Magic Milestone
LYNDORA — This weekend, a seminary choir will entertain members of St. Andrew Orthodox Church. The congregation will share a meal, and honored deanery guests will speak.
Friends from neighboring parishes will join the congregation in the special event at the Butler Country Club, marking 100 years since the church was formed.
The church began in 1906, when the Russian mission sent an Orthodox priest to serve in Lyndora; construction of the Penn Avenue church followed some eight years later.
"We started out with people from Czechoslovakia, Austria, Hungary and Russia — more of a Slavic background," said the Rev. Joseph Wargo, priest at St. Andrew for 30 years.
Wargo is the longest serving of 15 priests in the church's history.
While the Slavic population formed St. Andrew, the county's Orthodox Ukrainians gathered nearby in Lyndora to form SS. Peter and Paul Ukrainian Orthodox Church. St. Anthony's Antiochian Orthodox Church on Pillow Street reflects strong Syrian roots.
"They all stayed and they all lived in the same area," Wargo said of the immigrant communities. "Along with their identity came their churches."
Although the current congregation comprises close to 130 child and adult members, Wargo said as many as 250 have belonged to St. Andrew.
"The height was in the 50s," he said, citing an influx of immigrants then.
Smaller families, fewer industrial jobs and college graduates who relocate to other cities are among reasons the church demographic has changed, he added.
Although much of St. Andrew's identity still stems from its ethnic roots — reflected in the homemade perogies sold regularly by the Sisterhood of the Altar — Wargo said increasing emphasis is placed on faith instead of on ethnicity.
"Today, over half of our parishioners are converts into the church through mixed marriages," he said.
Defined largely by traditions that preceded Catholicism, Wargo noted shared beliefs in the ancient faith have always been valued over ethnic heritage.
"The emphasis on Orthodoxy is not on its ethnicity. It's on a (common) faith and the doctrine of the church," he said.
Originally named St. Andrew Russian Orthodox Church, St. Andrew was part of the Saint Andrew Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church of North and South America.
St. Andrew changed its name in 1970 when the church received autocephaly from the mother church in Russia.The change allowed the church to be self-governing and to deliver the liturgy in English instead of Slavonic, a mixture of the Greek and Russian alphabets.Although all Orthodox groups historically have formed under bishops in their countries of origin, Wargo said many Orthodox Christians hope to someday unite the ethnic jurisdictions under one umbrella.On a local level, the three Orthodox churches in the Butler area have formed the outreach program BOAT, or Butler Orthodox Acting Together."We share the same theology, we share the same ecclesiology and we are in communion," said Mark Stewart, president of BOAT.Outside of their various ethnic origins, Stewart noted the churches are interchangeable in terms of serving Orthodox Christians from outside parishes.Stewart said despite a hope for Orthodox unity, BOAT isn't trying to change jurisdictions.Instead, the group was formed to raise awareness and to initiate collective community work.The outcome so far has included joint religious services, cooperative charity drives and participation in Camp Creation, a summer program for children hosted by area churches in The Island neighborhood."It gives us an opportunity to work as a united Orthodox group in the community," explained Wargo."In that sense we're also looking to make the Orthodox presence better known by uniting into one group," he added.Stewart said after 100 years, the Orthodox church is following the path of other Christian groups, whose parishes often formed in ethnic communities and later diversified."Most Lutherans when they came here spoke German. Over a period of time, they obtained a large number of converts," said Stewart, a convert himself."I have no cultural ties to the church. And that's increasingly the case. We have more and more people in the Orthodox church who do not come from these traditional ethnic backgrounds."Wargo hopes the coming years will perpetuate the current trend, that diversity and Orthodox unity will continue redefining parishes."To me, that's the excitement of being a pastor at St. Andrew, because I feel our church is at that turning point," he said."We call Orthodoxy the best kept secret in the world. But today Ithink it's becoming more and more prominent."We want to make ourselves more known in the community so it's not a secret anymore. That is my goal. That's been my goal since I've been here."
