Skokie Assyrian Community Center to Convert Abandoned Pool into New Worship Hall

Pews are neatly arranged atop a red carpet that covers the wooden floor of the Assyrian Community Center’s gymnasium. Above, basketball hoops are folded upward to clear space for a stage and front altar. The gymnasium, once used for athletic contests, has served as Mar Sargis Parish’s house of worship since its consecration in 2022. Following approval from the Skokie Village Board on February 2, the parish will soon relocate to the northeast corner of the Assyrian Community Center, transforming the building’s unused natatorium into a sanctuary with a 1,536-square-foot addition.

Father William Toma, the parish priest, explained the significance of having a permanent, church-like space. “We call it, in Latin, lex orandi, lex credendi — the law of faith is the law of liturgy. Liturgy is the way how public celebration will do it,” he said. Toma emphasized that the new space will allow the congregation to express their faith through prayers and a connection with God, in a setting that reflects their tradition.

Albert Youna, president of the Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East Diocese’s board, anticipated the new worship hall’s completion by the fall of 2027. Relocating Mar Sargis Parish will also free up the gymnasium for its intended purpose. The Assyrian Community Center, originally the Mayer Kaplan Jewish Community Center in the late 1960s and acquired in 2018, now serves as a vital hub for the Assyrian population in Skokie and nearby areas.

Lina Eshaya, a board member of the Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East Diocese, noted that the Assyrian Community Center’s youth group has more than 120 members who must rent gymnasiums elsewhere for meetings and sports. The center, the largest of its kind in the U.S., supports the Assyrian community and members of other nearby parishes in Glenview, Chicago, and Roselle. “The community in Skokie is probably the largest Assyrian community in the area,” Eshaya said. “To have a parish and a community center here — for not only our youth, our young kids who are like grade school kids, but also our elderly and our families that live here — to have a space that they can come to, I think has probably been a dream for a long time.”

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