History

Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church of Wyckoff, New Jersey started with a dream and 62 families. Its origins trace to a small group of members of Saint Athanasios Church in Paterson, New Jersey, who envisioned a Greek Orthodox community closer to their homes in the neighborhoods of Northwest Bergen and Northeast Passaic counties. After many meetings, the Bergen Greek Orthodox Community, Inc. was formally established in November 1969, with the clear objective of purchasing land and building a church. A 5¼-acre tract near Route 208 in Wyckoff was secured in April 1970.

With land in hand but no building yet, the community obtained permission from the Wyckoff Board of Education to hold religious services in the Coolidge School gymnasium, with services during school recesses held at Grace Methodist Church. The Diocese of New Jersey required a membership of 100 families before the Divine Liturgy could be celebrated. The founding members rose to the challenge through home and business visitations, reaching the goal by late October 1970. That same year the community was assigned its first resident priest.

One of the most memorable expressions of the community's early devotion came in the spring of 1972, when parishioners built a portable icon screen system containing traditional icons that transformed the Coolidge gymnasium into a proper church atmosphere each Sunday. Dedicated parishioners with station wagons hauled the sections to and from storage week after week, setting up and dismantling the icon screen for every service until a permanent building was ready.

Groundbreaking took place on June 4, 1971, and the formal cornerstone-laying ceremony followed in December 1972. The multi-purpose building, housing the church, fellowship hall, and classrooms, opened on April 13, 1973. Friends of the parish's founding priest, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Weinstein, donated $40,000 toward the building, and in recognition the classroom wing was named the Saint Photios Wing. In honor of the founding priest's pioneering service, the community unanimously voted to name the church Saint Nicholas.

Continued growth over the following decade created the need for a formal church building. The General Assembly voted to begin construction in March 1983, groundbreaking was held on March 18, 1984, and the Thyranoixia, or Door Opening service, took place on November 10, 1985. Over the years that followed, the sanctuary was enriched with iconography, stained glass windows, and extensive mosaics. A Chapel dedicated to the Theotokos was completed in 1993, and the Narthex mosaics were finished in 1998, culminating in the formal Consecration of Saint Nicholas Church on October 11, 1998. In 2003 the parish expanded further, adding a gymnasium, new classrooms, larger offices, and a larger kitchen to serve its growing membership. A fellowship hall renovation funded by AHEPA Ramapo Chapter 453 was completed in 2014, followed by a full kitchen renovation completed in December 2018.

From 62 founding families to more than 425 families today, Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church stands at 467 Grand View Avenue in Wyckoff as a flourishing community of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of New Jersey, united by faith, love of their church, and the traditions of their Hellenic heritage.