Saratoga News
News
Serbian church takes plan for construction to the city
By Jason Sweeney
The St. Archangel Michael Serbian Orthodox Church has high hopes for its new church building on Allendale Avenue. After 45 years in Saratoga without a formal worship center, the church has completed the design of its long-awaited new facility.The Saratoga Planning Commission will hold a study session on June 14 to begin hearings on the project. Church officials hope to get a conditional use permit approved this summer.
"If everything falls into place, we could be in our new church in early 2008," said John Ivancovich. "It's going to be quite a beautiful addition to our city."
Ivancovich's grandparents immigrated to the Santa Clara Valley from Herzegovina, part of present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina. Ivancovich is president of the church's board of directors.
The church and its architect have held open forums to communicate the proposed design, and to address and attempt to accommodate concerns of neighbors. Some neighbors have expressed concerns with the size, location and height of the design and the resulting traffic. The architect made modifications to the design in response to concerns, while attempting to maintain functional and design integrity.
The church is on a 3.5-acre parcel that contains a Sunday school building that is being used as a temporary chapel, a parish home, a playground and a social hall. The property was purchased by a former parishioner and donated to the church in 1961. Church services have been held in the temporary chapel, but for bigger events such as weddings and Easter, services are held outside on the patio or in the social hall.
The new design calls for a 4,000-square-foot church that seats 200 people. The design incorporates tenets of the Byzantine style of architecture.
Ivancovich said a longstanding schism in the Serbian Orthodox Church was resolved about 10 years ago. Resolution of the schism is a factor in why the St. Archangel Michael Serbian Orthodox Church is seeking to build a new church facility, he explained. The schism developed in the Serbian Orthodox Church in the aftermath of World War II. Ivancovich said Serbs suffered terribly during the Nazi occupation of the Balkans. Then, after the war when Yugoslavia became communist, many Serbians fled to the United States to escape communist persecution.
"Communism was a horrible experience for the church. The communists tried to wipe out Christianity, particularly Orthodox Christianity because it was based mostly in countries that were communist," Ivancovich said. "But Orthodox Christians held on to their faith and they prevailed. People are now returning to the religion of their ancestors in droves."
With the schism resolved, the St. Archangel Michael Serbian Orthodox Church merged with a Serbian Orthodox church based in Cupertino. "Now all of our resources and our members are joined together once again," Ivancovich said.
"We are excited to present our new church design to the community of Saratoga," parish priest Slobodan Jovic said in a press statement. "We have worked very hard to design our new church to integrate into the fabric of our neighborhood on Allendale Avenue, and we look forward to continuing to partner with our neighbors, as we begin meetings and discussions with the planning commission and city council in the city of Saratoga. It is of vital importance to our parishioners that we continue to be accepted by our surrounding community as the Christ-centered church that we are."
Ivancovich said parishioners of his church are predominantly of Serbian descent but that the parish welcomes anyone. "We're not limited to people who are of Serbian descent. Anyone who is interested in Orthodox Christianity should come by and take a look. They are welcome to come by and see what we do."
