About Us:

St Nicholas parish was organized in 1901 by Galician immigrants. In 1906 they petitioned St Tikhon, then Archbishop in North America, to be received into Orthodox Christianity. St Alexander Hotovitzky, at that time a priest in New York, traveled to Salem to accept the parish and offer additional guidance.

The present church building, which was completed in 1908, was restored recently through the generosity of the parishioners. The parish was also fortunate to receive assistance in the restoration project through a grant provided by the Massachusetts Historical Commission.

In 2001, the parish celebrated the 100th anniversary of St. Nicholas Church. Metropolitan Theodosius presided at the two-day celebration, which culminated in the celebration of the Hierarchical Divine Liturgy. Among those concelebrating were Protopresbyter Robert S Kondratick, OCA Chancellor; Fr Vasily Gilbert, Rector; Fr Vitaly Voshchullo, Retired pastor of the parish; and Fr Michael Westerberg, Chancellor of the Diocese of New England.

The Orthodox Churches of Greece and Russia are sister churches.  What they teach and what they proclaim in worship are the same.  The languages in which they worship are of course different, and each church has its own spiritual leader (leading bishop), but otherwise each Church is committed to the same set of truths about the Holy Trinity, the Church, and the hope for human kind through the crucified, raised, and glorified Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ.

But the family of Orthodox Churches is BIG  —  there are more than just these two sisters!  The Church from its founding in Jerusalem has been a missionary Church, and until the 20th century a total of fourteen such sister churches were founded by Orthodox missionaries through the centuries.  Perhaps you have also heard of the Churches of Antioch, Albania, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria … just to name a few members of the Eastern Orthodox communion.

Orthodoxy first came to North America in 1794 through the efforts of holy missionaries sent by the Russian Orthodox Church to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ to those who lived in Alaska.  And in 1970, the Church of Russia granted independence to its missionary parishes here in America.  And so in 1970, a fifteenth sister was added to the world-wide family of Orthodox Churches, and this new sister Church was named “The Orthodox Church in America.”