St. Vladimir leaders vow to rebuild after fire: 'The church is not the building.'

Inside the mangled ruins of St. Vladimir Ukrainian Catholic Church in Arnold stands a bronze crucifix with Jesus’ face shrouded by a piece of fallen wallpaper.

“That message is clear,” said the Rev. Yaroslav Koval, pastor of the church along Kenneth Avenue that was destroyed by fire on Dec. 4. “He does not want to see that his church is burned.

“But he is saying to us, ‘I will be with you until the end of the world.’ ”

Fire at the 74-year-old building — Arnold’s only Catholic church — caused $4 million in damage and left the sanctuary a rumpled, wet shell.

Portions of the metal roof are twisted away from the building, exposing the sky. The aluminum sheets flap and clank against a steel beam above the nave.

Soggy prayer books fill the wooden pews, and broken pendant lights dangle from the ceiling.

The carpet is covered by a thick mix of mud and mashed glass that crunches underfoot.

“We cannot change this,” Koval said. “But the church is not the building. It is a collection of souls, and we will focus our attention on our faith and our future.”

Church officials expect to detail a rebuilding plan in January.

The cause of the fire has yet to be determined.

Firefighters worked for hours to contain the blaze, but their efforts were hampered by the church’s metal roof. While the roof thwarted firefighters, it simultaneously worked in the church’s favor to protect the treasured, painted canvas icons that surrounded the altar.

“There was so much water on the paintings that the glue loosened and we were able to peel them from the wall,” said Michael Haracznak, a fourth-generation parishioner who, as a youngster, served as an altar boy.

The gilded paintings, no more than an inch thick, were unscathed, but the walls behind them were scorched.

“On the day after, all the people came and many cried out,” Koval said. “I told them we will rebuild, not only in a material way, but we will sustain each other.

“We are the church.”

Inside the sanctuary, the walls look painted black with soot. It reeks of smoke. Incredibly, almost all of the Belgian-made stained glass windows remain untouched.

Firefighters also rescued statues of Jesus and the Virgin Mary, and the original pulpit, all dating to the church’s original 1911 building.

Other items, including the Book of Gospel, tall metal crosses, the tabernacle and decades-old shrouds, were ferried by Haracznak and fellow parishioner Joe Fedusa to the social hall as the fire raged.

A depiction of St. Vladimir baptizing the people of Rus-Ukraine in the year 988 was also salvaged. The icon will be the focal point in the rebuilt church.

“I tried to go in the door that night, but the firemen said ‘no,’ ” Koval said. “Miraculously, they saved our icons that are so precious to us. It was providence from God.”

Parishioner Julie Martin said thick, black smoke enveloped the neighborhood and lingered in the air for three blocks.

With three churches at the corner of Kenneth Avenue and McCandless Street, Martin said she couldn’t be sure where the fire was coming from until she was practically at the church’s doorstep.

She was one of many bystanders who watched in tears as flames tore through the building.

Martin said that with a congregation that has declined from 700 in its 1950s heyday to just 35 today, she was struck by how many people flocked to the scene.

“You kind of go along and do what you do at the church, cut grass or pinch pierogies. Then something like this happens and you realize that this is everyone’s church,” she said. “It is a reflection of the history of deep faith in Arnold.”

St. Vladimir was founded in 1894 with six immigrant families who offered 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 along Third Avenue.

“They came from Europe with nothing but a trunk and a pillow. They worked hard and liked to pray, and it was their faith that built this church,” Haracznak said.

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

“Those people gave everything, and we will maintain the spirit of that dedication now,” Haracznak said.

Not 18 hours after Koval tried to run into the burning sanctuary, he was presiding over Divine Liturgy from a makeshift altar in the social hall. Services will continue there at 11 a.m. Sundays.

On Thursday, the scent of fried buttered onions wafted outside the social hall, while inside a line of pierogi pinchers produced 500 dozen potato pockets for the church’s weekly fundraiser.

“We still had to keep going,” said Fedusa, who oversees the pierogi and bingo committees. “It was either give up or carry on.”

On Dec. 7, more than 60 people turned out for the first bingo after the fire. It was the largest attendance in some time.

“Sure, we have bingo to help pay the bills,” Koval said. “It is more, though, to bring us together. Disaster can open a new page in the history of our parish.

“We must try not to be attached to the building but to see the presence of God in everything.”

Contributions to the church’s reconstruction are accepted at donorbox.org/stvlads, instagram.com/stvlads/ or by mail to Fire Relief, c/o St. Vladimir Ukrainian Catholic Church, 1601 Kenneth Ave., Arnold, PA 15068.