St. Nicholas Melkite Greek Catholic Church
5715 Lake Ida Road, Delray Beach, FL 33484 | (561) 499- 3161
About us
St. Nicholas Greek-Melkite Catholic Mission was founded in 1992 by Bishop Nicholas Samra to serve the seasonal Melkite community ofPalm Beach County, Florida. From its humble beginnings in the living room of the Agamie Family, the church has grown to serve over 300 families year-round. By word of mouth that a Melkite Liturgy is being celebrated in Palm Beach County, the Mission quickly grew beyond the capacity of a living room and moved to Emmanuel Catholic Church in 1994. TheMission has made significant progress over the past 16 years despite not having its own facilities and full-time priest.
St. Nicholas’ move to a larger facility proved critical due to the desire of the community to gather after the Liturgy and host social events. These events held after mass on a Sunday evening attract an average of 180 parishioners on a regular basis. It is this sense of community that inspired the St. Nicholas Mission to grow into a Church and invite more people to celebrate the Melkite Liturgy.
The community has remained committed to celebrating the Liturgy every Sunday evening and enjoys a wide range of spiritual and social events including its annual gala. Furthermore, having had the opportunity to witness the success of St. Jude Melkite Church in Miami and its ability to attract parishioners beyond the Melkite heritage, St. Nicholas is confident a similar following will develop in the fast growing Palm Beach County.
In 2003, St. Nicholas Mission established a Parish Council to make directional decisions for the future of the community. This group has been charged with the goal of building a permanent home for the Church and establishing the foundation for the future of the Melkite Catholic religion in Palm Beach County.
The establishment of a Melkite Catholic Church in Delray Beach will allow the St. Nicholas community to achieve its goal as a religious entity to serve its children, youth, adults and senior parishioners by attending not only to their spiritual needs, but also to their social and educational needs.
OUR DIOCESE
We are directly related to and our Bishops of the Diocese of Newton to the Holy Synod of Antioch of the Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarchate and the National Conference of Catholic Bishops. The See of Antioch and The See of Rome are in communion with each other.
Our Patriarch is His Beatitude, Gregory III, Patriarch of Antioch and
All the East, of Alexandria and Jerusalem. The Patriarchate is today headquartered in Damascus, Syria.
Our fourth Eparch and fifth Bishop here in America, Archbishop Cyril Salim Bustros, resides presently in Roslindale, Massachusetts.
Two other retired Melkite hierarchs also reside in the U.S.: Bishop John Elya, Eparch Emeritus of Newton and Bishop Nicholas Samra, Titular Bishop of Gerasa.
In the United States, there are a Seminary, a Cathedral, the Mother Church of our Diocese, 36 Melkite Parishes, 6 Missions, 2 Communities, 58 Priests, Patriarchal and Eparchial, in active ministry, 7 retired Priests, 32 Deacons and several bi-ritual clergy who also assist around the nation where needed.
Our Eparchy (Diocese) covers the entire country. It consists of 5 Regions: New England, Mid Atlantic, Southern, Mid West and Western. Each is under the direction of a Priest called a "Protopresbyter".
Our Diocesan website is located at:
http://www.melkite.org/