There are today approximately 6000 Greek-Americans living in the state, up from a U.S. Census total of 18 Greeks in Iowa in 1900. Most are descendents of the early immigrant communities of (in descending order of size) Sioux City, Mason City, Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Waterloo, Davenport, Council Bluffs, and Dubuque.

Many of the earliest, almost exclusively male immigrants returned to Greece, but by the 1920s, most Greeks stayed and raised families, establishing a permanent Greek-American community in Iowa. They founded Greek Orthodox churches in Waterloo (St. Demetrios, 1914), Sioux City (Holy Trinity, 1917), Mason City (Holy Transfiguration, 1918), Des Moines (1928), Cedar Rapids (St. John the Baptist, 1938), and Dubuque (St. Elias, 1956).

Iowa also has three Antiochian Orthodox Churches. Two of the churches, St. George in Cedar Rapids and St. Thomas in Sioux City, serve primarily Lebanese/Syrian communities. In the summer of 2001, St. Raphael of Brooklyn Antiochian Orthodox Mission was founded in Iowa City by converts to the Eastern Orthodox Church.

In April of 2002, a group of Egyptian immigrants founded St. Mary Coptic Orthodox Church in Urbandale, a suburb of Des Moines. The Coptic Orthodox Church, under the Coptic Patriarchate of Alexandria, is part of a communion known as the Oriental Orthodox Churches, which also includes the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, the Eritrean Orthodox Church, the Malankara (India) Orthodox Church, the Syrian Orthodox Church of Antioch, and the Armenian Apostolic Church. The Coptic Church in particular has been described by scholars as a "living museum" of ancient Christian tradition and practice.

In the spring of 2002, a new mission church of the Orthodox Church in America (an offshoot of the Russian Orthodox Church) was founded in Pella, Iowa as the St. Nicholas Orthodox Christian Church. Pella is located approximately 50 miles southeast of Des Moines, and is known nationally for its Dutch heritage and annual Tulip Festival. St. Nicholas (Sinterklaas) is the patron saint of the Netherlands. The OCA is an autocephalous (self-headed) jurisdiction in the United States and Canada. St. Nicholas Church is under the jurisdiction of the OCA's Diocese of the Midwest.

On August 14, 2004, our parish hosted a Hierarchical Divine Liturgy for the Serbian community of Des Moines. The service was celebrated by Metropolitan Christopher of the Serbian Orthodox Church in the USA and Canada, Midwestern American Metropolitanate, with the assistance of two Serbian priests from Kansas City and South Dakota and Fr. Peter Cade, priest of St. George's at that time. After the service, the Serbian community members in attendance voted to form St. Demetrius Serbian Orthodox Mission Church in Des Moines. At this time, the congregation holds a liturgy once a month at our church. Service information will be posted on this site as it becomes available.

On May 19, 1895, The Iowa State Register marked the arrival of the first Hellenic immigrants to the city by announcing that "Two Greeks...will open a big confectionery and fruit house." The first Greek entry in the Des Moines City Directory was "John Metrakos, Confectioner," in 1898. By 1920, the U.S. Census listed 230 foreign-born Greeks in the city.

As was typical throughout the United States, most early Des Moines Greeks came from southern Greece, especially from the villages of Feliatra, Pyrgos, and Antretsena of Peloponesus, but the young Greek community also hailed from Sparta, Athens, Corinth, Salonika, and the Aegean islands. Unlike Des Moines Italians, Greek settlement in Des Moines did not bear the stamp of a single old-world town or take the form of an ethnic neighborhood.

While many Greeks came to this state to work on the railroads, in Des Moines most of the early immigrants started their own shoe repair shops, restaurants, and candy stores.

The present Greek-American community in Iowa's capital city is a mixture of foreign and native-born from old Des Moines families, other American-born Greek-Americans who have moved to Des Moines, and more recent immigrants from many regions of Greece.

In 1924, two hundred Greek immigrants in central Iowa formed a Kinotis, or Greek society. Four years later, the Greek Orthodox parish was established, with church members from Boone, Perry, Ft. Dodge, Newton, Oskaloosa, and Ottumwa, as well as Des Moines and Valley Junction (now West Des Moines). The parishioners voted unanimously to name their church after their most common given name--"George," for St. George the Great Martyr.

Visiting priests conducted services on an irregular schedule at the old YMCA building at Fourth Street and Keosauqua Way. Later, the parish held services at a hall owned by St. Mark's Episcopal Church, then at East 13th and Des Moines Streets. In 1929, the parish battled U.S. immigration authorities in order to bring Fr. Meletios Kestekides from Greece to be its first regular priest.

In late 1930, St. George Parish moved into its present Greek Revival-style church building after agreeing to purchase the property from Westminster United Presbyterian Church for $22,000. The Greek community held the first Orthodox service in their own church building on Christmas Day of that year.

At a celebration on November 14, 1937, attended by 800 persons, the re-negotiated $16,000 mortgage was put to flame and Bishop Kallistos of Chicago consecrated the church building. Dignitaries in attendence at the celebration included Iowa Governor Nelson G. Kraschel.

Today, we are a parish of 184 member families. The parish receives spiritual and administrative leadership from Metropolitan Iakovos of the Chicago Diocese.

Each year on the first Sunday of June, St. George Church hosts a Greek Food Fair that serves delicious Greek food and introduces the Church and Greek culture to more than three thousand guests.