Birmingham Churches and Their Cornerstones 51

St. George Melkite Greek-Catholic Church built a striking mid-century-modern building near Birmingham’s George Ward Park in 1957. It was designed by the Birmingham architectural firm of Van Keuren and Davis, now known as Davis Architects. I always tell my students that this church was erected by the same architects and at the same time as Samford University’s Georgian Colonial campus on Lakeshore Drive. St. George represent the path not taken by Samford’s trustees when the architects offered them a choice between a classic and modern style., There is much to say about St. George’s some of which my students have said in this essay on its iconography and this essay on its worship. The church is best known in Birmingham for its Middle Eastern Food Festival held every fall. It is coming up this year in just a week.

Despite the modern style of the building, the cornerstone features a script that evokes the Arabic that the congregation originally used in worship. The cornerstone describes it as “Byzantine Melkite.” Byzantine meant they worshiped according to the Byzantine-rite like Eastern Orthodox churches. Melkite came from the Syriac for king, and originally applied to all those Christians in Syria and adjoining lands who followed the emperor in Constantinople in adhering to the decrees of the Council of Chalcedon. Later it came to apply more narrowly those who entered into full communion with Rome, and thus became Eastern Catholic rather than Eastern Orthodox. The current name perhaps makes that clearer. “Melkite” signifies they are from the Levant (Syria and adjacent lands) and “Greek Catholic,” that they follow the Byzantine (or Greek) tradition while being in full communion with the Roman pontiff.

Read this first post for more on this series on Birmingham churches and their cornerstones.

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