Cemetery Section Set Aside for Orthodox : Religion: Newport Beach memorial park site will be the first for O.C. members. There is space for 4,000 graves.

The 40,000 Orange County members of the Orthodox faith soon will have available, for the first time, a proper burial ground consecrated by an Orthodox priest.

“I think it’s great,” Father George Stephanides, pastor of St. Paul’s Greek Orthodox Church in Irvine, said of Orange County’s first Orthodox burial section. It “will allow us to do what we need to do. This will bring us together as a group and allow us to express our faith in a cooperative manner.”

Traditionally, Stephanides said, Orthodox dead are buried in a local cemetery consecrated by a priest and attached to a church. But in Southern California, he said, there are only two Orthodox cemetery sections, both in Los Angeles and both nearly full.

“Here, they’ve just gone wherever they could,” said John Argos, a Greek Orthodox who works as a family counselor at Pacific View Memorial Park.

Argos approached managers of the 55-acre Newport Beach park with the idea of setting aside a section of the cemetery especially for those of the Orthodox faith. In deciding to approve the plan, cemetery manager Bob March said, park managers considered demographics, marketability and Orthodox community values.

“We saw that the interest was there,” said March, adding that the new section is expected to draw families from Orange, Riverside, San Diego and San Bernardino counties. “They are a very cohesive group.”

A denomination resulting from the schism in early Christianity that also produced Catholicism, the Orthodox Church is organized along ethnic lines (Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, etc.) and strongly emphasizes family and community values. There are 12 Orthodox churches in Orange County.

Argos’ efforts resulted in a designated two-acre strip of land with enough space for about 4,000 burials.

Local Orthodox priests say that it will be officially consecrated on Jan. 15. But on Thursday, several of them visited the cemetery to tour the grounds for the first time and hear the park manager’s plans.

“I like it very much,” said Father Michael Laffoon, pastor of St. Mark Orthodox Church in Irvine. “It has a lot of spiritual significance; we have a heavy emphasis on community.”