Jackson Free Press

In a small building behind the Holy Trinity-St. John the Theologian Greek Orthodox Church in Jackson, Chuck Odom and John Tselepes stuffed raw lamb loins with a special seasoning and garlic, and rubbed them down with olive oil, lemon juice and more secret spices and ingredients.

By around 2:45 p.m. on Thursday, May 12, they had prepared around 150 pounds of lamb with many more to go. Pots of dolmas (grape leaves stuffed with the customer's choice of rice or meat) sat off to the side. The cooking team, which includes Odom, Tselepis and other church members, was busy cooking about 300 chickens for Jackson Greek Fest, which begins on Friday, May 14.

The festival is an annual fundraiser for Holy Trinity, a church community that dates back to 1951, when Greek immigrants formed the Patmian Society and Athenian Society in Jackson. The groups worked together to raise funds for property on West Capitol Street and to bring the church's first priest, Basil Kleoudis, to Jackson. The church held services in an old mansion on the property until 1957, when Holy Trinity completed the construction of a building. Holy Trinity-St. John the Theologian was then consecrated in September 1973. In 2010, the church purchased the former home of Pear Orchard Baptist Church, which is where Holy Trinity is currently located.

Odom, whose baptized name is Constandinos, grew up in the Baptist denomination but says that as he grew older, he began to search for a church that met his needs. He joined Holy Trinity in 1982. While he himself is not Greek, his wife, Toula, is.

"Anybody can be Greek Orthodox," he says. "You don't have to be Greek."

Odom, the chairman of outdoor seating and staging for Jackson Greek Fest, says the church bought 5.2 acres of land and the building from Pear Orchard for less than it would have cost to build a new church.

"It gave us the opportunity to have a big festival on the grounds because we've got all this acreage," he says. In the past, Holy Trinity held the festival at the Mississippi Agriculture and Forestry Museum and at the old church space.

He says many Greek families within the church own local restaurants, including the Zouboukos family, who owns The Elite Restaurant in downtown Jackson, and the Kountouris family, who owns the Mayflower Cafe, also downtown. He says it helps when planning for the food-centric Jackson Greek Fest.

"This is our major fundraiser," he says. "When you're a small church, and you only have a few members, it takes fundraisers." Holy Trinity has about 50 families.

This year's festival will have four different menus for food: the kafeteria menu, which includes dishes such as rizogalo, which is a Greek-style rice pudding, and loukoumades, or Greek beignets; the taverna menu, which includes dishes such as spanokopita, calamari and Greek fries; the kafeneio menu, which includes coffee, ice cream and dishes such as apricot-almond cookies and karithopita, which is a nut cake with honey; and a zacharoplasteio menu that includes dishes such as kourambiethes, which are Greek wedding cookies covered with confectioner's sugar, and melomakarona, which is a cookie spiced with cinnamon, dipped in honey and sprinkle with nuts.

Jackson Greek Fest begins Friday, May 13, at Holy Trinity-St. John the Theologian (5725 Pear Orchard Road). Drive-thru and delivery lunch services are available from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. The festival officially kicks off at 5 to 10 p.m., and the Victoria Holmes Band performs from 7 to 9:30 p.m. Festival-goers can enjoy food, professional Greek dancers, deejays, a Greek marketplace, a supervised kids area and tours of the church on Saturday, May 14, from 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sunday, May 15, from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. The event is free to the public, though prices vary on food and other items.