church history

church history

Nativity of Christ Orthodox Church, 727 Miller St., Youngstown, is celebrating its 100th anniversary this weekend. Vespers are scheduled at 4 p.m. today and Sunday, there will be Divine Liturgy at 10 a.m. and a banquet at Antone’s Banquet Center in Boardman with social time at 3 p.m. and dinner at 4. Balaliaka Orchestra will entertain.

The beginning: On Jan. 7, 1915, 13 Orthodox believers visited homes to sing Christmas carols. Jan. 7 was Christmas Day for the Orthodox Catholics on the Julian calendar. The group received $34 in contributions and sent a representative to at Russian Orthodox community in New Castle, Pa., to help establish a parish in Youngstown. The Rev. Jacob Kor- chinsky established a parish in Youngstown. On the Sunday of Orthodoxy in 1915, the first Divine Liturgy was celebrated in a rented hall on Washington Street. A “temporary” church was constructed at 525 Arlington St. In December 1915, the Rev. Joseph Dzvonchik was named resident pastor. In 1915, 39 baptisms were recorded and in 1916, 80 baptisms.

1920s: The Rev. Daniel Kolodiuk served the parish in 1929, then Archimandrite Peter Zaichenko is listed. In 1932, Archpriest Nicholas Levitsky was named pastor and served 19 years until his death. In 1951, a parish Sisterhood was organized and a Building Fund for a new edifice began.

1950s: Several priests served the parish until the Rev. Feodor Kovalchuk was named pastor in 1952 and served until his death in 2008. He began the first all-English Divine Litergy with responses sung by the newly organized youth group. English gradually replaced Church Slavonic as the liturgical language. In 1953, property was bought on the South Side for a new church and the land was blessed by Archpriest Sawa Kovalchuk, father of the pastor. On Dec. 25, 1955, the first Divine Liturgy was celebrated in the basement of the new church. Metropolitan Boris issued an encyclical establishing Dec. 25 as the annual Patronal Feast Day.

1960s: Since December 1969, the parish has used the Julian calendar. On May 16, 1965, the church was consecrated by Bishop Dositheus, who placed the relics of St. Barbara, a martyr, and a chip from the stone of the Holy Sepulcher into the altar. The parish paid off its mortgage of $50,000 and $5,000 in promissory notes by 1964.

2000s: Archpriest Stephen Holowach became pastor in 2008 and served until his death in 2011. Liturgy was then celebrated by retired Orthodox priests. The Rev. Andoni Callozzo served from 2012-15. The Rev. Gabriel Bilas was named pastor in September 2015.