St. Mary Antiochian Orthodox Christian Church
Johnstown, PA
Our
Parish Family History: 1904-2008
The
history of Orthodox Christianity in the Conemaugh Valley
starts with the Lebanese immigrants who brought their Holy Faith with them from
the “Old Country.” The first Orthodox
immigrants began to arrive in the Johnstown
area during the 1860’s; however, the first large wave of immigrants came during
the World Depression of the 1880’s. The
group of immigrants settled in Minersville, one of the former boroughs, which
was eventually consolidated to form the City of Johnstown in 1889. Whenever traveling priests were available,
they gathered together in houses to celebrate the Divine Liturgy. Though often the Divine Services were not
held on Sundays, because the priests were not always available. The community was hurt, along with the rest
of the city, in the Great Flood of 1889, but the community survived and would
soon be strengthened by the large numbers of immigrants that would join their
small group.
Around
the turn of the century, a larger influx of Lebanese immigrants arrived in Johnstown from the contiguous villages in the county of El Kura,
the Orthodox Christian mountain stronghold east of Tripoli.
The immigrants had fled Lebanon
to avoid mandatory conscription in which they would have been forced to fight
other Christians and dissidents in the Ottoman Empire. The immigrants made their way to New York City, and then eventually traveled to Johnstown on the nation’s
railways. In settling in Johnstown, the immigrants
immediately moved into the merchant class, becoming peddlers and opening
family-owned stores. The mission
community continued to celebrate the Divine Services whenever a visiting priest
was available.
In
1904, Bishop Raphael Hawaweeny of Brooklyn, later to be canonized a saint,
along with Johnstown’s Orthodox Church Faithful, established the parish of St.
Mary in the city. The parish became a
part of St. Raphael’s diocese, the Diocese of Brooklyn, in the ethnically based
American diocese under the Russian Orthodox Archbishop of New York and ultimately under the
jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Moscow.
The Diocese of Brooklyn served the Syro-Arab Orthodox Christians in North America.
Within a year, St. Raphael assigned the Rt. Rev. Michael Saba Curry to
be the first pastor of the newly founded parish and he remained so until his
death in 1932. The parish community
served Johnstown and the surrounding areas
including Altoona, Connellsville, Greensburg, Mt. Pleasant and Portage. Moreover, the parish served Orthodox
Christians of other ethnic ancestries until they were able to establish their
own parishes in Johnstown. The Divine Services were celebrated on a
regular basis in parishioners’ homes and other makeshift and temporary places
of worship, until the first church was built in 1911. The church building was located on Chestnut Street in
the Cambria City
section of Johnstown.
The
young parish entered tough times in the 1910s for various reasons. The great flu epidemic of 1914 killed scores
of parishioners. Secondly, there was
turmoil across the entire Diocese of Brooklyn following St. Raphael’s death in
1915. In 1914, Metropolitan Germanos
Shehadi came to the United
States to collect funds for an agricultural
school in his own diocese of Zahle.
However, after the death of St. Raphael, Shehadi claimed to be the
representative of the Patriarch of Antioch.
Those who desired to be under the jurisdiction of the Church of Antioch
formed new parishes under Metropolitan Shehadi, while many of those who did not
believe that Shehadi was the rightful representative stayed faithful to the Church of Moscow.
A significant faction of St. Mary parishioners followed Metropolitan
Shehadi and formed the parish of St. Demetrios in 1917, which was located in
the Woodvale section of Johnstown. St. Mary Parish stayed under the jurisdiction
of Moscow and
was under the See of Bishop Aftimios Ofiesh, the official successor of St.
Raphael.
The
Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 brought increased confusion to the situation in America. The Russian Orthodox Church, under heavy
attack, was barely able to sustain itself, let alone provide for the numerous
ethnic dioceses in North America. In 1920, Archbishop Tikhon (later to be
consecrated a saint), the Patriarch of Moscow, issued a decree that all of the
Orthodox Christians in the United States should seek immediate refuge from
whichever jurisdiction would shield them from the evils of communism. In so doing, St. Tikhon left all matters of
jurisdictional debate to the parishes themselves and the diocesan leaders. The parish of St. Demetrios continued under
the legitimate jurisdiction of Archbishop Victor Abo-Assaley, the first primate
of the Syrian Orthodox Archdiocese of North America, under the Patriarchate of
Antioch. In 1927, the Diocese of
Brooklyn was granted autocephaly by the Russian Orthodox Church and became the
American Orthodox Catholic Church with Archbishop Ofiesh as primate. The parish of St. Mary, one of the parishes
sympathetic to the original Russian jurisdiction, moved into the newly formed
diocese. In 1930, Archbishop Ofiesh was
removed as primate of the authocephalous diocese and was replaced by Bishop
Emmanuel Abo-Hatab. As primate of the
diocese, he realized that the only way to unite the Middle Eastern Orthodox
Christians of North America was to be done under the jurisdiction of the
Patriarch of Antioch. Bishop Emmanuel
worked until his death to ensure the reunification of the two Orthodox Catholic
dioceses in North America. In 1933 shortly before Abo-Hatab’s death, the
American Orthodox Catholic Church, along with the parish of St. Mary, was
canonically released to the Patriarch of Antioch and became a part of the
Syrian (Antiochian) Orthodox Archdiocese of North America.
In
1935, Antony Bashir was elected to become the Archbishop and primate of the
newly united Antiochian Archdiocese of North America. It was Metropolitan Anthony who directly
merged the two parishes of St. Mary and St. Demetrios of Johnstown in 1937. After the reunification, the two parish
bodies, who had remained close during their twenty year separation, worked for
the growth of the united St. Mary Parish.
Thus, Johnstown
served as an example and was also a hub for the reunification of the various
Antiochian Orthodox factions. The church
building that housed the St. Demetrios Parish was sold to the new Serbian
Orthodox Parish of St. Petka. Throughout
the early history of the St. Mary Parish, Sandyvale Cemetery,
a cemetery originally dedicated for Civil War veterans, was used as the town’s
Orthodox cemetery. After the cemetery
was full, the parish largely used Benshoff
Hill Cemetery
and Grandview Cemetery, which are still used by many
in the parish to date.
The
years that followed brought a new set of challenges for the parish. The many young men of the community who were
returning home after World War II began to take an active part in the Church’s
growth and its activities. The new needs
were met through the introduction of the English language into the Liturgical
Services of the Church. This proved to
be pivotal in the growth of the parish and led to the organization of a young
adults club that promoted Church life.
The prosperity of the church continued and soon the Chestnut Street facility was
outgrown. The church building was sold
to the growing community of St. George Serbian Orthodox Church and is still in
use today.
In
1961 a new parcel of land was purchased in Upper
Yoder Township,
Cambria County at 111 Alberta Avenue and the groundbreaking
took place on December 7, 1961 following the celebration of a Hierarchical
Divine Liturgy under Metropolitan Antony.
On Sunday November 17, 1968, the new and present house of worship was
dedicated to the glory of God by Metropolitan Philip Saliba to the fulfillment
of the spiritual needs of the St. Mary Parish.
In
1977 a new challenge was met by the community.
A complete program of beautification of the Church interior and exterior
was undertaken. New stained glass
windows and icons, in the style of Byzantine art synonymous to the churches of
Eastern Christendom, were commissioned and incorporated into the Church’s
interior. The Church grounds were
landscaped and a Bulletin Board was erected which incorporates the corner stone
of the original church building as a dedication to the early pioneers of
Orthodoxy in Johnstown.
Throughout
the 1980s and 1990s, the St. Mary Parish Family has continued to realize many
dreams in regards to the interior and exterior beautification of our
church. From the physical perspective of
the building, the parish has completed many projects. For example, the parish has enlarged,
re-graded and repaved the parking lot (adding designated parking spaces for the
physically challenged as well), added offices, enlarged and streamlined the
kitchen facilities, replaced the roofs on both church and parish home,
remodeled the parish home, and remodeled the Social Hall in 1986 and 2004. In 1994, at the parish’s Ninetieth
Anniversary Celebration, His Grace, Bishop Antoun Khouri challenged the parish
to complete the dreams of the parishioners’ ancestors by providing a proper
church school facility for the children of the parish. The new addition has been realized and is
already benefiting the entire parish family, especially the youth, as the
parish ministers to their Christian education and development.
A
young parishioner, Nathan Catanese, for his Eagle Scout Project, raised funds
for and commissioned a shrine to be dedicated to the memory of St. Raphael, the
founder of the parish. It was blessed in
a Service of Prayer at Nathan’s Eagle Scout Court of Honor in February of
2002. The area around the shrine was
landscaped as part of another scout’s Eagle Scout Project and since then it has
been maintained by the Faithful of our community. Furthermore, the late Rt. Rev. Fr. John Namie
presented his personal relics of St. Raphael to Fr. Donald Shadid and the
Faithful of St. Mary. Today, the relics
are held in the church and are venerated by the parishioners. The parishioners continue to intercede to
their spiritual father to pray on their behalf.
In July 2004, during the Special
Convention of the Antiochian Archdiocese of North America, the delegates of the
Archdiocese approved the formation of “Dioceses,” as opposed to “Regions” and
St. Mary Parish was placed into the newly formed Diocese of Oakland and all the
East. At that time, it was decided to
have the “See” of the Diocese located in Oakland
(Pittsburgh),
PA. St. Mary of Johnstown
will be the closest parish to the new bishop, who will reside at the Camp &
conference Center of the Archdiocese, the Antiochian
Village, located in the beautiful Laurel Mountains
outside of Ligonier, PA.
The parish will continue to listen to the spiritual guidance of
Metropolitan PHILIP and the other bishops of the newly formed Local Synod
governing the self-ruling Antiochian Archdiocese of North America.
Liturgically,
the parish has constantly sought to preserve the simple beauty of the St. Mary
Temple, while maintaining it and complementing it with additional iconography
and furnishings. Within the last
eighteen years the parish has replaced items, repainted several areas, and
commissioned icons and furnishings. A
number of projects, including the re-staining & varnishing of the
Iconostasis, and the commissioning of life-size icons of Orthodoxy’s liturgists
were completed in celebration of the Parish’s One Hundredth Anniversary. This grand event was properly commemorated in
October of 2004, under the spiritual leadership of His Grace, Bishop ANTOUN.
Since
the time of Very Rev. Fr. Michael Saba Curry, St. Mary has been served by Rev.
Fr. Andrew Nassir (1932-1935); Rev. Fr. John Saba (1936-1937); Rev. Fr. George
Rawieheb (1937-1941); Rev. Fr. George Nasser (1941-1961); Rev. Fr. Athanasius
Emmert (1961-1963); Rt. Rev. Fr. Gibran Ramlaoui (1963-1966 … later to be
consecrated Metropolitan of Australia & New Zealand); Rt. Rev. Fr.
Alexander Curry (1966-1975 … son of Fr. Michael Saba Curry); Rev. Fr. Joseph Shahda (1975-1983); Rev. Fr.
George Geha (1983-1986); and our present spiritual leader, Very Rev. Fr. Donald
Shadid, who was assigned to St. Mary in June of 1986 by His Eminence,
Metropolitan Philip Saliba. Fr. Don is a
graduate of Illinois
State University
(Bachelor of Science, 1981), St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary
(Master of Divinity, 1984), and Pittsburgh Theological Seminary (Doctor of
Ministry – Eastern Christian Focus – under the auspices of the Antiochian
Archdiocese’s House of Studies Program, 2003).
Fr. Don and Khouria Janet were crowned in the Sacrament of Holy
Matrimony in November of 1985, and they have two sons, Christopher and
Stephen. Janet grew up in the sister
parish of St. George in Boston, where she was
very active with the Church
School, Teens and
Choir. Before serving the Johnstown parish, Fr. Don and Janet served at the Antiochian Village, where they both worked at the
camp for many summers. Fr. Don was the
Assistant Director of the Camp
& Conference Center
from 1984-1986.
St.
Mary’s present congregation consists of 165 families, chiefly of Lebanese and
Syrian descent. However, in the last
fifteen years the parish family has grown to include Egyptian and Greek
Families; as well as new catechumens and converts. The parish is a participant in the Parish Ministry
Team Concept of the Fellowship of St. John the Divine. The organizations and Parish Ministry Teams
are: the Parish Council; Church School; The Prayer Discipline of St. Philip the
Evangelist (which includes an adult “Living the Baptized Life” Discussion &
Almsgiving Group); (Teen) SOYO (Society of Youth Organization); Holy Bread
preparation; Liturgical Preparation; Choir; Junior Choir; Chanters; Mercy Meal
Preparation; Collection; Deposit and Special Events (Fund-Raising). The parish of St. Mary has always sought to
better the community of Johnstown through service projects and supporting
community organizations (e.g. Women’s Help Center various social agencies,
serving as a meeting place for Cub, Boy & Girl Scouts, serving as a
chartering organization for a Venture Scout Crew, etc.); as well as
strengthening the spiritual needs of its own parishioners. The parish also maintains strong relations
with the other Orthodox Christian churches of the Johnstown area and continues to participate
in various Pan-Orthodox organizations and events. Fr. Don is a member of the Greater Johnstown
Orthodox Clergy Association and has also served on the Board of Directors of
Westmont Family Counseling Ministries for many years. Presently, St. Mary Church is honored to be
the first “home” to St. Sophia Orthodox
Christian Academy,
a Pan-Orthodox Christian Pre-and Elementary School.
Parishioners
of St. Mary have a strong background in the Faith, and over the last one
hundred years, many have gone to help other parishes in the Archdiocese. In the early 1900s, many parishioners moved
to Cleveland and Detroit and helped to establish parishes in
those cities. Later on, parishioners
continued to spread the Orthodox Faith around the United
States by joining newer parishes and by helping to
establish missions in Pennsylvania
and other states. St. Mary has also had
a few of its native sons enter the Holy Priesthood: the late Rt. Rev. Fr.
Alexander Curry; the late Rt. Rev. Fr. George Corry, the Very Rev. Fr. George
Alberts; and the Very Rev. Fr. Alexander Atty.
Although
parish life is no longer ethnically oriented, parishioner’s still love the old
Middle-Eastern customs, foods and traditions.
The services are offered by Fr. Don, the Choir (under the direction of
Mr. Fred McLoota and his assistants, Lisa Catanese, Betty Ghantous, Genevieve
Milkie, Maria Plakakis & Christopher Shadid) and the chanters (Tony
Abraham, Paul Finley, Jason Catanese & Christopher Shadid) in English; with
some hymns sung in Arabic for those persons having made the transition to the
United Sates in recent years. The choir
was first formally organized under the leadership of Vivian Curry (wife of our
Fr. Alex) and their repertoire has become a model of American Orthodox Unity by
incorporating music from multiple Orthodox backgrounds. The repertoire expanded Unity by
incorporating music from multiple Orthodox backgrounds. The repertoire expanded under the past
leadership of choir directors Professor Dejan Nedelkovich, Helen Spanovich and
the late Jim Corey. Recently, multiple
languages have been used during the litanies of Great Vespers as is the custom
brought back by the parish’s youth from the Antiochian Village Camp.
As
the parish is now celebrating its One Hundred & Fourth Anniversary (1904 –
2008), it is the fervent hope of all within the St. Mary Parish Family that the
spirit of the Founding Fathers will remain the ingredient for the current
parishioners, and those who follow after, to maintain the Faith and Dignity
upon which the Church was founded. It is
also the prayer of the St. Mary community that Holy Orthodoxy will continue to
flourish in the Conemaugh
Valley.
Complied and Edited by
Nathan S. Catanese & Fr. Don Shadid
Bibliography
Eastern Orthodox Church. Online
Internet Explorer. Sept 14, 2004.
Available: http;//www.factindex.com/e/ea/eastern_orthodox_church.html.
Issa, Father Andre. Saint Raphael: Good Shepherd of the Lost
Sheep of America.
Wichita. Antakya Press 2000.
Shadid, Donald E. The Antiochian Archdiocese
of North America: Traditions, Missionary
Tasks, and Vision of the Future.
Master’s Dissertation. 1984.
Shadid, Very Rev. Donald E. “St. Mary Antiochian Orthodox Christian
Church (Johnstown, Pennsylvania): Lebanese Ethnic & Parish
Family History.” 2004.
Shahade, Robert A. Personal Interview. Sept
7, 2004.
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