A Brief History of the St. Elijah Serbian Orthodox Parish of Aliquippa, Pennsylvania
(2019)
Orthodox Serbs began arriving in Aliquippa (then known as Woodlawn), Pennsylvania in the first decade of the 20th century. They were drawn there primarily for economic reasons: the Jones & Laughlin Steel Company (known simply as “J&L”) began erecting a massive steel plant along the banks of the Ohio River in Aliquippa in 1904, and it recruited thousands of men from southern and eastern Europe to provide labor for its mills. The first Serb immigrants to arrive in Aliquippa came from various parts of Austria-Hungary, including Banija, Kordun, Lika, Bosna, Slavonija, Srem, and Vojvodina.
The first organization established by these Serb settlers, in 1907, was a lodge of the “Srbobran” fraternal benefits society. While the lodge offered economic protection for workers who risked their lives and limbs daily in the dangerous mills, it did not satisfy these settlers’ spiritual needs. A solution to that issue was not long in coming, however, as in 1912, a small group of pioneers — Marko Maravich, Ilija Gvoic, Mihailo Stepanovich, Mica Rebich, and Nikola Vujnovich — filed a corporate charter with the Beaver County Court of Common Pleas that officially established the “Saint Ilija Serbian Orthodox Church — Woodlawn, Pa.”
The early years of the parish’s life were difficult. The parish’s first church building, a wooden frame structure, was demolished in a thunderstorm. In 1914, the parish built a new church on Hopewell Avenue, in the town’s Logstown neighborhood, across the street from J&L’s massive blast furnaces. Over the next 42 years, this humble temple served as a hub of Serb life in Aliquippa. Through those years, the parish saw frequent turnover in its pastorate — sometimes due to disagreements between the priests and parishioners over politics and money — and its resources were strained when its members faced economic hardship, particularly during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Nonetheless, the parish grew: Serb settlers began raising families in Aliquippa, preserving their ties to the homeland through the church. Organizations like the Circle of Serbian Sisters “Sveta Petka” and the St. Elijah Serbian Church Choir (both founded in 1932) offered the faithful additional outlets for spiritual, social, and philanthropic activity.
By 1949, the St. Elijah parish consisted of several hundred families, including many American-born children and grandchildren of the original Aliquippa Serb settlers. The need for a larger church became evident; yet the organization and means required to achieve that goal had not yet materialized. Through God’s grace, this situation changed with the arrival of Protojerej-Stavrofor (Very Reverend Archpriest) Vlastimir Tomich as pastor in March 1949. Proto Tomich invested himself fully in organizing the parish and raising the funds needed to construct a new church, and the faithful responded enthusiastically and generously.
Property for the new church building, located miles away from the mills in Aliquippa’s New Sheffield neighborhood, was consecrated by St. Nikolaj Velimirovic in June 1952. Construction of the new church and parish home commenced in May 1954. At the suggestion of St. Nikolaj and Proto Tomich, the church’s design was modeled on the church of St. Nicholas in Silopaj, near Gornji Milanovac in Sumadija, Serbia. The completed church was consecrated by His Grace, Bishop Dionisije (Milivojevic) in July 1956, with over 1,000 faithful and guests in attendance. The total bid cost of the building project was $263,538 — nearly $2,500,000 in 2018 dollars. A 15-year mortgage for $110,000 ($1,011,000 in 2018 dollars) was paid off in two years.
The 25 years following the construction of the new church were a peak period of activity in the parish’s history. Economically, the Aliquippa area thrived, and parishioners made their new church an even bigger part of their spiritual and social lives. With God’s mercy and under Proto Tomich’s steady, faithful guidance, the parish navigated the turbulence in the life of the Serbian Orthodox Church in North America in the early 1960s in peace and harmony. Quickly acceding to the decision of the Holy Assembly of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church to establish the Diocese of Eastern America and Canada in May 1963, the St. Elijah parish hosted the consecration of the diocese’s first hierarch, His Grace, Bishop Stefan (Lastavica), on July 13, 1963. The parish also hosted the martyred bishop’s funeral in 1966, and his remains are interred at the parish’s cemetery.
The parish’s next significant project was the construction of a large cultural center adjacent to the church. Following a decade of discussion and planning, construction began in 1971, during the pastorate of Rev. Srboljub Bulich, who replaced the retiring Proto Tomich in 1970. The completed structure was consecrated by Bishop Sava (Vukovic) on September 23, 1973, and quickly became a hive of activity for parish, diocesan, and national events. The cost of the project totaled $792,194 (approximately $4,900,000 in 2018 dollars), and all construction debt was retired by November 1981.
The completion of the center came only months after the assignment of Rev. Stevan Stepanov as parish priest in February 1973. His arrival marked the start of a 41-year pastorate, during which the Aliquippa community would experience radical changes. In the late 1970s, the American steel industry entered a period of steep decline, and by the early 1980s, J&L began shuttering its operations in Aliquippa, leaving thousands out of work. Many of St. Elijah’s parishioners were affected. Some moved away to pursue new opportunities, just as their forefathers had done in leaving Stari Kraj decades earlier. Others sought new opportunities in the area, though they were scarce and often less lucrative than what the mills had provided.
Yet with Father Stevan’s loving, faithful, and Christ-centered pastorship, the St. Elijah parish continued to progress spiritually and materially through the end of the 20th century and into the 21st. Among his many achievements were the expansion of the parish’s cycle of liturgical services; the creation of the Circle of Serbian Sisters’ choir to sing liturgical responses on holy days; close work with the church’s youth, to develop a corps of altar boys, readers, and cantors he trained in Srpkso Narodno Crkveno Pojanje (Serbian Folk-Church Chant) as well as to present deklamacije (traditional recitations) at St. Sava Day celebrations; and the institution of a summer Church-School Day Camp, to keep the parish’s children mindful that “God does not take a vacation”. He collaborated extensively with the St. Elijah Choir to expand its repertoire of liturgical and secular music, becoming not only the choir’s spiritual guide, but also a beloved member of the “choir family.” He led several projects to renovate and beautify the St. Elijah Church with decorative painting, marble flooring, frescoes, and modern lighting, heating, and cooling systems; inspired and directed the design, construction, and decoration of the parish cemetery’s Resurrection Chapel; and provided ideas and support for renovations to the cultural center. During his pastorate, Father Stevan baptized approximately 600 babies, received scores of converts into Orthodoxy, officiated at over 300 weddings, and served approximately 1,000 funerals. His service left an indelible mark on the St. Elijah parish that will never be forgotten.
The parish’s first one hundred years culminated in a festive centennial Slava (patronal feast day) celebration on August 1-3, 2014. Over 500 parishioners and friends participated in the affair, led by their diocesan hierarch, His Grace, Bishop Mitrophan (Kodic), Father Stevan, and visiting clergy. It also marked the close of Father Stevan’s epochal service as parish priest, with his retirement following at the end of August 2014. While the centennial weekend revived many memories of the parish’s pioneers and significant events from the past, it also served as the gateway to the parish’s second century.
Now in its 106th year, the St. Elijah parish remains an active and lively constituent of the Diocese of Eastern America and the Orthodox Church at large. Though the parish saw small influxes of newcomers from the former Yugoslavia after World War II and again as a result of the homeland wars in the 1990s, the majority of parishioners — whom today include over 450 supporting members and families — are descendants of the settlers who came to Aliquippa in the early 20th century. A number of converts to Orthodoxy also are active members of the parish. Though most parishioners today cannot communicate fluently in the Serbian language, the vast majority enthusiastically preserve their Serbian Orthodox traditions. The parish continues to witness its culture to the community in various ways, including annual choir concerts, twice-yearly Serbian food festivals, and the celebration of Badnje Vece (old-calendar Christmas Eve), complete with an energetic procession to cut the Badnjak (yule log) at the parish’s picnic grounds that is well-known to Aliquippians. The parish’s focal point, however, remains life in Christ through the Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Orthodox faith.
Since August 2016, Rev. Branislav Golic has served as the parish’s pastor. As the youngest priest to serve the parish in nearly 50 years, he and his family have brought a new energy to parish life, with fresh insights about the parish’s mission and goals in its second century. It is in this position that the St. Elijah parish has embarked on its second hundred years of service to the Orthodox Church, its faithful, and the greater Aliquippa community.
