Who are we?
St. Thomas Church is the only Syriac Orthodox Church in the San Francisco Bay Area and The Silicon Valley.
It is also known to many people as St. Thomas of San Jose. At the time of its establishment 1988, many of its families resided in that city.
At the present time our church family count is about fifty. They are either Syriac first generation in the US or new immigrants who came from Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Jordan, Turkey and Iraq.
The majority of them live in the East Bay cities, the Peninsula cities and San Jose.
About a hand full of them live in the Stockton, Sacramento areas, Monterey and Los Banos areas.
Each family fit as a piece of a puzzle into a big circle called St. Thomas Church.
Currently, we are holding our service at the Milpitas Adventist Center located in Milpitas.
Father Youhanna Salamah is our full time priest and we do the service every other week, every first and third Sunday of the month at 11 in the afternoon.
Everyone joins the service chanting the Hymns in Syriac, Arabic and English.
Ladies Auxiliary is made up of many moms (we call them Angels behind the scene), they just work like buzzing bees at every event and they surely make a difference.
Religious study and work folders called “Bring Jesus home” are offered to our children to take home as a part of our Bible study program.
By the blessing of our Father Patriarch Moran Mor Ignatius Zakka ‘Ewas the first, and the tremendous support of our venerable prelate Mor Clemos Eugene Kaplan we strive to hold on to the Syriac faith and heritage, we try to enhance our church situation along with being part of this big circle of the Syriac churches around the world.
St. Thomas Board (December 2009)
