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Church congregation worships in one-room schoolhouse

By Robb Frederick, TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, February 4, 2001

With the blow of space heaters and the crackle of a wood stove, members of the St. Nicholas Orthodox Greek Catholic Church moved on Saturday, away from the fire that scorched their sanctuary, forcing them into the same one-room schoolhouse the American Red Cross uses when Jacobs Creek floods.

Chuck Bobich sat up front, his shoulder sore from polishing the brass altar pieces. Two rows back, his wife, Becky, dabbed at her eyes, her third pot of coffee in a thermos on the counter.

Fran Smith sat off to the left, thinking about "Little House on the Prairie."

"It looks just like the school the girls went to," she said later, counting the bills in the night's collection plate.

A few days ago, the schoolhouse looked much different. Soot from the wood stove covered the walls. Clothes, toys and an old orange recliner littered the floor, dropped off for the annual September bazaar.

Then the church burned. Early last Sunday, an electrical short sparked a blaze that spread to the basement and attic. More than 50 firefighters fought to contain it.

After three days inside last week, insurance adjusters estimated the damage at between $200,000 and $250,000.

While they work to rebuild the church, which opened in 1962, the 40-odd members of St. Nicholas will crowd into the schoolhouse. Most know the room well; until recently, members crossed the street to use the school's restroom. The church didn't have one.

Last night 21 of them sat on folding chairs, facing a blackboard with an icon of Christ set on top. Then they stood, breathing in the sticky smells of incense and new paint, and raised their voices in song.

Their pastor, the Rev. Daniel Montville, read a letter from Metropolitan Nicholas of the American Carpatho/Russian Orthodox Diocese in Johnstown, who promised to visit Jacobs Creek at 1 p.m. Wednesday.

Montville had turned down invitations to use a neighboring church - or the Bobich living room. He preferred the schoolhouse, which sits just across the street from the onion-domed church.

"I want to keep everyone as close to the church as I can," he said. "That way, when the time comes when we are able to go back into the church, they'll still be here."

At a meeting held after the evening liturgy, recovery contractors said that could take six months or more.

For now, then, the schoolhouse will do. Members will bring cookies, and coffee, and portable heaters. They will sit on their folding chairs and read from the old hymnals. Many won't skip a single Saturday night.

"This is a good spiritual family," Montville said. "I think we're doing fine. We're with one another. We're serving one another. And that's what it means to be a good Christian."

Then, the service over, members stayed in their seats, eager to hear the contractors' options.

"That's what's nice about a small community," said Luella Opalenik, a lifetime member of the church. "People stick together."

Donations to St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Catholic Church may be sent to the rectory of the sister church, St. Nicholas, at 314 Sixth St., Monongahela, Pa. 15063.


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