Church History

Our community was established in 1976. The first service took place in May 1976 at the Anglican Church of St Luke, in the Luton suburb of Leagrave. The first celebrant was the late Protopresbyter Fr Sotirios Panagiotopoulos (+2021).  Fr Sotirios, born in the  Greek town of Tanagra in 1939, had been a graduate of the famous theological school of Chalki and served in the Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain for 45 years, as a teacher and a priest. 

The church was originally started in 1976 in Luton by Charalampia (Chambou) Sakka whose zeal and courage to start a Greek Orthodox community, coupled with hard work, resulted in the creation of our community.  The church was purchased with funds from donations and situated in Luton town until 2009. 

Structural problems in that building made the community move to the new site in East Hyde, which was a redundant Anglican church.   There are many interpretations about the name of this village. Hyde is rooted in the Old English word hīd, as in a hide of land (an old English unit of land area, equalling 120 acres). It was traditionally a surname for "one who lives near a hill or stream" or "one who lives on a hide of land." In 1240, Hyde was the residence of the illustrious Lord Alan de Hyde who, together with his wife Alicia, made generous donations to the Abbey of Dunstable and had a small chapel built near their house.  The chapel was dedicated to St Peter the Apostle and later fell into disrepair and dereliction.

The site to which our community moved is a small early Victorian neo-Norman rural church of pleasantly mottled brick and tile, set just off the minor but busy B653 road between Harpenden and Luton. It was designed by Benjamin Ferrey,  at the beginning of his career, in a Neo-Norman style and built between 1840 and 1841, by subscription, on a site given by John Crichton-Stuart, the 2nd Marquess of Bute (d. 1848). The foundation stone was laid on the 21st April, 1840 and the church was officially dedicated on 24 May, 1842. The church was built at a cost of  £1,000, which, even back then, was not a lot. Some of the pews were leased on an annual basis to provide income for the church. 

Entrance is through the narthex, based on the mid-twelfth-century staircase to the pilgrims’ hall at Canterbury Cathedral Priory, but here translated from stone to brick and with the side walls pulled forward, as it were, to form a straight line with the entranceIt has two large Norman piers flanking the entrance, with open staircases with Norman colonettes turning left and right, culminating on the left in the single asymmetrically placed turret. It is a Grade II Listed Building. It has fine stained glasses depicting various biblical scenes.  Most of the stained glasses, together with the church organ, were donated by the Ames Family, a local family of landowners whose enterprises spread over both Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire and several of its members are buried in the adjacent churchyard. 

The belfry houses one bell, a tenor, which weighs 91 kg and was cast in 1840 by Thomas II Mears at his then famous foundry in Whitechapel, London. 

The church was declared closed for public worship by the Diocese of St Albans in 2008, having been sharing, since 1976, the same vicar with the Anglican Church of St Andrew situated at the nearby village of Slip End . The final service took place on Sunday 28 September 2008.  Since 2001 (or even earlier), Sunday services took places twice a month and the village school closed down in 1984.

The church building has undergone major repairs, such as the roof. Eventually we managed to create a beautiful church with a crafted Icon-Screen adoring the front and new icons installed. Three chandeliers, kindly donated by a shop in Cyprus, have also been installed and continue to brighten and liven the church. In 2016 we managed to built an adjacent hall, where refreshments are offered after services and other church functions take place; the hall was extended and improved in 2021-2022.  In 2023 the church doors were replaced and the new carpark, at the back of the church, inaugurated.

Our future plans are to carry out other much needed repairs: install secondary glazing to the windows, create an internal staircase to the balcony etc.  We also wish to organise more catechetical work and instruct our parishioners how to worship God "in spirit and in truth".  Our aim is to ensure the church will be our legacy to the generations of Orthodox Christians in Luton and the District, but also to all pilgrims and visitors who like to visit and pray for St. Charalambos' help and everyone interested in the Orthodox Faith.


The story of a church is the story of people. For no matter what is used to construct the building-stone, brick or wood-it is people who are the church; people sharing their joys, fears, triumphs, defeats, despair, hopes and dreams with one another as they worship together. A church is a microcosm of life. One day it welcomes a new Christian in Baptism; the next day it joins two in Holy Matrimony; and on the third we say farewell to a loved one or friend here. A church is a community of people in both the earthly and spiritual sense.

The future of our Church is limited only by our communion with one another and our commitment to see it persevere.

Architect’s own plan (from the Lambeth Palace Library Archive)

Our church at the beginning of the 20th century, when it was still an Anglican Church. 

A photograph of our church in 2013.

The old church noticeboard