St Mary is, first and formost, an Orthodox Church. Organized in August 1995, with its first Divine Liturgy September 15, 1995, it is the only Orthodox Church in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, and serves the entire community, without regard to ethnic background. Our membership includes people of Greek, Russian, Bulgarian, Egyptian, and Iraqi descent, as well as people whose families came from Italy, England, Germany, Slovakia, and Slovenia, and the dates of immigration to what is now the United States range from 1621 to1990.

Orthodox Christians affirm that their Church is the living continuation of the Apostolic Church, founded by Christ himself; they believe that it has maintained, without distorting addition or damaging detraction, the ancient faith of the undivided Church. The Orthodox make these claims in all humility, readily admitting the shortcomings of their Christian witness. They have no intention of calling into question the sincerity and integrity of other Christians. But they do assert that "if a person carefully examines the history of Christianity, he or she will soon discover that the Orthodox Church alone is in complete sacramental, doctrinal, and canonical continuity with the ancient undivided Church as it authoritatively expressed itself in the great Ecumenical Councils."