ZELIENOPLE — The public is invited to join the congregation at St. Peter's Reformed Church to celebrate the completion of the recent two-story building expansion.

The festivities will commence at 2 p.m. Saturday with a dedication service in the expanded sanctuary. An open house from 3 to 5 p.m. will follow.

The $1.7 million expansion, which began in April 2009 and was completed Feb. 10, added 9,000 square feet to the church building on Grandview Avenue.

The Rev. Jim Bertoti, senior pastor at St. Peter's for six years, said he has been determined during his tenure there to make the church accessible to those with disabilities.

"One of my passions is to see us reach out to everyone in the community," Bertoti said.

He said the expansion began with the formation of a long-range planning committee made up of a cross section of church members, from young parents to senior members.

"We wanted a combination of thoughts, not just those (of members) who know church politics."

The group's first few meetings were spent brainstorming ideas for the expansion project. Bertoti said the group finally settled on four goals:

• Adding accessibility for the handicapped, including bathrooms, an elevator, ramps and wheelchair seating;

• Creating additional egress space to eliminate the bottleneck created when worshippers leave church services;

• Increase fellowship space, which was achieved by doubling the seating in fellowship hall from 125 to as many as 250;

• Increase sanctuary seating while remaining mindful of the church's current design. Worshippers now have 100 more seats to choose from.

"Those were the four goals we set out to accomplish, and we can check them off," Bertoti said.

The goals were accomplished after a successful three-year capital campaign called "Believe: Building for Life" in which parishioners were asked to go above and beyond their normal tithes.

Bertoti said since the completion of the project, attendance has increased from about 250 to 280 or 290.

Bertoti said the building's new features for those in wheelchairs has allowed some of the church's elderly members to begin attending church again.

"Seeing the joy in their faces on a Sunday morning, knowing they are getting to the place they call 'their church,' it's overwhelming," Bertoti said.

He said the church also invested in an embossing machine, which will print church bulletins in Braille. The impetus for that purchase were members suffering from macular degeneration, plus a young church member who is blind.

"She was the motive for us to go that way," Bertoti said.

The expanded fellowship hall provided an unexpected blessing after a pair of teen church members approached Bertoti about their overwhelming feelings of grief at the suicides at Seneca Valley School District last year.

Bertoti and the teens made up flyers, which the teens posted in high-traffic areas of the community and handed out to other students. The result was a Feb. 11 gathering in the fellowship hall where 28 students shared their confusion and grief.

"The teens came in and opened up their hearts and said 'Why is this happening? What can we do to stop it?'" Bertoti said.

He said some students ultimately entered personal counseling, while others meet with Bertoti one-on-one or in small groups.

"We try to make them feel like they have a place where they can find comfort and peace."

He also hopes to begin in April or May a support group for parents who have lost a child.

"When you don't have any support out there, it can be pretty lonely and devastating," he said.

The pastor said he will not relent on his high hopes for his church now that facilities are more than adequate.

"It's about us being 'the church' to the communities of Zelienople and Harmony," Bertoti said. "We want to be the hands, feet, eyes and heart of Jesus."

Kendra Bertoti is heavily involved in church life along with her husband. She, too, is excited about the possibilities available through the church's first expansion project since 1961.

"I'm thrilled," Kendra Bertoti said. "We are extremely blessed to be able to do this for the community, to open our doors to more people."