St. Nectarios looks to raise funds for necessary church repairs

The venerable St. Nectarios Greek Orthodox Church is in need of some TLC, and parishioners are hard at work trying to raise the necessary money to repair the church’s walls, roof and stained glass windows.

The ceiling of the church, built in 1916, is stained because of the leaking roof, walls are weathered , and the glorious windows are damaged. Parts of the windows’ protective layer are chipped or missing. In addition, the exterior of the church, located at 340 67th Street, has peeling walls.

Parishioner Kathy Post said the congregation’s first priority is to waterproof the church’s two walls on the outside and then repaint the interior walls. Next would be to repair the leaking roof and then fix the windows. For this reason, parishioners, led by Post, have been holding flea markets on Saturdays, weather permitted, at the front of the church.

“It’s going to take some time but we have high hopes,” Post said. “And I know it can be done.”

The church received a quote of $350,000 for repairing the stained glass windows, according to Post. There are six large windows and two smaller ones. The estimated cost for each window is $46,000, although some might cost less if they’re more intact. In addition, the smaller windows will cost $5,000 to $6,000 less than the bigger ones.

It would take about two to three months to do each window. The process for each window requires removing it, repairing it at a studio, and then reinstalling it at the church.

“It’s a lot of money and we don’t think we can do it anytime soon because we have to do the work on the outside walls and the roof,” Post said.

So far the church has raised $2,200 from its flea markets, selling items donated by parishioners and residents who have learned of the need.

“The people in the community have been generous and donating whatever they don’t want,”  Post said.

The flea markets are likely on hold now, since the weather has turned colder, but Post said that it was possible that sales might take place if the weather is warm enough. “Now that the winter’s coming, we can’t really do anything since we don’t have space indoors,” she noted. “We’re in a little bit of a hold for a while and we’ll start again in the spring.”

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