St. Nikola Macedonian Orthodox Church, Preston

The St. Nikola Macedonian Orthodox Church (Македонска Православна Црква "Свети Никола", Makedonska Pravoslavna Crkva "Sveti Nikola") is the Macedonian Orthodox church located in Preston, a suburb of northern Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. First consecrated on the 5th of February 1978, after a fire, the church was rebuilt and reconsecrated in 1996. Attendance by parishioners averages at some 200 per liturgy.

History


The Community of St.Nikola, a church organisation was founded (1974) in Preston by the Macedonian community. The St. Nikola community had arisen from the Cyril and Metodius Cultural Association. The initiative committee of the organisation was composed of Gorgi Pisevski, its president, along with Mile Panov, Gorgi Petro and Nikola Vasilevski. The consecration of St. Nikola church took place during 1978 by Archbishop Dositej and the Metropolitan Kiril. The new church was the renovated former Salvation Army Citadel converted to a traditional style church. (Whittlesea Post, 1 March 1978 )

St. Nikola was a wooden building, and a fire (February 1995) left it in ruins. The Arson Squad of Victoria Police considered the fire suspicious and the Macedonian community felt despondent by the event. Tensions existed at the time between the local Macedonian and Greek communities, and within that context the fire was viewed to have been a deliberate act. Some people in the St. Nikola Church Committee attributed responsibility for the fire toward the Greek lobby.

In early 2018, amid efforts by the Republic of Macedonia and Greece to resolve the Macedonia naming dispute, the St. Nikola church was vandalised with racist and violent graffiti. The incident was reported by the Macedonian community to Victoria police and the local council removed the graffiti.

The Macedonian community celebrated the fortieth anniversary of the church's founding in late 2018.