St. Elijah Serbian Orthodox Church was founded in February 1964 and the congregation elected Bronko Tarailo as its first president. The congregation purchased its first church at 4101 Adams Street in Gary, Indiana. The Very Reverend Dusan Shoukletovich became the first priest of the new congregation. Helen Pekovich was the first President of the Kolo (Serbian Sisters Circle). The church was consecrated during a weekend celebration May 1964. The parish began with over 100 children in religious and Serbian language classes. By the parish’s second church slava celebration in 1965, membership totaled 226. Fr. Shoukletovich then moved to California and Fr. George Lazich, took over as Parish Priest in September 1965.

In August 1970 the congregation purchased 20 acres of land at 8700 Taft Street, in Merrillville, Indiana to accommodate its growing membership. The pavilion, picnic area, playground, summer kitchen and bar were first built. The consecration of the picnic area was held October, 1972. In March 1974 a building committee was established for the construction of a banquet hall on the property. The blessing of the land for a new hall took place in April, 1974. The new hall was built and dedicated on June 13, 1976 during the United States Bicentennial year, thus the hall was officially named the Serbian-American Bicentennial Hall.

The congregation eventually sold the Church at 41st and Adams Street and a chapel was built in a room next to the main hall in August, 1977 to hold worship services until a new Church could be constructed. The congregation approved construction for a new church at an annual meeting in February 1977. The blessing of the cornerstone for the new Church took place in September, 1979. Four years later, in October, 1983, Bishop Firmilian consecrated and proclaimed St. Elijah a Cathedral. The very generous and dedicated members of our parish purchased many of the items in our beautiful Cathedral, such as stained glass windows, icons, and pews.

After 21 years of serving as St. Elijah’s parish priest, Fr. George Lazich retired, and Fr. Lazar Kostur took over the duties of the parish in April 1986 until his retirement in August 2008. Since September 2008, Fr. Aleksandar Novakovic has been serving as our parish priest.

Over the past almost 50 years, through the hard work, love, dedication, donations and volunteerism of the parishioners and clergy of St. Elijah, much has been accomplished. The hall mortgage was paid in 1986, the church mortgage in 1990. Also in the late 1990s, 30 acres of land was purchased adjacent to our current facilities making a total of 50 acres belonging to the congregation. The church, hall and picnic facilities have been maintained and renovated as needed throughout the years. We continue to rent our banquet facilities and use our own parishioners to provide the cooking and catering services, including our long-standing Friday fish fry. Currently our parish has begun the undertaking of putting in Frescos in our Cathedral, which was approved at the annual meeting in January 2010.

In addition to the generosity of our parishioners to donate money to our own parish, hundreds of thousands of dollars have been raised and donated from our parish to help our suffering Serbian people and children, who have been displaced in their homeland as well as financially contributing to the Serbian Orthodox Church’s Office of External Affairs in Washington, D.C. This office strived to benefit our Serbian people who have been suffering in Kosovo, and all other areas where Serbs reside. And finally, throughout the significance of these large projects, our clergy and parishioners have continued and enriched the parish with ongoing religious services and education programs, Serbian language programs, Kolo Sestara fund-raising efforts, folklore, and annual fund-raising events such as festivals, SNF Lodge sport tournaments and many other efforts to ensure we always maintain our faith and keep our Serbian traditions strong for future generations.