.  The church continued until the 1950’s when it was deconsecrated and sold to an individual who intended to move it to another location, however, the move did not take place. In the late 1960’s, the church was purchased by members of the Beaven family and re-consecrated by the Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Easton.

In the 1990’s, Rev. Marianne Ell became Rector. At that time work was begun to build a parish hall and community center on the church property.  That work was suspended in 1994 when the Ells family moved.  The church and the nearly finished parish hall lay empty for 20 years.  In 2014, then-Bishop Bud Shand allocated funds to finish the parish hall and invited Francie Thayer to establish a Retreat House.

In late 2023, the Parish Council of St. Thekla’s Orthodox Church received confirmation from the Episcopal Archdiocese of Easton of their intention to enter into a purchase agreement for the property.  The Parish Council requested final approval from our parishioners to pursue the property purchase, as well as approval and blessing from the Antiochian Archdiocese to move forward.  2024 was a time of great activity preparing the property for purchase as our new home. 

After making some needed repairs as well as renovations we moved into our new church on Monday, May 19th.  On Sunday, May 25th, Fr. John Monto served our first Divine Liturgy at our new location in front of over 100 parishioners, family, and friends of St. Thekla.  We were absolutely overwhelmed by the number of people who came to worship and celebrate with us and were very blessed to have a number of visitors, guests and inquirers join us for this service.

Fr. John began by blessing our new church which was built in the 1850s.  This was followed by the Doxology during which the refurbished church bell tolled for the first time in 50 years to announce the beginning of the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom.  At the conclusion of the Liturgy each family received a cross that was created by one of our contractors using wood from flooring removed during the renovation of the altar area.

There is still work to be done as we continue the move-in process, but we know that with God’s grace and over time we will thrive at this location.

Please visit our Photos page to see the property.  We will be updating these as work progresses.  We will keep you updated on our progress, and may God bless our parish community!

We invite you to come and worship with us and experience worship in the Orthodox tradition.

The Eastern Shore Orthodox Mission was founded by the Archpriest Boniface Black, of Souderton, PA Fr. Boniface reposed Sunday, August 7, 2016. 

Father Boniface served Lutheran Churches in Iowa and Pennsylvania before entering Eastern Orthodoxy. He was Pastor of Saint Philip Antiochian Orthodox Church in Souderton, PA from 1978 until 2009 when he became Pastor of Saint Andrew Antiochian Orthodox Church in Lewes, DE. 

He was active in mission work for the Mid-Atlantic Antiochian Orthodox Christian Diocese, having helped start seven congregations in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Delaware, and Maryland. Under his guidance over the years, seven men were ordained into the Orthodox priesthood.