St Barnabas Orthodox Church of Costa Mesa. California

Saint Barnabas Orthodox Church began quite humbly in the middle 1980’s as a “home fellowship” or “house church”. It was part of a group of over 100 “home fellowships” across the country formed by men who had left “Campus Crusade For Christ” in search of the “early church model” of the New Testament.

As these men studied church history they discovered the historic church of the first millennium. Eventually they realized the New Testament Church still existed and it was the Eastern Orthodox Church.

This began a ten-year quest to become identified with this Church, finally leading to the historic reception of Saint Barnabas, along with 2,000 members of the other fellowships, into the canonical Orthodox Church through the Antiochian Patriarchate in 1987. The story of our journey was recounted in the book, “Becoming Orthodox” by Peter Gillquist.

The holy Apostle Barnabas of the Seventy, was born on the island of Cyprus into the family of the tribe of Levi, and named Joseph. He received h