For more than forty years, Holy Trinity has stood at the heart of Greek-American life in Atlantic County. Families have poured through its doors for baptisms, festivals, feast days, Greek school programs, and Sunday liturgies that anchored their week. The church on Ridge Avenue has been a constant presence for generations, shaping memories as ordinary as coffee hour and as profound as farewells at memorial services. Today, that same community is working toward one of the most important chapters in its history: building a new sanctuary that will carry Holy Trinity into the decades ahead.
The path to that decision began long before the current fundraiser. After several engineering assessments and years of discussion, Holy Trinity reached a moment of clarity on September 11, 2019. A dedicated Rebuilding Committee presented its findings, and the parish voted not to repair the aging church structure, whose issues ran deeper than cosmetic wear. Instead of investing in costly fixes that would only delay the inevitable, the community chose to build new—a choice rooted in both stewardship and hope.
What followed was a period of steady, deliberate planning. Architectural work began, and Holy Trinity commissioned Christ J. Kamages, FAIA, an architect with extensive experience designing Orthodox churches across the United States, to create an octagon-plan sanctuary that honors Byzantine tradition while serving the practical needs of a modern parish. At the same time, the community began shaping a capital campaign with multiple avenues of support, including direct donations, stock gifts, IRA charitable rollovers, and long-term giving options.
As part of this broader effort, the parish launched a GoFundMe campaign last year, giving parishioners, friends, and supporters around the country an easy and familiar way to contribute. The $50,000 GoFundMe goal represents one piece of the total fundraising plan. It serves as a bridge between the core capital campaign and the wider Greek-American community—people who may no longer live in South Jersey but still carry memories tied to Holy Trinity.
Supporters can contribute directly at: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-build-holy-trinitys-new-church
To bring everything together in one place, Holy Trinity also created a dedicated project website. The site shares architectural renderings, updates from the Building Committee, donation pathways, and a clear timeline of the project. It helps the wider community understand not only the funding needs but also the long-term vision behind the new sanctuary.
As the project is moving forward, parish leaders recorded a short video titled “On Building a New Church.” In the video, members of the Building on Faith Capital Campaign speak candidly about why Holy Trinity must build a new sanctuary and what the vision of that new church means for the community’s future.
Throughout this long process, Holy Trinity has kept the same character that shaped it from the beginning. It has always been a parish built on people showing up for each other. It’s the families who organize festival weekends under the pavilion, the yiayiades who never miss a Philoptochos meeting, the parents who sit through GOYA basketball games, and the kids who learned their first hymns inside the old sanctuary. Father George Liacopulos has guided the parish through nearly three decades of steady growth, building a community known across South Jersey for its ministries, its hospitality, and its ability to make newcomers feel at home within a single coffee hour.
For Greek Americans in the region, Holy Trinity is woven into family history. It’s where baptisms, weddings, forty-day blessings, and memorials have marked the milestones of entire generations. It’s where college students return on holidays, where volunteers spend whole summers preparing for GreekFest, and where the smell of incense and koulourakia becomes part of the rhythm of parish life. The new church project is not simply about replacing a building. It is about carrying forward a community’s identity and ensuring that the next generation has the same foundation of faith and belonging.
Holy Trinity has already served Atlantic County for more than forty-one years. With continued support through the capital campaign, the GoFundMe initiative, and the outreach website, the parish is building toward a future rooted in the same love, generosity, and fellowship that shaped its past.