ST. PETKA SERBIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH
Nashville, TN
Background
Other Christian Churches have much in common with the Orthodox Church, in that they believe that God revealed Himself in Jesus Christ, as well as believe in the incarnation, crucifixion and resurrection of Christ.
The Orthodox communion is organized into several autocephalous churches, including Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, Serbia, Russia, Greece, Romania, etc. The Orthodox Church has also spread into a global religion towards Western Europe, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia (etc.)
As regards the Serbian Orthodox Church:
-Serbs were Christianized in 632 AD
-In the 9th and 10th centuries, Orthodoxy made great inroads into Eastern Europe, made possible by the work of the Byzantine saints Cyril and Methodius.
-Various Serbian principalities were united by St. Sava, who persuaded the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople to establish the Church in Serbia as an autocephalous body.
-Sava was consecrated as the first Serbian Orthodox Archbishop in 1219.
Serbs in the United States
First Wave:
-In the latter part of the 19th century and early 20th century, the first wave of ethnic Serbs began arriving primarily from areas occupied by the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Montenegro, and began founding churches and communities
-The Serbian Orthodox Diocese of the US and Canada was formed in 1927
Second Wave:
-This wave of ethnic Serbs occurred in the late 1940s, and consisted of over 50,000 families, most of whom came from refugee camps in Germany and Italy. They refused to return to their Yugoslav homeland, then under Communist rule.
Third Wave:
-The third wave of Serbian immigration transpired as a result of the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s. Hundreds of thousands of Serbs were displaced from their homeland, and countless numbers were “ethnically cleansed.” Most lost their homes and found themselves scattered throughout the world in places they may have never heard of.
St. Petka Nashville
So begins the history of St. Petka Nashville. May 2003 to be exact. Between 2003-2012, thanks to the generosity and compassion of their Orthodox Christian brethren, Nashville’s St. Petka Serbs celebrated church services in two of the city’s Greek Orthodox churches, Holy Trinity and St. John Chrysostom.
St. Petka purchased its current home, 1712 5th Avenue North, on December 17, 2012. The first service was Christmas Eve, January 6, 2013. Since the day they took occupancy, parishioners have given of themselves spiritually, materially and physically, to upgrade the church and halls which had fallen into a state of disrepair over the years. Much work is yet to be done.
Nashville’s St. Petka parishioners have made a place where they can gather to worship freely, to socialize and communicate in their native tongue, and enjoy their traditional food, customs and music. They are making a name for themselves in a place where they were not known, except perhaps through the sad stories on the evening news during the tragic wars of the 1990s. They are a huge asset to Nashville and to the Salemtown/Germantown communities. They are good neighbors and proud goodwill ambassadors. They invite the community to join with them in celebrating their good and blessed fortune.
All are always welcome.