The Orthodox Church of Saint Elizabeth the New-Martyr serves Orthodox Christians in Central New Jersey. It is an English language Parish of the Diocese of Eastern America and New York of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia.

Founded in 1998 in Somerville, New Jersey, we worshipped first in a chapel in the home of our priest and then in a larger chapel in the home of a founding member of our Mission. Our growing Parish acquired its own church building in 2004 in the Princeton area at 38 Princeton Avenue, Rocky Hill, New Jersey. This was the former St James Chapel built in 1905 to serve the local Roman Catholic community. After being in that historic church building for four years, St Elizabeth's Church had extensive renovations done to our church building in 2008 which enlarged the altar area, installed a proper iconostasis, improved our choir loft, put in a new ceiling, refinished the floors, and installed new lighting, ventilation, and air conditioning systems.

Since that time we have worked with our iconographer, Protodeacon Paul Drozdowki, to fill the new iconostasis with 44 painted icons and panels which augmented the six icons on the Royal Doors we inherited from another church. A second icon project was begun after the completion of the iconostasis to decorate the east wall of the altar area with three separate tiers of icons: the lowest tier of six Liturgists flanking the icon of Christ the Great High Priest, the middle tier of three large panels depicting the Communion of the Apostles, and the uppermost tier with a large panel of the Kursk Root Icon of the Mother of God surrounded by Old Testament Prophets, flanked on either side by two other large panels depicting the Seven Holy Archangels. This project is nearly completed, with only the two panels of the Archangels needing to be finished. 

Other improvements to the church building have been undertaken, including the building of a large pavilion at the back of the church for warm weather coffee hours and other outdoor gatherings, as well as another heating and air-conditioning system installed powered by solar panels on the roof of the new pavilion. A project to refinish our hall in the church basement, the re-siding of the exterior of the church, and the building of a new entrance roof have been begun, but completion has been delayed due to a local shut down of construction inspections caused by the recent pandemic. 

Should you want more information about St Elizabeth's Church, you may call our priest, Fr David Straut, at (908) 203-1252.