CLOTHING DRIVE — St. John the Baptist Byzantine Catholic Church parishioners, parish friends and members of the fraternal benefit society GCU held winter clothing items to be donated to Hills Elementary School students on Dec. 17. -- Christopher Dacanay

MINGO JUNCTION — Around the turn of the century, waves of immigrants flocked to America for work and new opportunities. Of those who established themselves in the ethnically diverse steel mill town of Mingo Junction were some Slovak-speaking members of the Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church, or Byzantine Catholic Church.

The Slovak Catholic community in Mingo Junction remained in flux until the writing of their Articles of Incorporation in 1923. From that was born the parish of St. John the Baptist Byzantine Catholic Church, which continues to survive.

Sept. 11 marked the 100-year anniversary of the parish, which has occupied the same church building since its construction in 1927, though some modifications have been made. Differences include an altered sanctuary, a single-tiered dome that replaced the former double-tiered dome and a totally remodeled front entrance where a double set of stairs used to sit.

After the divine liturgy at 11 a.m., parishioners and friends gathered in the building’s fellowship hall on Dec. 17 to celebrate the close of another year with a Christmas party. Children darted playfully through the hall, decorated for Christmas, as adults socialized or caught up with old friends, all while enjoying catered food and desserts around a single, long table.

The parish’s Deacon Timothy Fariss gave a catechetical presentation on Byzantine icons and their teaching potential about scripture or church history. Earlier, parishioners and friends stood for a picture commemorating the parish’s annual winter clothing drive benefiting Hills Elementary School students through GCU, a fraternal benefit society founded in association with the Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church to offer insurance to immigrants working dangerous jobs.

Being in the presence of the small yet tight-knit church community provided some attendees with an opportunity to reflect on the church, its history and its personal meaning for them.

Siblings John Grecula and Michaleen Grecula Chapman were in town for the party, having traveled from Columbus that day. The latter recalled how she was baptized, received first communion and was married at St. John.

Though she had moved out of Mingo Junction for school and now lives between Columbus and Florida, Grecula Chapman said of St. John: “It’s always good to come here. There are good memories here.”

She recalled how her grandfather, Michael Koschak, helped to build the church. Furthermore, his home had been in the way of the planned state Route 7 in 1958. Rather than have the building demolished, he donated the home to the church as its rectory, being transported to its current location next to the church on a truck bed.

Grecula Chapman’s cousin Carla Gasser, baptized at St. John in 1961, recalled her cousin Mike Kendrach, who had contributed to the church’s construction, hand-digging the foundation when he was only 13.

Kendrach was the church’s oldest member, having died on his birthday at 103 years old. Gasser said the church’s oldest living members are Margaret Olexia, 92, and Dorothy Grecula, 91.

Another remembrance came from Karen Lloyd, granddaughter of two of the church’s founding members. Lloyd herself was baptized at St. Agnes Roman Catholic Church in Mingo Junction but always had a special connection with St. John — her mother was baptized and married there, living only three houses up the road.

“This church is filled with traditions and family, (and) we passed them on to every generation,” Lloyd said. She recalled a particular tradition wherein parishioners would volunteer time to symbolically guard Jesus’ tomb in the sanctuary, constantly on watch from Good Friday until Resurrection Sunday.

With parish friends visiting from out of town, Lloyd said it is good to see the family reunited, and the reunification makes it feel like “we were never apart.”

Bob Olexia is the parish’s patriarch, being the oldest living male. During the Christmas party, he remembered the church’s history of blowout festivities, the magnitude of which would even phase the pastor. However, he added that older generations dying off and younger generations moving away have taken their toll on the parish’s membership.

Born in 1936, Olexia was baptized in the parish but did not become active until 1962, after he finished his time in the Air Force and got married to his wife, another St. John parishioner. Being witness to some of the church’s major renovations during the years, Olexia can speak to the church’s physical changes, as well as the personal changes.

“The single guys used to sit on the steps because there was nowhere to sit,” Olexia said of the church’s former attendance rates. He added that liturgies were said solely in Slovak until about 1961 and the church at one time had two liturgies per day.

It was around that time that the church received its first resident priest, the Rev. Charles Kofile, on May 5, 1961. Previous priests had jointly served St. John and St. Joseph Parish in Toronto — a role that the current pastor, the Rev. John Kapitan Jr., OFM, also fills.

That history and more is recorded in a 60th-anniversary booklet of St. John, distributed to parishioners on Sept. 11, 1983. The booklet contains photos of parishioners; a history of the church; a list of pastors through the Rev. Ronald P. Larko, who died only two years ago, and congratulatory remarks from the Most Rev. Stephen J. Kocisko, then-metropolitan archbishop of Pittsburgh, and an apostolic delegate of then-Pope John Paul II.

Olexia perused the booklet after the liturgy on Dec. 3, along with fellow parishioner Cathy Risdon, who spotted one of her two sons in an altar server photo — she herself is in the Ladies Guild photo. The two shared further reminiscences, including memories of homemade bread made by women in the church kitchen, which Olexia compared to a dungeon before it was remodeled into its current state.

Though attendance isn’t what it once was, the church remains open in part due to donations from former parishioners who have moved away, Olexia said. However, one thing that hasn’t changed is the connectedness shared among parishioners.

It’s a fact attested to by the Rev. John Kapitan, who said he was told St. John has a “family church character” when he first arrived in October 2012.

Speaking to that character, Olexia said, “It was a close church (and) it still is.”