St. Nicholas Orthodox Church (1947)

Orthodox Church in America, Bulgarian Diocese · organized 1947 · 3535 Crescent Avenue · active, November 2026

Founding: St. Nicholas is the Macedonian parish. At the end of the Second World War the Macedonian Patriotic Organization made a concerted effort to establish an Orthodox church in Fort Wayne; the Orthodox Church in America's parish directory dates the founding to 1947. Services were held first in the parish's temple on Warsaw Street, where for six years Archimandrite Kyrill (Yonchev) served the Divine Liturgy on alternating Sundays. The first board of trustees is named in the diocesan history: Vasil K. Litchin, Nichola Gouloff, Mike Kozma, Argire and Dimitry Lebamoff, Argire Kiproff, Vasil Eshcoff, Thomas Lazoff, and Lazar Laycoff. In 1956 the trustees secured the parish's first full-time rector, Father George Nedelkoff, a young immigrant priest from Bulgaria, who served the next thirty-seven years and spent them gathering the city's Macedonian population into the parish.

Building line: About 1980 the parish, outgrowing Warsaw Street, began planning and raising funds for a new temple at 3535 Crescent Avenue, with a large fellowship hall. The cornerstone was laid on 12 September 1983, and Bishop Kyrill celebrated the first Divine Liturgy in the new church on 1 November 1983.

Present state: Active, all services in English. Father Nedelkoff retired in December 1992; Father Thomas Ledford followed in June 1993 and Father David Meinzen in August 2000. The Bulgarian Diocese's directory today lists the Rev. Joshua Coolman as the parish's priest.

Sources:

1. Bulgarian Diocese, Orthodox Church in America, parish page for St. Nicholas, Fort Wayne (the founding, the trustees, Nedelkoff, the Crescent Avenue building), bdoca.org.
2. Orthodox Church in America parish directory listings (founded 1947).
3. St. Nicholas parish newsletters, 2017–2018 (3535 Crescent Ave.; present life).