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125th anniversary 2 years after church fire
The Lutheran Church of St. John the Evangelist, located at 231 E. State St. in Nanticoke, will celebrate its 125th anniversary in September, but volunteers from the church are not waiting until then to reach out to the public. Volunteers from the church recently started a Christian rock radio station, which carries the church’s message over the airwaves at FM 94.5 WVHO.
St. John’s will celebrate its anniversary with a special service, Sept. 23, and with its fall rummage sale to be held the same weekend. It will be an anniversary that may never have happened.
On Sept. 23, 2005, one day before the church’s 123rd anniversary, an electrical malfunction caused a basement light fixture to catch fire, igniting the parquet wood floor above. Significant portions of the floor and one side wall of the church were destroyed in the fire, which began as volunteers prepared for the rummage sale in the basement. Nearly every room in the building was damaged by the smoke and heat.
“The walls were blackened, the ceiling was blackened; it took them days to clean it,” said Dale Zmijewski, parish secretary.
The parish quickly rebounded from the near disaster, however, cleaning and rebuilding the damaged church with an insurance payment from Lutheran Trust. A meditative room was added to the church entryway, the church’s electrical system was repaired and upgraded, and new fire and intruder security systems were added in the process.
“There were changes that needed to be made. Good things can come from bad things,” said the Rev. Phyllis Pelletier, pastor of St. John’s.
Zmijewski added that even if the 2005 fire had been more devastating, the congregation would have rebounded.
“If our building would have burned down there still would have been a congregation, because the people are what’s important,” Zmijewski said.
St. John’s was dedicated on Sept. 24, 1882, but its congregation’s history dates back more than 50 years earlier. The church was preceded by St. James’ Lutheran Church in Newport Township, which was founded in 1826 and closed in 1926. St. James’ congregation was originally comprised of members of three Christian denominations: Lutheran, Reformed Lutheran and Methodist.
A relic of the St. James’ Church was recently restored to service in St. John’s Church. William Moyer, who was the last person baptized in St. James’ Lutheran Church, donated an original 1826 pew to St. John’s. Volunteers from St. John’s used wood from the pew to construct a new bench, which now sits in the church’s entryway.
In the summer of 1879, the Rev. F.K. Levan, a reformed minister from Wilkes-Barre, organized St. John’s congregation, mostly from members of the St. James’ congregation. Grounds for the church were secured from the Susquehanna Coal Company of Nanticoke, and ground was broken on Jan. 17, 1882.
Builders constructed the church in only nine months, and Levan dedicated the church on Sept. 24. Four days later on Sept. 28, William Kresge and Lissetta Pushman were married in the first wedding performed at the church. The Rev. Ludwig Ulmer acted as the church’s first regular pastor from 1882 until 1887.
The church was originally dedicated as St. John’s German Evangelical Protestant Church, but its name may be somewhat misleading. The founders of the church were Eastern Prussians, who came to the area to work in the Nanticoke mines. Though they were ethnically Polish, the congregation members spoke German, and the German language has had a formative impact on the church’s history and present-day appearance.
“A lot of things were divided along ethnic lines back then,” Zmijewski said.
The church’s Sunday school, which was founded in 1890, conducted classes in German until 1927. The church originally held services in German, and continued services in English and German until regular German service was discontinued in 1950.
“Pretty early on there was an English service, as the children moved here and grew up here, they began to speak primarily English,” Zmijewski said.
Today, the church contains reminders of its heritage. Its stained-glass windows were installed one at a time as the parish could afford them. The older windows of the church, as well as many donor plaques on other objects, have dedications and inscriptions in German.
Nanticoke’s other Lutheran Church, St. John’s Slovak Lutheran Church, was also founded by former members of the St. John’s German Evangelical congregation, and Zmijewski said the congregation today transcends ethnic divisions.
“Today we have Indian families, Slovaks, Irish, Italian, you name it,” he said.
St. John’s Church thus has a strong history to build upon, but its members are more excited about the future.
At midnight, March 19, the church’s new Christian rock radio station, FM 94.5 WVHO Low Power, broadcast its inaugural program. The 100-watt radio station known as HOPE-FM broadcasts through an antenna in the church steeple. Volunteers from the church constructed the soundproofed broadcasting studio in the church basement, which sits directly beneath the spot in which the 2005 fire began. About eight volunteers now monitor the station’s broadcasts, which they can do remotely by cell phone through a remote facilities controller in the station.
The radio station broadcasts in a circular pattern from the church’s steeple, and can be received clearly in Nanticoke, West Nanticoke and Hanover Township. Warren Sorasco, a volunteer from the church who has taken charge of the radio station project, said St. John’s is considering building a transmitter on Honey Pot Mountain.
“If we get up there, we’ll double our coverage,” Sorasco said.
HOPE FM broadcasts contemporary Christian rock music targeted at a young audience.
“We’re out to prove that God isn’t square,” said Pelletier.
Zmijewski said the station has plans to add different programming to appeal to different listeners in the future, including more traditional devotional programming.
“We will have more adult-type music. We intend to bring back the hymn hour, which was on WNEK before it was cancelled; seniors loved that. We’re trying to do what the people like,” Zmijewski said.
The station will continue to broadcast a Christian rock format in the evening hours.
New front doors were also recently installed in the church in commemoration of its 125th anniversary. The glass doors are inscribed with opening lines of the Gospel of John: “In the beginning was the word.” The cost was $7,350, $6,445 of which has been paid off through a donation drive.
“This is not a wealthy congregation,” Zmijewski said. “This is a congregation of people who don’t really have much but who give a lot.”
Through the generosity of volunteers from the church, and newly purchased broadcasting equipment, St. John’s will continue to serve Nanticoke and the Wyoming Valley in new ways in the future.
“We’re out to serve the community, that’s why we’re doing it,” Sorasco said.
“There were changes that needed to be made. Good things can come from bad things.”
The Rev. Phyllis Pelletier Pastor of St. John’s, on the fire in 2005 that nearly destroyed the church