Commemorating its 60th Anniversary

A Brief History of St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church

By William G. Poulos

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The Church is Built

To serve the nascent community of ninety families, Archbishop Michael assigned Rev. Fr. Demetrios N. Sakellarides as the first priest of the Greek Orthodox Community of St. Nicholas on October 31, 1953. Fr. Sakellarides was a graduate of the Theological School of Halki. After coming to the United States he taught in a number of Greek schools before being ordained to the priesthood on September 1, 1935 by Archbishop Athenagoras. Prior to coming to St. Nicholas, he served as a priest at two other Greek Orthodox parishes.

Serving along with Fr. Sakellarides during the first critical years was the first Parish Council of St. Nicholas that had been elected at a special general assembly held on January 31, 1954.

The first parish council was comprised of the following persons: Bill Eliades,President, Anthony Padousis, Kostas Lambros, Stavros Nicholson, Stylianos Xintas, Nick SikalisKostas Tsouvalos (Tsottles), Nicholas Karpouzie, Michael Karas, Nicholas Kaitis, William Apostolou, Kostas Loukas, Michael Nicolaides, Gabriel Pantelides, George Stavrakis, George Panagiotou, and Soterios Plakitses.

FIRST BUILDING AND FIRST PRIEST, FR. DEMETRIOS SAKELLARIDES WITH ARCHBISHOP MICHAEL. 1953.

The primary task of the first Parish Council was to oversee and coordinate the founding, planning and construction of the parish's new church and office building. The first building fund drive committee was soon formed. The committee, co-chaired by George Panagioutou and Nicholas Karpouzie, along with committee members Nicholas Kaitis, William Apostolou and Gabriel Pantelides, enlisted the aid of the entire community in their fundraising efforts. Soon, many volunteers including members of the Philoptochos, PTA, and Junior and Senior GOYAs were engaged in door-to-door solicitation of monies for the building of the new church and office.

Funds collected in this way along with monies raised through other fund raising events, pledges, and donations totaled nearly thirty thousand dollars. This sum coupled with fifteen thousand dollars donated by the mother church of the Annunciation enabled the first building committee to proceed with planning the construction of the building.

The first building committee was chaired by Christ Loucas and was comprised of committee members George Sideropoulos, Peter Vailas, Euripedes Papachristou, George Drakos, Anthony Xintas and Nicholas Spanos.

Extraordinarily, three hierarchs were involved in the blessings associated with establishing St. Nicholas. Bishop Demetrios of Olymbos blessed the ground, Bishop Germanos of Konstantias blessed the opening of the doors,and on April 26, 1956, Archbishop Michael consecrated the church.

The beautiful house of worship dedicated on that clear Spring day to the glory of God and to the service of His people stands as a living monument to the visionary zeal, perseverance, faith and love of the many men and women who devoted themselves to its creation.

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