About Us...

It was the coming together of two small groups that was the birth of St. Nicholas Church. Each had established missions, one in the St. Petersburg area in 1976, under the guidance of the Rev. Fr. John Hamatie of St. George's Church in Orlando, and the other in Clearwater in 1982, with the late Rev. Fr. Michael Courey as the guiding force. The two groups banded together in 1983 with Father Michael, who was affectionately known as the "slum priest" during his work with the people of the slums in Cleveland, assigned as their pastor.

The Pinellas Park church has come a long way since its humble beginnings in 1976. Jerusalem born Najib Jacob, now a Sub-Deacon, yearned for a faith community that would serve Middle Easterners like himself. For a time the fledgling congregation held services in his house and the church relied on a priest who traveled from Orlando and on a local retired priest, the Rev. Michael Courey.

After years of meeting in borrowed and rented facilities, the congregation eventually bought land in Pinellas Park. It acquired a building when a bank donated its office to the church. The only cost to St. Nicholas was moving the office to church property and constructing an addition. The first liturgy was celebrated there on June 9, 1991. Six years later, following another set of fortuitous circumstances, the church was able to buy its parish hall at auction from Pinellas County for $110. Church members donated the more than $50,000 needed to move the building to its new home.

In January, 1998, St. Nicholas was elevated from a mission to a church. On hand for the dedication was Right Rev. Bishop Antoun Khoury. As auxiliary bishop he was representing the Most Rev. Metropolitan Philip Saliba, Primate of the Archdiocese.

January 30, 1999, was the beginning of a new era for St. Nicholas Church when two faithful members of the church surprised the congregation by forgiving the balance of the land mortgage.

The spring of 2001 was an exciting year for our church. In April we purchased 5 residential lots located next to our current church and annex. Our plans are to build a new church and social hall. Meetings have taken place with a monk who is an architect in helping us to plan for our future building. Funds for the purchase of land were generated in February when His Grace Bishop Antoun paid his annual visit to our parish.

Today St. Nicholas is a growing church of about 65 families of various ethnic backgrounds. In addition, St. Nicholas has many members who are former members of Roman Catholic and Protestant faiths. As always, visitors are welcome and parishioners are encouraged to bring their Orthodox and non-Orthodox friends to attend the liturgy.