Father Nicholas was born and raised in the beautiful City of New York. His parents were Constantine Soteropoulos and Maria Trichopoulos. He grew up in the Saint Spyridon area of upper Manhattan and was inspired by two priest Fr. Basil Lokis and Fr. John Psillas. He met and married Mary Cotzias who at the time was attending Hunter College. They married in 1960 and were blessed with four children, Nikki Marie Margarites, Michelle Lascarides, Dean Soteropoulos and Lisa Skipitaris. Presently they have eleven grandchildren.

He attended Holy Cross Theological School and graduated in 1959. Father Nicholas was ordained on March 11th 1961 as a Deacon and March 12th 1961 as Priest. and he has served many parishes. He began his ministry Saint Demetrios Waterloo, Iowa and retired in 2002 after serving Saint Demetrios, Jamaica for 11 years. He served on a part time basis Saint Eleftherios Parish in lower Manhattan. He also served the following parishes: Saint Demetrios, Astoria; NY Kimisis Tis Theotokou, Poughkeepsie, NY; Interim Prophet Elias Yonkers, NY, (while serving at the Archdiocese); Saint Paraskevi, Greenlawn, New York for 15 years.

Besides Parish work, he has served the Archdiocese as National Youth Director. He was the first priest to serve at this post on a full time basis. As the Director he prepared and published the first official Archdiocesan youth program called "You Are Something Special". This program included all phases of youth work. The main objective was to assist parishes in organizing and run a complete youth program. Along with the materials, workshops were organized all over the Archdiocese to assist the local priest. Besides the organizational material, this program included a religious, social, athletic, drug, and discussion programs. Also it explained how to run meetings and a section simplifying how to use Parliamentary Procedure. For the Altar Boys he prepared Altar Boy Manual. This manual helps the priest to prepare boys to service in the altar. There is also a copy of the Divine Liturgy with instruction when and what to do during the Liturgy. He also prepared youth manuals for one of the national youth groups whose headquarters was in Memphis, TN named JET Group.

In 1971 while serving as Youth Director he was appointed Director of Ionian Village in Greece. As Director he reorganized the camp program adding many new programs which are still being continued.

In 1975 he was assigned to serve as Director of Saint Basil's Academy. He was instrumental in getting over $250,000.00 in Federal and State Funds and many private donations, which helped eliminate most of the previous debt. The Kidney Foundation in the Mid-West requested and received permission to copy and use one of his fund raising appeals.

In 1984 Archbishop Iakovos bestowed upon him the title Protopresbyter of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

Father Nicholas attended Extended Programs at the Chicago University and the Teitell Institute and received an Associate Degree in Fund Raising and Differed Giving Programs. He has authored many booklets. Two of these on the subject of fundraising. The first "How to organize and conduct a Capital Building Program from A to Z." The second one "Explaining and Conducting a Differed Giving Program". Both booklets did well with non Greek Orthodox groups.

Some of the books he authored were: "A Parish Almanac", "What every Greek Orthodox should know about their Church and Faith", A Bible Study which he uses with his Bible Study Group and a Parish Council Manual which was used during the Parish Council Seminars.

In 1991 he was assigned to the Saint Demetrios Parish in Jamaica, NY. At that time the church operated not only a Day School, but also a full High School. Even with all that responsibility he still managed to purchase a building valued at a three quarter of a million dollars and initiated and operated the first full time Greek Orthodox Senior Citizens Center. The purchase was made possible through private donations, State and City funds. The building was previously used by a funeral home and he converted it to serve the needs of the Senior Citizens. On the second floor has two apartments that brought income into this program. This program is self-sustaining. For the purchase and operation of this program church funds were not offered nor needed. Funding for this program came from State, City Agencies and private donations. Church Fund for the establishment and the operation of the Center were not used even though the title to the property was given to the Church.        

In 2004 Father Nicholas was elected Treasurer of the RCA Board. One of the most difficult tasks was the undertaking of the RCA Benevolent Fund. The purpose of the Benevolent Fund was to assist Retired Priests and Widow Presvyteres who were finding it difficult to survive and needed financial assistance.

For many years Frs. Gaines, Raptis and Constantinides did their utmost to assist the RCA recipients in need. In May of 2005 because of lack of funds Father Nicholas was asked to undertake this program. Through the generous gifts of many Retired Clergy, the National and local Philoptochos Chapters, some very concerned Greek Orthodox Laity funds were collected and the recipients again were helped. Because our appeal was successful we were able to send to the retirees additional funds. In 2006 the Department of Philanthropy of the Archdiocese assumed this responsibility. At that time, he issued a check for over $40,000.00 to the Archdiocese, which was the balance of the funds collected. The RCA continues to support recipients during the Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter.  

In February of 2007 upon the resignation of Father William G. Gaines because of health reasons, Father Nicholas was elected the fifth President of the RCA. His greatest concern was to make the RCA more viable to all. Some of his accomplishments were as follows:

• He raised the income from $45,000 to half a million.
• He established a Scholarship Program granting five (5) scholarships over $11,000.00 every year. He created a Trust Fund to insure that this scholarship program is maintained.
• Establish a Web page for the RCA.
• Establish a Biography Program listing the lives of the Retires on the web. A permanent record of our lives and accomplishments.
• A Fifty Year Club. Priests who have served 50 years or more receive a certificate signed by His Eminence and a 50 Year Pin from the RCA.
• Wrote and printed six pamphlets on retirement and items that help retirees prepare for retirement.
• Edited the “Epistle’ for a number of years adding color and pictures to the monthly newsletter.
• Organized the 25th Anniversary celebration of the RCA. Also the first Easter Party. Both functions took placed at Ft. Lauderdale, Florida and through a generous donation of the Pedas Brothers James and Ted were able to pay all the travel expenses, hotels luncheon and dinners for 50 retirees and Presvyters to participate for three days.
• Establish a Crisis Fund for Retirees.
• Represented the RCA at Archdiocesan Meetings, Washington White House receptions, Archon Dinners, 75th Holy Cross Theological Anniversary and other Archdiocesan special functions.

 

Presently he fills in for priests who must be absent because of illness or other needs.