St. Mary Orthodox Church

Protection Church (also known as "St. Mary Orthodox Church") is an Orthodox Christian parish in Fairfax County, Virginia, dedicated to the use of English in all of our worship services. We are a congregation in the Romanian Orthodox Episcopate of America (ROEA), an Archdiocese of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA), which received its canonical independence (autocephaly) from the Patriarchate of Moscow in 1970. Our hierarch is His Eminence Archbishop Nathaniel (Popp), who resides at the Episcopate headquarters (affectionately known as the Vatra - Romanian for "hearth") in Grass Lake, Michigan.

Our parishioners are a diverse, hospitable, downright friendly bunch, drawn from many religious, ethnic, and professional backgrounds. For example, about one-fourth of our adult membership has Romanian ancestry; roughly 35% run the gamut of other historic Orthodox homelands or ancestries (Greek, Russian, Arab, Ukrainian, Eritrean, etc.), and nearly 40% are converts from other faith groups or religions. We revel in the multi-ethnic, pan-Orthodox flavor of our community!