'A celebration of hope' at St. Vladimir in Arnold a year after fire

Members of St. Vladimir Ukrainian Catholic Church in Arnold filed into the social hall along Kenneth Avenue on Sunday, filling the two dozen or so folding chairs to celebrate Divine Liturgy.

It was a special day for parishioners of Arnold’s only Catholic church. Exactly one year prior, the 74-year-old building suffered a catastrophic fire that caused more than $4 million in damage.

“Some might ask what kind of sin we have committed that we have to pray in the corner of a social hall,” said the Rev. Yaroslav Koval. “We shouldn’t worry about the physical, but rather the spiritual. A bigger problem would be the separation from God.”

The cause of the fire was undetermined.

Koval shepherded his congregation through initial despair and turned it quickly into resolve.

Plans to rebuild include a design by Oakland-based architect Walter Boykowycz. A smaller floor plan will seat about 100 people and feature an open-air courtyard.

Work will retain the old bell tower, a focal point of the building.

“We don’t need a church that seats 400 anymore,” said church volunteer Mike Haracznak.

The fourth-generation parishioner served as an altar boy throughout his childhood and can remember days when the church was standing-room only.

“We’re going to repurpose as much as we can, stained-glass windows and other relics, to bring the old church into the new,” Haracznak said.

Many of the Belgian-made stained glass windows were untouched in the blaze.

Firefighters rescued statues of Jesus and the Virgin Mary, a baptismal font and the original pulpit, all dating to the church’s original building.

A depiction of St. Vladimir also was salvaged.

Cost estimates for reconstruction are not yet available, but the project could begin in the spring.

Work is expected to retain walls of the existing church and shorten the nave to downsize seating. The middle section of the church will be transformed into an open-air courtyard with trees and benches and will connect to the bell tower.

“It’s a good use of the footprint,” Haracznak said. “It pays homage to the previous church because you’ll still see its outline. It will evoke memories.”

On Dec. 4, 2021, emergency crews responded to the church fire in the early evening. Thick black smoke enveloped the Kenneth Avenue neighborhood and wafted three blocks in every direction, parishioner Julie Martin said.

Firefighters worked for hours to knock down the blaze. There was so much water poured onto the building that it loosened glue around the altar’s gilded paintings and allowed them to be rescued nearly unscathed, despite the walls behind them being scorched with black soot.

The relics now dot the walls of the social hall. Altar cloths and small offertory tables that were saved are also used in weekly services.

“We had a cry of desperation when the church was destroyed,” Koval said. “Now, we’re close to a cry of joy.”

Koval told parishioners on Sunday that “I’ve come to the conclusion that God takes care of us.”

“He pushes us in his direction,” Koval said. “The new church will be beautiful, if a little tiny, and we will love it.”

Koval reminded the members that the ancestors who built the original church along Third Avenue in New Kensington didn’t use a showy floor plan.

“Everything they did was so they could gather in dedication and love,” he said.

St. Vladimir was founded in 1894 with six immigrant families who had services in a neighborhood home and later in a social hall. By 1911, there were 50 families who petitioned for the construction of the first church building on Third Avenue in New Kensington.

A new church, rectory, school and social hall followed in the ensuing decades, all along Kenneth Avenue in Arnold.

Martin said the fire invigorated the church’s 35 or so members.

“We became 100% closer,” Martin said. “Not only physically in this social hall, but emotionally. Everyone talks more, lingers more. We are all hands-on and invested.”

Some members who had drifted from the church have returned and become active volunteers, she said.

“There’s so few of us, so it’s been nice,” she said. “Everyone feels a call to be a part of it.”

The first Divine Liturgy was hosted in the social hall less than 24 hours after the fire.

Koval said he has been approached by church administrators at nearby Guardian Angels Parish, which recently had to close several of its buildings in the Alle-Kiski Valley. Plans are underway for St. Vlad’s to acquire 100-year-old pews and other religious items from the shuttered churches.

“See, this is not an anniversary of disaster, but a celebration of hope,” Koval said.

Volunteer Joe Fedusa, who heads the church’s bingo and pierogi sales, believes the church will thrive again.

Several times a week, Fedusa shows up before dawn to lead a committee of pierogi pinchers at one of the church’s biggest fundraisers. The group turns out 600 dozen potato and cheese dumplings every week.

“We’re never gonna see the church like it used to be,” he said. “With so few people, we’d all need to give a hundred bucks a week. Until then, bingo and pierogis are working miracles.”