OUR CLERGY

Father Petropoulakos was born in Lowell, MA and entered Hellenic College/Holy Cross School

of Theology in 1967 in order to fulfill his calling to become an Orthodox priest.  

Father Nick, as he is known to his parishioners, was ordained to the Holy Diaconate in 1973 at

Holy Cross Chapel on the campus of our seminary by His Eminence, Metropolitan Iakovos of

Chicago and was assigned as assistant to the Pastor of Annunication Church in Woburn, MA.

 On June 1, 1974, he was ordained to the Holy Priesthood at his home Parish, Holy Trinity in

Lowell, MA, again by His Eminence, Metropolitan Iakovos.  He graduated with Honors from

Holy Cross the next day with an M.Div degree, specializing in Biblical Theology.

 His first Parish assignment was at SS. Constantine & Helen Cathedral in Merrillville, IN.  He

served as Associate Pastor, Director of Youth Ministries, Sunday School and Alter Servers.  He

was also active in the building and decoration programs for the new 900-seat Cathedral.

 After two years, Father Nick was called to his first Pastorate, Assumption Church, in Danbury,

CT.  During his Pastorate, he led the effort to re-build the fire-damaged church and to restart

various Parish Ministries.

 He returned to Indiana in 1978 to become the Pastor of St. Andrew Church in South Bend.  He

was again involved in a building program that included the multi-purpose Community Center

and the Neo-Byzantine-style Church building.  During his years in South Bend, Father Nick

attended the University of Notre Dame, receiving a M.A. in Biblical Theology in 1987. 

In July of that year he returned to Assumption Church, Woburn, MA as Pastor.  While there, he

served the Metropolis of Boston as a member of the Metropolis Stewardship Committee and

taught the Marriage Preparation Seminars.  At the same time he served on the National

Stewardship Committee of the Holy Archdiocese.

Father Nick accepted the Pastorate of Holy Trinity – St. Nicholas in August of 1996.  He has

been very active in all of the Education Ministries: Daily Messages on Parish Facebook page;

Zoom Bible Study; the monthly Question and Answer Sunday; and lessons to Youth Ministries. 

He instituted the Weekly and Monthly Bulletins, and has been a leading participant in the

creation of the Parish Website.  He has guided the Youth Ministries (GOYA, Jr. GOYA and JOY)

and the Education Ministries  (Church and Greek School).  The Junior Hellenic Dancers were

created at Father Nick’s suggestion as well as the Dance Ministry for 3-6 year olds.  The Hellenic

dancers also have participated in the District’s PARATHOSI (Dance Exhibition and

Competition).

 Father Nick has served the Holy Archdiocese and the Direct Archdiocesan District as a member

of the Spiritual Court of 1st Instance and the Court overseeing Ecclesiastical Dissolutions.

In his efforts to serve the needs of the parishioners, Father Nick created the ELEOS Ministry

(healing and support for cancer and other illnesses), a monthly anointing service for healing and

THARROS (ministry to separated and divorced Orthodox Christians). 

Under Father Nick’s guidance the building program for the Community Center was completed.

The Church building was renovated and decorated with beautiful iconography in preparation for

the Holy Consecration which took place on June 3, 2013.  Celebrant of the Consecration was His

Eminence, Archbishop Demetrios of America.

Father guided the deliberations leading to the establishment of the Hellenic Classical Charter

School Staten Island. The School occupies our Community Center and has built a modern

classroom building to house the needs of the School. When the School reaches full capacity there

will be an enrollment of 750 students. Being a Classical School, all children study the Greek

language.

Father Nick and Presvytera Patricia have two children and four grandchildren.