Saint Sava Serbian Orthodox Church (Merrillville, Indiana)

The Saint Sava Serbian Orthodox Church (Црква светог Саве) was originally established February 14, 1914, in Gary, Indiana, US, and is now located in Merrillville, Indiana, after the consecration of the new church building in 1991. It is the church-school congregation in which Saint Varnava, the first American-born Serbian to be proclaimed an Orthodox saint, was baptized and served as an altar boy.

It is recognized as being among "10 Beautiful Region Cathedrals and Churches" in Northwest Indiana and one of the Midwest's oldest parishes, founded by early Serbian settlers in the United States seeking to establish their local community with the building of a church to help maintain their traditional customs.

Through its religious and nationalistic endeavors, it earned the renowned name of "Srpska Gera". It is now among the churches in the Northwest Indiana region that enjoy the status of institutional landmarks.

Design model
The architectural design of the exterior central portion of the current St. Sava church building was modeled in the Byzantine architecture style after the Oplenac, a Serbian Orthodox Church located in Topola, Serbia. The central part of the church structure shares many similarities in its physical features and likeness to the Oplenac.

Gold Medal Award
Upon completion of construction of the main structure in 1990, the Illinois Indiana Masonry Council honored St. Sava Serbian Orthodox Church with the Gold Medal Award for Excellence in Masonry Design citing the work of Architect Radovan Pejovic and Mason Contractor Gacesa Masonry Construction.

Physical attributes
The nave, or center of the church, is 60 x 100 ft with a center cupola rising more than 90 ft high. The church can accommodate up to 500 people.

Early years (1912–1920)
The Saint Sava Serbian Orthodox Church-School Congregation began with a large population of Serbian people who settled in the Gary area and served an important role in maintaining the Serbian culture while also helping Serbian immigrants adapt to mainstream America.

In 1912, before any official church congregation was established, a group of Serbians in Gary founded the first Serbian School at 14th and Massachusetts Streets. The first teacher of the school was Paul Veljkov, who later became a priest and would be the second priest to serve the St. Sava Church-School Congregation after it officially formed in 1914.

The Serbian Orthodox Church-School Congregation of St. Sava was established February 15, 1914, and incorporated on April 16, 1914.

The first church building was consecrated on June 13, 1915, at 20th and Connecticut streets in Gary.

1920s
At the beginning of the 1920s, internal provincial divisiveness within the congregation was so great that it led to a division. A second parish, known as Holy Resurrection, was founded at 39th and Washington Streets in the Glen Park section of Gary. The parishes had reunified by the late 1930s. In 1937 the cornerstone was laid for the new church, which was consecrated November 24, 1938.

By the end of the 1950s the St. Sava Serbian Orthodox Church-School Congregation the largest Eastern Orthodox Church in Gary.

In the beginning of the 1960s, a portion of the membership separated itself from the congregation at St. Sava to form the Macedonian Orthodox Church and a religious and cultural center was established in Crown Point, Indiana.

In 1963, a schism at the highest levels of the Serbian Orthodox Church resulted in the defrocking of Bishop Dionisije and a division in the Serbian Orthodox diaspora. A bitter conflict ensued with attendant lawsuits in civil courts for nearly three decades. Locally, this schism also resulted in a portion of the membership separating from the St. Sava Church-School Congregation and forming the new congregation of St. Elijah, which established a church and cultural center in Crown Point.

Also in the early 1960s, the parish priest of St. Sava Church, Hieromonk Petar Bankerovic, later Bishop of Australia-New Zealand, was attacked and beaten outside the church, which left him with permanent physical impairments.

The second building of the congregation, dedicated in 1939, was destroyed by a fire in the late afternoon and early evening of February 16, 1978.

In the weeks following the fire a small hall was used as a chapel until the consecration of the new church building in 1991 in Merrillville, Indiana.

In 1982, the membership of the congregation approved a building program on Mississippi Street. for a new church whose construction began in 1985. and which was consecrated on May 18, 1991.