St. John the Baptist celebrates 100th anniversary
St John the Baptist Byzantine Catholic Church celebrates its 100th aniversary. Bonnie Balas (left) anniversary committee member and The Rev. Ronald Larko holding a banner announcing the church's 100th anniversary.
St John the Baptist Byzantine Catholic Church celebrates its 100th aniversary. The Rev. Ronald Larko (left) and Bonnie Balas (left) anniversary committee member discuss plans for the church's 100th anniversary.
St John the Baptist Byzantine Catholic Church celebrates its 100th aniversary. The church's main entrance on east Main Street in Uniontown.
St John the Baptist Byzantine Catholic Church celebrates its 100th aniversary.
St John the Baptist Byzantine Catholic Church celebrates its 100th aniversary.
St. John the Baptist Byzantine Catholic Church will host its 30th Carpatho-Rusyn Festival this weekend. In this file photo, the Rev. Ronald Larko (left) and Bonnie Balas discuss plans for the church鈥檚 100th anniversary in June.
John F. Brothers
缅北禁地.com
?St. John the Baptist Byzantine Catholic Church, located at 185 E. Main St., Uniontown, will commemorate its 100th anniversary on Sunday.
The church will celebrate with a Divine Liturgy of Thanksgiving at 3:30?p.m. with the Very Rev. Eugene Yackanich, administrator of the Byzantine Catholic Metropolitan Archeparchy of Pittsburgh and a former pastor of St. John, as special guest speaker. He will concelebrate the Liturgy along with the Rev. Ronald Larko, pastor, and other former pastors, including the Rev. Thomas Wesdock, the Rev. Richard Whetstone, the Rev. Robert Karl and Monsignor Raymond Balta.
A reservation-only dinner will follow with remarks by the former pastors and Sister Celestine Petruska (OSBM), who is the parish vocation, as well as Bonnie Balas, a member of the anniversary committee, who interviewed parish members about their faith in keeping with the anniversary theme, 鈥淪t. John the Baptist: Faithful Forerunner.鈥�
Balas said of her research, 鈥淥ne woman said 鈥業 was given up for dead and I鈥檓 almost 90.鈥� A lot of people experienced hardships and continue to be faithful. I thought of all the people before me, who lit the torch for me and made me realize how important it was to maintain the church.鈥�
She noted a young woman named Carynn Popson, who is a member of a multi-generational family at St. John, told Balas, 鈥淲e not only have a shared history but also a shared future.鈥�
Balas said, 鈥淭hat made me feel a lot of hope for the church.鈥�
Other anniversary committee members talked about the impact the church has made on their lives.
Kathy Venkso, who was involved in fund raising for the event, said, 鈥淚 was married into it. I was raised by a family who believed the church was your family. My grandmother told me, 鈥楬e鈥檚 Byzantine. You follow his ways.鈥� We raised three boys in the church and the people we met were like family to us. You get to know the parents and the kids. They grew up together. David is a cantor here. All three were altar servers and went to school here.鈥�
Vensko鈥檚 son, Andrew, who is now a senior at Penn State University, has fond memories of the youth group, including talks with two seminarians who were individually assigned to the church in recent years.
He also said, 鈥淚 like that the Byzantine Church takes Scripture and through old traditions makes it relevant to today.鈥�
Julie Pillar, who worked on a new pictorial directory, said, 鈥淚鈥檝e gone here my whole life. My great-grandfather was one of the founders. I just feel at home here.鈥�
Kay Breakiron, who has prepared a presentation of about 800 photographs for the anniversary dinner, said, 鈥淚 was raised in this church. I feel at home here. In my heart, I feel this is where I belong.鈥�
St. John has about 300 families today, who come from the Uniontown area but also from Lemont Furnace, Deer Lake, McClellandtown, Masontown and Connellsville.
The church has spent time planning for its 100th anniversary, including renovations to the church and the building of an outdoor shrine to St. John the Baptist that was blessed in January 2010. Breakiron created the icon for the shrine with the structure being built by Andrew Vensko, Greg Turko and Michael Iannamorelli as their senior project for Laurel Highlands Senior High School.
Larko said, 鈥淥ne thing that impressed me from the beginning of getting ready for the 100th anniversary is the commitment they made to it and the number of people who worked in various committees. Their attitude is great. They were very positive and upbeat about this 鈥� to have this anniversary celebration that would be for all the parishioners and that they could be proud of because they鈥檙e very thankful for the faith they鈥檝e passed on from the founders of this parish.鈥�
The church also released a history, prepared by David Vensko, for the commemorative booklet. It explains St. John can trace its roots to immigrants from the Carpatho-Rusyn regions of what is now Slovakia, Poland and the Ukraine, who came to the United States in a massive wave of immigration in the late 19th century, many finding jobs in the mines and mills.
St. John the Baptist was chartered on Sept. 21, 1911, under the leadership of the Rev. Stephen Gulovich. Early services were held in the St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church hall until the completion of the church building in 1918.
The history, which recounts the many pastors who have served St. John Parish, noted the Ladies Sodality of Our Blessed Mother was organized in 1934, the Holy Name Society was formed in the mid-1940s and the organization of married women into Our Lady鈥檚 Guild took place in the 1950s. The expansion of the church cemetery in Hopwood took place in the 1940s. The English sermon was introduced in 1955.
The school, which would operate for 42 years, opened in 1956 and featured six classrooms, a kitchen and auditorium. The area鈥檚 first Catholic full-day kindergarten was instituted in the 1970s.
After fire caused extensive damage to the church in 1960, a complete renovation took place. In the 1970s, the church bells were removed from the tower, followed a few years later by a renovation of the tower that added a golden dome and brought a change to the Uniontown skyline. Three more classrooms were also added to the school.
In the 1980s, the annual Carpatho-Rusyn Celebration began, 鈥渁 popular event that continues to this day.鈥�
St. John鈥檚 parish son Thomas Dolinay was elevated to Metropolitan Archbishop of Pittsburgh. Dolinay served from June 1991 to April 1993 when he died following a brief illness. Another son of the parish, Judson Procyk, served as Metropolitan from 1995 until his death in 2001.
In the 1990s, the church underwent a renovation and the annual parish dinner in honor of St. John the Baptist began. The school closed in 1998 due to declining enrollment. The church office moved to the school building where Eastern Christian Formation classes continued to be held.
After the turn of the century, two classrooms in the rear of the school building were demolished, and the classroom between the school and the church was converted to a chapel where weekday l Liturgies and matins are held. A new English translation of the liturgy, promulgated under the direction of the Council of Hierarchs of the Byzantine Rite in the U.S.A. was introduced. A new icon screen with icons written by Michael Kapeluck of Carnegie in the sanctuary was completed and dedicated in 2007. A shrine to St. John the Baptist was erected between the school and the church. Eggstravaganza, a popular event showcasing pysanky and forms of egg decoration, as well as an annual car show were begun.
Under Larko, who came in 2010, a 100th anniversary committee was formed and changes were made to the interior and exterior of the church, including new front steps, landscaping, lighting and overall beautification.
The history notes, 鈥淎s we look forward to the next 100 years, we remind ourselves of the hard work and sacrifices made by our parish fathers and benefactors as well as those made by generations of parishioners through the last 100 years.鈥�