Priest Honored for 45 years of Ordained Service

NORTH WILDWOOD — St. Demetrios Church dedicated its recent journal album to the Rev. Father Steven J Viahos, pastor of St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church since 1992 for 45 years of ordained ministry and service to the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.
Viahos, a native of Chicago, Ill. graduated from Holy Cross Theological School in 1963, married his wife Chrysi (nee Hondroulis) in 1964. He is the father of Demetrios Troy Via-hos and Dana Anastasia DiAntonio. Vlahos and his wife have one grandson, Joseph DiAntonio.
In his 45 years of priestly ministry, Vlahos has served Greek Orthodox parishes in Little Rock, Ark., Rockford, Ill., Bethesda, Md., Cherry Hill and here.
In addition to the his many pastoral duties, liturgical and leadership functions over the past 45 years, Vlahos has “faithfully served God and God’s people with outstanding dedication and unselfish service,” according to a release.
Among his many accomplishments are organizing youth groups, conducting Bible and religious classes, Greek language classes, holding religious retreats, sponsoring cultural affairs and food and pastry bazaars, he led church and community center building programs, orga-nized senior citizen programs and fund-raising activities.
From 1986 to 2007, Viahos also served as the special deputy surrogate of Camden County coordinating and supervising senior citizen workshops that enabled seniors to acquire wills, living wills and powers of attorney free of charge.
In his journal message Parish Council President William Mitchell wrote:
“Under his dynamic and caring leadership, our parish has grown dramatically, almost doubling in membership through his effective outreach.”
Mitchell continued, “Father Steven has been the inspiration behind our church beautifica-tion program. Notably the iconography, which now adorns our church walls and ceiling and the stained glass window project (with the help of Gust Kraras and AHEPA and the marble solea/iconostasis (through the generosity of John and Nick Zervas), but his major accomplishment was the construction of the seawall…” That rock and concrete structure protects the church from the Atlantic Ocean.
The journal album contains 76 pages of messages from 67 parishioners and friends of the priest, parish information and guidelines, parish and business directory, a history of the parish by Kraras and a listing of the church improvements under the leadership of Viahos
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Archon of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople Gust C. Kraras served as the chairman of the journal-album. Kraras together with Presidents Nicholas Konides and Mitchell have been the chief coworkers of Viahos that enabled his many accomplishments for the past 17 years.
Additionally, other parish organizations, such as the parish council, the Soterios Ladies Philoptochos Society, the Hellenic school, Sunday school, PTO, the choir, altar servers and the American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association (AHEPA) have greatly aided the priest in making progress in the growth and development of the St. Dernetrios Church.
While a journal-album cannot compact 45 years of ministry into a few words or a few pages, the fact is that St. Demetrios Church and the other parishes served by Viahos all benefited from his loving, caring and dedicated ministry to God, His Church and His people.