Orthodox Parish of Saint Nicholas of Myra in Amsterdam
About us
Welcome to the site of Saint Nicholas parish! We are an Orthodox Christian community in the Russian liturgical and spiritual tradition for more than 50 years. After many years with the Moscow Patriarchate, in 2022 our parish was received into the Exarchate of the Benelux of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Our diocesan bishop is Metropolitan Athenagoras of Belgium.
Our church is open to one and all. Feel free to come in, light a candle or just take a look around. Of course, the services are open to everyone as well. On Sundays we have hosts and hostesses to welcome visitors and show them the way.
After the Sunday service we share coffee and tea. This is the opportunity to ask questions, to visit the Information Centre to ask for information about parish activities. You can also register for the weekly bulletin or parish activities.
The church is open when there is a service. The schedule of services you can find here.
Schedule of services
Our services are alternately (mainly) in Dutch and Church Slavonic.
- The first and third Sunday of the month, the service is predominantly in Church Slavonic,
- the second and fourth in Dutch,
- if there is a fifth Sunday in the month, we also use some English
Schedule of Services
June 2026
Saturday 27 June (14 June)
17:00 Panichida. 17:30 Vigil: Tone 3. 4th Gospel, Luke 24:1-12
Sunday 28 June (15 June)
4th Sunday after Pentecost
9:30 Hours. 10:00 Divine Liturgy: Romans 6:18-23; Matthew 8:5-13
July 2026
Saturday 4 July (21 June)
17:00 Panichida. No Vigil
Sunday 5 July (22 June)
5th Sunday after Pentecost
9:30 Hours. 10:00 Divine Liturgy: Romans 10:1-10; Matthew 8:28-9:1
Saturday 11 July (28 June)
17:00 Panichida. No Vigil
Sunday 12 July (29 June)
6th Sunday after Pentecost – The Feast of The Holy Apostles Peter and Paul
9:30 Hours. 10:00 Divine Liturgy: Romans 12:6-14; Matthew 9:1-8
Apostles: 2 Corinthians 11:21-12:9; Matthew 16:13-19
Saturday 18 July (5 July)
17:00 Panichida. No Vigil
Sunday 19 July (6 July)
7th Sunday after Pentecost
9:30 Hours. 10:00 Divine Liturgy: Romans 15:1-7; Matthew 9:27-35
Announcements
No Vigil in July and August
Starting from 4 July till 30 August, there will be no Vigil in our church. Panikhida will be served as usual at 17:00, and the church is open until around 18:00.
Orthodox camp in Belgium 1-8 August 2026
On 3 August 2025, Father Oleg Karlashchuk passed away
The obituary can be read here.
Photos of Father Oleg can be found here.
Information center & bookshop
In the bookstore of our church you can find various Orthodox goods: icons, crosses, books, oil (consecrated), candlesticks, incense and coal, censers, rosaries, Orthodox calendars, etc. Volunteers working in the Orthodox Information Center can answer simple questions about the Orthodox faith and our church, or direct you to a priest.
From the Rector
Bulletin 383 – Easter Sunday – 22 June 2026
Bulletin 383, Sunday 21st June, 2026
The Single Eye and the Undivided Heart
My dear Friends,
The Gospel portion for this week is Matthew 6:22–33:
The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.
My message to you is this: do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or worry about your body, what you will wear. Isn’t life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you, by worrying, add a single hour to how long your life lasts? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you worry-warts!
Do not worry about eating and drinking, or about what you wear. That is for others, not for us! We know that our heavenly Father knows that we have need of those things.
First and foremost, seek the Kingdom of God and righteousness, and you will get everything else that you need.
[Do not worry about tomorrow either, for tomorrow will worry about itself; each day has enough evil of its own].
“The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light.”
At first glance, this Gospel seems to contain three separate teachings. Christ speaks about the eye, then about serving two masters, and finally about worry and anxiety. Yet they all belong together.
The eye, in biblical language, is not merely the physical organ of sight. It is the way we look at reality. It is our attention, our focus, our orientation.
If our vision is clear, everything else falls into place. If our vision becomes distorted, confused or divided, then confusion spreads through the whole of life.
This is why Christ immediately follows His teaching about the eye with the warning that no one can serve two masters. A divided vision produces a divided heart.
A divided heart produces a divided life.
Many of us know this experience. Parts of us wish to trust God, while other parts wish to make themselves feel secure through possessions, status, control or approval. We find ourselves pulled in different directions at once.
Christ names this conflict directly: “You cannot serve God and wealth”.
The issue is not essentially money itself. Wealth is simply one example of the human tendency to place ultimate trust in something other than God.
Anything can become a master: money, success, reputation, certainty, ideology, even (or especially) our own opinions.
