JOLIET – Members of the St. George Serbian Orthodox Church gathered Wednesday in Joliet for Christmas, the traditional time Orthodox church members celebrate Christ's birth.

The aromatic scent of incense hung in the air, and members of the Mita Topalovich Choir sang from above the congregation throughout the service. The morning sun streamed in through stained glass windows lining both sides of the church and congregant members stood as the Christmas liturgy unfolded before them.

The Rev. Nikolaj Kostur led the service, praying at the altar located behind the church's icon screen, but periodically coming before the congregation to pray or chant. He delivered his liturgy from the podium.

"My main message was the joy of Christ's nativity, of his birth, and that he bring us a message of salvation," Kostur said following the morning service. "Through his birth, he became man in order to make us more like God."

Wednesday's Christmas Liturgy was the second day of celebration for church members. The first took place Tuesday night, with a Vigil Service in preparation for the Christmas holiday.

Following the Tuesday night service, the church gathered at the St. George social center, blessing its Yule log, the badnjak, which is actually an oak tree. Congregants took parts of the tree home, Kostur said, burning their branches, bringing Christ's warmth into their houses.

Holiday aside, this has been a busy time for Kostur, who joined the church Jan. 1. He is taking over as parish pastor from the Rev. Nedeljko “Ned” Lunich, who spent more than 40 years with the church.

"My goal is to serve these people in the same spirit he did for all these years, to keep people in the church and to bring people to the church," Kostur said.

That task is not without its challenges. The Joliet area was home to a large Serbian population, Kostur said, but many of the original church's families are entering their third and fourth generations. Some people have moved, heading toward Chicago.

Those who stayed represent a well-established population of congregants, settled throughout Will County. At the same time, there's also a population of relatively new Serbians, people who moved to the U.S. during the wars that ravaged the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

"We have to provide for both, to try to gather everyone and to not lose anyone," Kostur said.

Jack Book has been with St. George for 53 years. In talking with parishioners, Book, the first vice president of the St. George church board, said everyone is upbeat about Kostur's arrival.

"He's very energetic," Book said. "When he does the sermon, you can feel the sermon, with the choir. He just does a great job."

In reaching out to all parishioners, Kostur said he plans to read from the Gospel in both English and Serbian, to acknowledge everyone's needs and to make it clear all are welcome. The ultimate goal is to bring people closer to God.

"God has blessed us, and we have to live up to it by living an honest and moral life," Kostur said. "That's what we all try to do."