St. Athanasius Orthodox Church closes on new location in Nicholasville

Here is a link from the Jessamine Journal

about our parish’s closing on the Orchard property. These are exciting days!

This closing and the building program we are currently gearing up for are the product of several years of work.  In 2006, our parish completed the purchase of 17 acres in eastern Jessamine County, near the Chrisman Mill Winery.  We had hoped that this location would be good for a parish church.  We appreciated (and still appreciate) the stunning beauty of that part of the county.  Unfortunately, another connector location was chosen.  At the same time, our parish dug even deeper roots here in Nicholasville itself and we came to realize we belonged in a central place in town.

We began actively to look at other properties in early 2011. During the next year Father Justin and our realtor, Pete Sutherland, toured and visited over 60 different properties. About 20 of these were referred to the parish council for its consideration. Two of those properties were ultimately submitted to the whole parish for a vote: the 516 N. Main Property (“The Turning Point”) as a medium-term property; and the O’Hare/KY 169 property as a long-term possibility. The parish approved both of these properties, each of which captured part of the vision described above, but each deal encountered problems, which we came to view as the will of God.

Right after Pascha of this year, the Orchard property (“Village Parkway/Lime/Peachtree”) came to ourattention. It is a property that, as mentioned earlier, many in our parish have had their eyeson for years. At the height of the “bubble,” this property was way above our (then) price-range, at $300,000. In May, Father Justin walked this property completely (for the first time) and realized that it was larger than he had thought (which led to looking at aerial maps, etc). Also, we had on hand a template church campus prepared by friend of the parish, architect Tom Smith of Lexington, who indicated to us (in 2011 concerning another property) that two acres would supply our needs for an urban-style parish of 300 people (including temple, parish hall, education buildings, courtyard, some green space, playground, and parking).
With this in mind, Father Justin contacted the owner of the property, who not only expressed great interest in speaking with us, but also indicated he would like to lower the price below his initial $200,000 asking price.

We believe that this property addresses essentially every key aspect of our vision providing:

• space for worship, fellowship, evangelism, hospitality, education and teaching
• a beautiful setting yet in town; accessible to both Jessamine and Lexington
• enough space to become a mother to many more parishes

We invite you to prayerfully consider joining our parish as we serve Central Kentucky by witnessing to the fullness of the Christian faith through Orthodox Worship, strengthening our community through Fellowship, reaching out to others through Evangelism and Hospitality — especially helping those in need, and continuing in life-long formation and total parish education. Your prayers and offerings will be greatly appreciated.