The History of St. Sava Church in Houston

Prior to 1965, Serbian Orthodox faithful in the Houston area could attend services at Sts. Constantine and Helen Serbian Orthodox Church in Galveston.  By 1968, Rev. Susnjar had established a mission at his home in Houston and served occasional liturgies in a room there.  In June of 1979, His Grace Bishop Firmilian directed Rev. Pazalos and Rev. Barrow to jointly work with Rev. Susnjar and St. Sava's mission of Houston to serve spiritual and liturgical needs of Serbian Orthodox faithful in the Houston area.  In October of 1979, the St. Sava mission in Houston petitioned Bishop Firmilian for permission to apply for corporate status.  A certificate of incorporation of St. Sava Serbian Orthodox Church of Houston, Texas was granted on February 19, 1980.

          On March 23, 1980, the first St. Sava mission Church Executive Board was elected with Mr. Harley Kuriger, President; Dr. David Trkulja, Vice-President; Mr. Grant Grueneich, Treasurer and Mrs. Milka Youngman as Member-at-Large.  Shortly thereafter, Rev. Susnjar was appointed administrator by Bishop Firmilian and services were then held in his home.  Due to his illness and other difficulties, Rev. Susnjar resigned in 1986 as administrator of the Houston Serbian Orthodox mission.

In early 1987, Rev. Dragan Veleusic arrived in Galveston and was also ap­pointed administrator over our mis­sionary parish in Houston, traveling every other Sunday to Hous­ton to celebrate the Divine Liturgy.  Since we did not have our own facilities, various places were used to celebrate the Divine Liturgy.  At the same time interest for our own Church-School Congregation was growing among us.  In October 1987, we gathered together and organized the Church-School Congregation of St. Sava in Hous­ton.

          In November of 1987, we were assigned Rev. Dane Popovic, who was greeted by the newly elected first Church­-School Congregation Executive Board: Dusan Cekarmis, President; Dr. David Trkulja, Vice-President; Joseph Galagaza, Secretary; Ljiljana Malenica, Treasurer/Financial Secretary; and Harley Kuriger and Nada Grueneich, Members-at-Large.  Services at that time were mostly held at the library of the Greek Orthodox Cathedral.  There, we stayed until we made our last move to our own land at 16900 Cypress-Rosehill Rd.  We purchased our property on September 28, 1988. Great joy was felt among Houston Serbs with this event.  Immediately after the purchase, we be­gan working on the cleaning and prepa­ration of our land.  Our first Divine Liturgy was celebrated on October 7, 1988 under the open sky and the crowns of the oak threes. Shortly after our first Liturgy, the land was blessed on October 16, 1988, and the ground blessing for the first Church building was celebrated.  With God's blessing and man's willingness, our first Church building was erected.  The work was mostly completed by December of 1990.  Our chapel-hall was blessed and consecrated by His Grace Bishop Mitrofan on January 27, 1991, our Church Slava of St. Sava.  On that great day, the Church-School Congregation was awarded a “Gramata” by Bishop Mitrofan for its good work, erecting both a material as well as a spiritual church.  On that same day,  Fr. Dane was elevated to the rank of Protonamesnik by Bishop Mitrofan for his contributions and work.

On October 16, 1993, our small Church-School Congregation celebrated its 5th anniversary with His Eminence Metropolitan Christopher attending. A few months later, Very Rev. Dane Popovic was reassigned to the St. Sava Serbian Orthodox Church in Seattle, Washington and served his last Divine Liturgy as Houston parish priest on March 13, 1994.

    On April 1, 1994, we were assigned our young priest, Rev. Fr. Dejan Tiosavljevic.  Fr. Dejan served his first Sunday Divine Liturgy on April 10th.  With Father Dejan as parish priest and the Church Executive Board: Mark Galagaza, President; Branko Puskac, Vice-President; Ilija Andjelich, Treasurer; Natalie Arezina, Financial Secretary; and Members-at-Large: Victoria Stojanovic, Rade Djokic and Milan Nedic, our Church School Congregation continued to grow and prosper.  During the summer of 1994, the drainage of our church property was improved. At the same time, the parking lot was built, the road was widened and a new coat of gravel was put on.  Also, the tradition of our own summer camp was continued with Fr. Dejan.  Icons of all major feast days were purchased and donated by members and parishioners of St. Sava Church.  Additionally, a large shed was built which now serves multiple purposes.

       In 1994, as in 1992, divisions occurred within our membership. Metropolitan Christopher intervened by appointing a Board of Trustees. The trustees and Fr. Dejan worked very hard on preserving the church and normalizing the situation.  With God’s help and hard work of faithful members and parishioners, we were able to establish a normal parish life.  In November of 1995, we held our regular Annual Assembly and a new regular board was elected for the year 1996.

          In February of 1996, we held a Special Assembly to make plans on how to pay off the mortgage on the church land, which was due in 1998.  Since we were making payments to Mr. Vickers directly, from whom we purchased our land, it was necessary to find a bank that will refinance our mortgage so that we could have a lower interest and clear title.  After long research, Fr. Dejan located a bank that was willing to help us.  On July 18, 1996, all the paper work was completed and our first mortgage payment was made to Klein bank.  Through the donations from our members, parishioners, bingo profits, sister churches, organizations and individuals, our small congregation managed to collect and pay off the mortgage of over $80,000 in two years. 

By August 18, 1998, the final payment was made and the land now belongs to St. Sava Church.  Finally our dream came true, Serbian faithful have their own Church land which no one can take away from them!

In addition to this great achievement of our small congregation, we were able to accomplish the following projects: in 1995, we dug our first water well which is serving all needs of our community; in 1997, we constructed a nice-size playground with a large sandbox for our children.  It is important to notice that since February of 1998, our Church-School Congregation withdrew from playing bingo at the VFW hall.  This created a very hard financial burden.  However, through the dedication, hard work and donations from our members and parishioners this situation was resolved and our Church-School Congregation continued to prosper and grow. 

On October 3 and 4, 1998, our Church celebrated its 10th anniversary with His Eminence Metropolitan Christopher attending.  On that great day, the Church-School Congregation was awarded a “Gramata” by Metropolitan Christopher for its good work, erecting both a material and spiritual church.  On the same day, Fr. Dejan was granted the right to bear the red belt and was awarded a “Gramata” for his dedication, contributions and work for the prosperity of St. Sava Church.  It was truly a special and memorable day in the life of our Church.  For this 10th anniversary celebration, Fr. Dejan and Popadija Belinda prepared a rich cultural program, featuring music, poems and folklore dancing by our children.  Also, for this occasion, a commemorative book was printed which included the history of our Church as well as many well-wishes from sister churches, members and parishioners.  Our Metropolitan Christopher expressed great satisfaction and joy with everything he experienced at our 10th anniversary celebration.

    Refreshed by this successful celebration, our members and parishioners continued to work together with their priest for the betterment of our Church-School Congregation.  During the month of October, a regular Assembly was held and a new Church Board was elected: David Pluchinsky, President; Gordon Heckner, Vice-President; John Zoeller, Secretary; Frank Mezmar, Treasurer; Mileva Heckner, Financial Secretary; and D. Hutson, Milenko Cucic and Mia Hamilton, Members-at-Large. 

    In January of 1999, we were blessed to have His Eminence Metropolitan Christopher attend our church slava celebration: St. Sava.  Also, with great effort and diligence of Fr. Dejan, a very nice group of faithful people was gathered in Dallas.  Fr. Dejan traveled to regularly serve the Divine Liturgy for our Serbian people from Dallas and Fort Worth.  On January 30, 1999, a St. Sava celebration was organized with His Eminence Metropolitan Christopher attending.  The celebration was attended by over 150 people and at that time signatures of over 40 families were collected to establish a mission parish for Dallas-Fort Worth.  Our Metropolitan Christopher was so pleased with the accomplishments in Dallas that he issued his Episcopal “Gramata,” establishing a mission parish dedicated to the Three Holy Hierarchs for Dallas-Fort Worth in May, 1999.

However, back in our homeland, the year 1999 was very tragic for our Serbian people. On March 24, 1999, the NATO alliance started bombing Yugoslavia.  The Serbian community in Houston was shocked.  Lead by their parish priest, Houston Serbs organized demonstrations against this unjust aggression.  Radio and television stations came to interview our people.  A prayer meeting was even organized in downtown on April 2, 1999, and all Orthodox churches were invited to participate.  The end of June, our Church commemorated Vidovdan with the media present.  This commemoration also served as a protest meeting against the demonization of our Serbian people.

          Despite this hard situation, our Church community continued to grow.  At a Special Assembly, our congregation decided to accept the proposed master plan for our church property and to make plans for the building of our new parish home.  The master plan, drawn by architect, Boro Ujic, was later also approved by our diocese.  On November 21, 1999, we held our regular Annual Assembly at which we elected a new Church Board and decided to soon start with the building of the parish home.  Our Church Board continued to work toward this goal and successfully started collecting donations for this purpose.

          A few months later, the plans and location for the new parish home were approved at a Special Assembly and later ratified by Metropolitan Christopher.  The ground braking ceremony for our parish home took place at our St. George celebration in May of 2000.  Shortly after the work on our new parish home began, the Church Board together with Fr. Dejan actively participated in all phases of the construction. The construction of our new parish home was done by our parishioner, Milan Nedic. Work on the parish home progressed fast so that it was consecrated by our Metropolitan Christopher on October 15, 2000.  During the celebration, our Metropolitan commended our Church-School Congregation for work well done.

          In November of 2000, our regular Church Assembly was held and a new Church Board was elected. The new board continued to work diligently on paying off the parish home mortgage and the prosperity of our Church.  Church life continued to prosper: on one side of the church property a large soccer field was built for both children and adults.  Games are played Sundays following the Divine Liturgy.  The number of parishioners is growing and so is the attendance during the Church Services.

          Also, our mission parish in Dallas-Forth worth continued to grow through efforts of Fr. Dejan and faithful people.  The time came for this parish to have its own parish priest.  In October of 2001, Metropolitan Christopher appointed V. Rev. Fr. Milan Zbiljic as temporary parish priest and Fr. Dejan was relieved of his duties as administrator.  In recognition for his work in establishing the mission parish in Dallas, Executive Board President, Rajko Simic, presented Fr. Dejan a plaque of appreciation, in the presence of our Dean V. Rev. Fr. Petar Milosevic and V. Rev. Fr. Milan Zbiljic.

    In November of 2001, our newly elected Board worked on collecting funds for the purpose of buying new, hand-painted icons for our iconostasis.  Also, in March of 2002, our church organized its first soccer tournament.  The tournament was well attended by teams from Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin and Houston.  The Tournament lasted for two days and was so successful that all participants expressed the wish to continue with this tradition annually.

    In November of 2002, our current Church Board was elected: John Zoeller, President; Aleksandar Milosavljevic, Vice-President; Olga Trammel, Treasurer/Financial Secretary; Mia Hamilton, Assistant Secretary; Irena Milosavljevic, Kent Trammel and Aleksandar Heckner, Members-at-Large.  We continue to work toward paying off the mortgage on our parish home. The payments are made regularly and our current mortgage balance is around $70.000.  Sadly for us, our Church Board President, John Zoeller, had to leave to Iraq as a reservist.  Before his departure, our Church organized a farewell luncheon, and our parish priest, Fr. Dejan, conducted a prayer service for a safe trip and his safe return.  We are all praying for John’s health and safe return from Iraq.  In his absence our Vice-President, Aleksandar Milosavljevic, is serving as Acting President.

    We are also very excited that, through efforts of Fr. Dejan, Zoran Budimlic, Branko Strbac and Popadija Belinda have committed to teach our children folklore dancing.  Sign up for folklore classes was very successful and classes are held every Friday night.  We have even been able to purchase original, hand-made folklore costumes for our teenage and smaller children groups. Our young dancers are very happy and excited and are practicing hard to get ready for their first performance: our festive 15th anniversary banquet.

    Furthermore, in time for our Vidovdan commemoration in June, we have received our hand painted icons for our iconostasis.  Our new icons beautifully adorn our Church and make every Church Service a more spiritual experience.  Through the efforts and work of our members, parishioners and our parish priest, our St. Sava church is growing more beautiful every day, and it is only a matter of time when our new Church building and parish hall will be erected as we are continuing on the path of St. Sava’s testament.

    Our Church-School Congregation began with only a few members but the number of members and parishioners has grown slowly but steadily over the years.  And although our Church Services are well attended, we hope to further improve attendance.  Work is being done to spread our Holy Orthodox Faith among the people and among our children in church school.  Here, we would like to take this opportunity to thank all who volunteered their time past and present serving as officers, committee members, church school teachers, and church choir members. 

    At this time, we would further like to express our gratitude to our Metropolitanate, which has helped us spiritually and financially when help was needed.  Additionally, we express our gratitude to all Churches, organizations and individuals who have helped us.  We hope that we will never forget that spiritual power and support from the Serbian Orthodox Church have helped Serbs survive throughout the centuries and have helped sustain the Serbian people through both their sufferings and triumphs.  Again, the time has come for the Serbian people to face the truth and discover, yet again, that the Serbian Orthodox Church is the only place they can always turn to for consolation, hope, help and support.  It is for this reason that we appeal to all Serbs and friends of the Serbian Orthodox faith in Houston and elsewhere to join us.