New York, NY - His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios of America, spiritual leader of 1.5 million Greek Orthodox faithful, joyfully announced today that the first post-hurricane Divine Liturgy was celebrated yesterday, September 18th, at the historic Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral in New Orleans by Fr. Milton Gianulis, a Greek-Orthodox U.S. Navy Chaplain. The Cathedral parish is the oldest Greek Orthodox community in the United States established in 1864 and the relatively new church edifice, consecrated by Archbishop Demetrios in 2001, was flooded and has suffered water damage from Hurricane Katrina.

Fr. Milton Gianulis is attached to the USS IWO JIMA, a multi-purpose amphibious ship, headed by Greek Orthodox Captain Richard Callas. With the help of Captain Callas and under the direction of Fr. Milton, several members of the IWO JIMA crew salvaged books, furniture and other moveable items from the church and cleaned and dried the interior and exterior of the church, making the Liturgy possible.

On Sunday morning eight parishioners attended the Divine Liturgy including IWO JIMA crewmembers and two officers of Holy Trinity Cathedral, Nick Moustoukis, Vice President and Chris Kanellakis, Treasurer.

According to information received from those present, the level of the water inside the church had reached three feet from which there was considerable damage. What is not known at this time is how much structural damage there was to the church, which will be determined by inspection of engineers in the coming weeks.