APPLETON, WISC. – When the Church of St. Nicholas closed its doors earlier this year, the congregation merged with the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in Fond du Lac, but the parish’s legacy in the history of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America lives on through an act of generosity.
“St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church in Appleton donated $100,000 — much of its remaining assets from savings and the sale of its property— to the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox National Shrine in New York City,” according to USA Today, which added “The church, which had long struggled to keep its doors open, sought a way to keep its memory alive.”
Bishop Demetrios of the Metropolis of Chicago praised the generosity of the Appleton parish in a statement: “St. Nicholas in Wisconsin will live on as a part of St. Nicholas in New York.” The original St. Nicholas at the World Trade Center was the only church destroyed in the 9/11attacks.
“When St. Nicholas members made the difficult decision to officially close after five decades and merge with Holy Trinity in Fond du Lac, they did not want to be forgotten. So the small congregation donated $100,000 to create a digital video history of the parish to be placed at a shrine commemorating a New York City church, also called St. Nicholas, destroyed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
“Over the years as our families grow, our children go away to school and they don’t come back,” said Holy Trinity Parish Council President Dena Meyst, who continued, “We’ve sort of been in a holding pattern in terms of getting new members.”
Some St. Nicholas Church members in Appleton began driving to Fond du Lac in the last few years as membership began to dwindle.
Mark Schedler and his family live in Appleton but started coming to services in Fond du Lac because “the priest situation was in doubt. This was more stable,” he said.
Fond du Lac’s Greek Orthodox Church, which has around 90 members, draws parishioners from Oshkosh, Neenah, Beaver Dam and Campbellsport. And now Appleton.
On the third Sunday of Lent, the Journal Sentinel visited the Fond du Lac Church.
“It’s always a sad moment to see a church close,” Rev. Ted Trifon who served at SS Constantine and Helen Church in Wauwatosa for 29 years, said after the service. “We do not know why things happen. But sometimes God closes one door and opens another.”