[2] Every January sixth, the Orthodox Christian communities of the greater Tampa Bay area gather at St. Nicholas Cathedral in Tarpon Springs to observe the feast of Christ's baptism in the Jordan River and celebrate the blessing of the waters.

A specially crafted white cross is tossed by a senior cleric, usually the Archbishop of America, into Spring Bayou as part of the service of the Great Blessing of the Waters.

[3][additional citation(s) needed] Nikitas' first assignment upon ordination was Associate Pastor at Saints Constantine and Helen Cathedral in Merrillville, Indiana, where he remained until 1987, at which time he became the chancellor of the Greek Orthodox Diocese (now Metropolis) of Chicago.

[citation needed] Lulias was first elected to the episcopacy by the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in December of 1996 to oversee the Orthodox Christian population of Southeast Asia.

He was consecrated a Hierarch and named Metropolitan of Hong Kong and South East Asia on Saturday December 14, 1996 in at the Patriarchal church of St. George in the Phanar in Istanbul, Turkey.

His enthronement (formal installation as the metropolitan of the metropolis) took place shortly thereafter on Sunday January 12, 1997 at the Cathedral of Saint Luke the Evangelist in Hong Kong.

He was the first metropolitan bishop of Hong Kong and his flock included churches in South East Asia, China, India, Indonesia, the Philippines and Singapore.

[7] Archbishop Nikitas has spearheaded the Ecumenical Patriarchate's Committee on Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery since 2017, meeting with various leaders and organizing three international forums on the issue.