The St. Jacob family which was named after San Diego was formed and started to grow by faith, hope and holiness. And the whole family worked hard and relentlessly, with passion and no reluctance. The early founders had a great role that would not be forgotten for generations. Here we recognize Salim Bisharat, Daoud Kawar, Hanain Boghous, Basila Mansour, Jihad Nasser, Jamil Maria and Protodeacon Edward Bagdassar.

Seven years of bountiful journey begin:

 Our first base was the Holy Angels Church which nested us in its beautiful Byzantine ambiance for seven continuous years, after which we had to relocate to Our Lady Of Grace for two years, and from there to The Ascension Church for yet another two years. But the passion was always with the Holy Angels Church since it was and still is the surrounding that we always longed for, that Byzantine look, shape and heart we dreamed of. We always looked forward to the day when we would be able to build our own Byzantine church.

The Divine Light stays present while the parishioners of St. Jacob are tested:

Our dear mission passed through sweet days and bitter times. We were served first by Fr. Bishara Buqter, who was a temporary priest, and then Fr. George Al Mur who was appointed to serve us where we started our first march. It was a very active period in which we had various activities, meetings, rehearsals and most importantly having our first elected parish council. It wasn’t long before Fr. Al Mur was promoted to become a bishop. He was then relocated to Amman, Jordan; our hearts were aching as he left us. But God’s mercy was fast to come, as the wonderful Archimandrite Maximos Mardelli was appointed to serve us. Although he was a retired priest, he was able to wonders with us. Our parish started to flourish; everybody was working feverishly and with open minds and giving spirits. All of a sudden we had an active parish council, a recognized choir which Fr. Mardelli reformed and was committed to with no limits of his vast experience. A religious education committee was formed, a youth group was founded and a ladies society was flourishing in addition to a very vibrant social committee. Attendance during his era was great; it surpassed one hundred and fifty and even a hundred and eighty on feast days and other big occasions. Participation of parishioners was overwhelming, and the contribution was continuous. Limitless efforts were exerted – most importantly, the love that manifested itself among all was so soothing.  

And as we were in this atmosphere, Fr. Mardelli had a bad accident that prevented him from serving our community any further. He was the caring brother as well as the dear father to all of us to the point that he named us in his will and granted us what came out to $110,000. He had strong faith in us (his parishioners) and he wanted to be a part in achieving our dream of having our own church. Fr. Mardelli served us for three complete years.

Fr. Athanasious Assi was appointed as a successor to Fr. Mardelli and he was known for having a beautiful and melodious voice which he used to enrich our liturgy. He always insisted that we have bible studies every Thursday with no exceptions. He left us after only one year, after which Archimandrite Nassir Matta was appointed to serve us and was later transferred to our sister church The Virgin Mary.

Here our famine years at St. Jacob started:

After that glorious time, we started to retreat little by little, beginning with losing our spiritual father who had been nourishing us for two complete years, and ending with the parishioners losing the family bond that they once shared. And here we have to mention the big role that our Deacon Edward played in this particular period, as he went searching from one place to the other to find us a priest who could serve us for at least one hour on Sundays. He had a very hard time, especially trying to find someone on Holy feast days. They came from different nationalities with different accents, but what was important was that we had a priest on that Holy day of the week. What was piercing our hearts most, however, was the limited attendance, which at certain times was less than the number of the fingers on one hand! This unpleasant era lasted for two long, bitter years.

Yet we stayed steadfast to our covenant embracing our Faith, Hope and Love:

Once again the St. Jacob family came back to life and started serious work after the appointment of Fr. George Bisharat, who started to work and pray to bring back the sons and daughters of this parish of ours. He tried to gather his flocks one more time, and tried as well to keep them from disappearing. He as well went through very hard times until he was able, along with those sincere and faithful ones, to gather and bring a good number of the parishioners back. His work was not easy, to say the least, yet he endured and was patient, and this reminds us of the words of Christ when He addressed Jerusalem as he was meditating at Gethsemane saying, “How many times I tried to gather your sons…” And credit is given where credit is due, since Fr. George was the priest who succeeded in bringing us back to celebrate our liturgy at the Holy Angels church.

The hour has come when we will be able to give fruit:

Suddenly, the grace of God has engulfed us with His love and compassion yet again, and it materialized by the appointment of the young, Holy priest, Fr. Saba Shofany. He is a theologian as well as an educator who is so active and filled with liveliness – willing and able to lead us toward our long awaited dream and on the path of Holiness as the good shepherd leads his flock. Hence then, the family of St. Jacob starts once again to return to the bosom of the Lord. The participation of entire parish in all the activities has been overflowing. The Holy Liturgy attendance has doubled, the response for the bible study is great and the participation in all the other activities is just as good. 

And as we were in this blessed environment, the Lord has remembered us one more time by the Holy visit of His Beatitude Patriarch Gregory III Leham, who gave us a shot in the arm to continue our work to serve and love God and His church.

We really are a blessed parish, and we will definitely have all our dreams fulfilled, so let us thank the Lord and sing to Him a song of praise.

Your parishioner,

Hanna Maria