With more than 200 parishioners and members of the Parish Council in attendance, His Eminence Metropolitan Evangelos presided over a Church Blessing Ceremony at Ss. Nicholas, Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church in Roseland on Sunday morning.

The ceremony, which included a Blessing of the Doors and Orthros, a morning prayer service, was followed by worshipers entering the new church for the first time. Inside, they listened to the liturgy and lit prayer candles.

The opening of the church marks the final step in the unification of Saint Nicholas of Newark, the oldest Greek Orthodox congregation in New Jersey, and Ss. Constantine and Helen of Orange. The churches merged in 2005 when both were faced with diminishing attendance. The church complex in Roseland was created to serve parishioners who moved out of cities and into suburbs in Essex, Morris and Passaic counties.

His Eminence Metropolitan Evangelos is the Spiritual Leader of the Greek Orthodox Church for New Jersey, Greater Philadelphia, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia. He urged parishioners Sunday to support the church both in prayer and monetarily.

Metropolitan Evangelos also stressed the significance of the church to the individuals and families it serves, particularly the children.