LYNDORA — St. John the Baptist Byzantine Catholic Church, 105 Kohler Ave.,is celebrating its centennial year which began June 24 and continuesthrough Sept. 22, 2013, with a series of special events, services and monthly lectures.

The next observance will be Aug. 26 with special Sunday activities honoring parishioners 80 years old or older.

St. John's pastor, the Rev. Robert Oravetz, said the parishioners would be given scrolls recognizing their history in the parish.

“We have 112 parishioners over 80. We recognize them annually,” said Rev. Oravetz. “We chose August because it's a good weather month. Half of them can physically make it.”

However, Helen Cote of Butler won't be going.

The 101-year-old said she can't attend church services now “because I'm too weak” but she enjoys Oravetz's home visits.

She moved to Butler 15 years ago.

“My family is here you know,” she said. She was born in Butler but moved to Michigan when she was 23.

“All my friends were passing away, so I thought it was best to be closer to my family.” She has a sister and nieces in Butler.

Oravetz said more of his parishioners should be getting home visits, but some are not comfortable with them.

“They are somewhat shy. They think that if they are getting home visits they must be close to death,” he said.

In addition to special services throughout the year, Oravetz said, the parish will undertake renovation projects including plastering and painting and improvements to the church sound system and lighting.

St. John will also have icons painted in the sanctuary. Carnegie artist Michael Kapeluck is starting work now in his studio, O

, and the present church was erected on the site beginning in 1954 with construction completed in 1955.

Oravetz said “All of the churches in Lyndora got their start when the steel mill got started and expanded.”

He said after the Civil War when the Industrial Revolution took hold, the steel mills and coal mines sent recruiters to Europe to obtain workers. The first wave of immigrant laborers came from Italy, then Poland and finally Slovakia, Ukraine and Hungary.

Oravetz said the oldest Catholic churches in Butler were founded by Irish or Germans, next, the Polish and finally, the Slovaks, Ukrainians and Hungarians.

In the immigrant days, he said, the groups stayed to themselves and didn't mix socially.

But assimilation has changed that, Oravetz said.

He said St. John serves 300 families, but “we haven't had a interparish marriage in about 50 years.”

After World War II, he said, that was the first generation that took marriage partners outside the church. By the 1960s, membersbegan to marry partners of any religion or ethnic group.

“Now their children live together without marriage,” he said.

Oravetz came to the priesthood later in life.

He was born on the South Side of Pittsburgh and taught economics at Shippensburg University for years before becoming ordained in 1997.

Before coming to St. John three years ago, he had been in charge of a campus ministry and three parishes in State College and before that he was

Oravetz said.

All churches are facing two problems as they move into the 21st century, he said, a shortage of priests and a shortage of congregants.

“The same pinch facing all churches of any denomination,” Oravetz said. “You're trying to get your message understood by the current generation of non-attendees.”

“And clergy of all denominations are finding today that the nonattendees are no longer restricted to young people just out of school and because of our higher levels of education, people want to know more about their faith,” he said.

“The churches owe them a renewed emphasis on good teaching and a reinforcement of that teaching,” he said.

“Clergy can't become uptight when one of their members feels closer to Christ at some other church. If one of my parishioners in Mars or Cranberry or Boyers feels easier or more comfortable at a church there, it's not something to worry about, but to rejoice.”

“The whole purpose of life is to bring people closer to Christ,” he said.

St. John the Baptist Byzantine Church centennial year activities include:Aug. 26— Special Sunday activities honoring parishioners 80 or olderSept. 2 — Labor Day bus trip to Shrine of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in UniontownOct. 28 — Special Sunday activities honoring parishioners with significant wedding anniversariesNovember — Parishioners photographed for centennial parishioners photo bookDec. 30 — Christmas concert by Ukrainian Cultural Trust Choir2013Feb. 24 — Archdiocesan Lenten Vesper serviceMarch — Centennial Parish Retreat; date to be announcedApril 7: Sunday of Thomas DinnerMay — Spirituality Conference for Women; a Saturday before Mother’s DayJune — Spirituality Conference for Men; a Saturday before Father’s DayJuly 14 — Centennial bus trip to Emmitsburg/WashingtonAugust — Pilgrimage for the Feast of the DormitionSept. 22 — Banquet at the The Atrium