A NEW HOME FOR A CONGREGATION: Mother of God Orthodox Church finally has a building to call home. The 18-year-old congregation, which has most recently held services on the campus of Princeton Day School, will cut the ribbon for its new building on January 30. Members of the church are gearing up for outreach and education programs in the permanent space on Cherry Hill Road.

The finishing touches are being put on Princeton’s newest church, an inviting wooden building with red doors and window frames on Cherry Hill Road. The Mother of God Orthodox Church expects to hold a ribbon cutting on January 30, providing a spiritual home for the more than 50 people who have been regularly worshipping at Sunday services held, most recently, at Princeton Day School.

“We’re almost there,” said Father Peter A. Baktis, a recently retired military chaplain from the U.S. Armed Services who came to Princeton to head the church last March. “When I got here I inherited the building project, which started more than five years ago. It was a shell. But we’ve raised money and were able to complete the interior. The big work has been site work — digging a drainage ditch, grading, asphalt, that kind of thing. But we’re ready and will have the ribbon-cutting with Archbishop Michael on January 30 at 9:30 a.m.”

Many people who hear the name of the church assume it is Russian Orthodox, but it is not. “It’s part of the Orthodox Church of America, which encompasses Orthodox Christians from all over the world,” Mr. Baktis said. “It’s the church of the east. The liturgy is more ornate. We chant, with no musical accompaniment. It’s more traditional.”

Founded in 1998 as a mission by Father John Cassar in Rocky Hill, the parish relocated to St. Joseph’s Seminary in 2003. When that site became unavailable eight years later, the group began holding services at PDS. Five years ago, they purchased the property at 904 Cherry Hill Road. “We were going to convert a house, but the project was expanded,” Mr. Baktis said. “The foundation of the house was enlarged, and that made the church deeper.”

An affable man with an engaging smile, Mr. Baktis is the grandson of Belarusian and Lithuanian immigrants. He grew up in Brooklyn, and his family belonged to the Holy Trinity Orthodox Church in East Meadow, Long Island. “I always thought I’d be a priest,” he said during an interview a week before Christmas. “I was an altar boy, and I just knew.”

He entered the Army Chaplain Corps in 1990, and was deployed as an active duty chaplain in Kosovo, Iraq, Kuwait, and Bosnia. He also served at installations in the United States, Germany, and South Korea. Most recently, he was Intelligent and Security Command Chaplain at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, and prior to that was Chief Chaplain at Fort Bliss in Texas. He moved with his wife and daughter, an art therapist in Brooklyn, to Hopewell last spring.

“I came to Princeton without a historical understanding of the community at all. I came with an open mind,” he said. “And it has been wonderful. I think the Bishop appointed me for a reason. It’s a challenge to finish a product, especially coming in halfway through. Being in the military gave me the ability to deal with these kinds of challenges.

The Orthodox church has expanded in recent years, in some measure due to conversions. “People convert for various reasons,” Mr. Baktis said. “Most are searching for an authentic church witness that has not compromised the culture we find ourselves in. There’s ritual, tradition, community, and an authentic identity you can tie back to. There are also those who might have had a crisis and are searching for something. They might start by studying yoga or Buddhism, and then come around to eastern Christianity.”

Once the move is completed, the church has plans for programs, services, book study, and Bible study. Two symposia a year, in fall and spring, are in the planning stages. “We’re looking for a topic that would be of interest to the greater Princeton area,” Mr. Baktis said. “We want to do a weekend with a keynote and other speakers. We’re also interested in doing outreach to the community, particularly in Trenton.”

New members are always welcome, as well as those who might be looking for a spiritual connection. “In our modernity, there are a lot of challenges people face,” Mr. Baktis said. “People are looking for something to center them.”