OCA Responds to Demolition of Wilkes-Barre Cathedral
The historic cathedral in Pennsylvania, which had served as the home of a parish founded by St. Alexis Toth, was demolished last week.
WILKES-BARRE — Last week, the historic Holy Resurrection Cathedral in Wilkes-Barre was demolished after a series of events that lasted nearly a year-and-a-half led to the parish's closure and, eventually, the demolition of the structure.
The cathedral had housed the community since 1972. In March 2024, the parish received a blessing to attend the sister Holy Trinity parish of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA) in Wilkes-Barre due to chunks of plaster falling from the dome. Later that year, the difficult decision was made to close the parish, as repairs to the cathedral would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars for a parish that already had a small number of regular members and had just dealt with the retirement of their priest due to health issues. The parish then permanently joined Holy Trinity Orthodox Church.
In a statement issued by Abp. Mark of the OCA's Diocese of Philadelphia and Eastern Pennsylvania, he emphasized that "water was running between the interior walls and through the ductwork itself which further damaged the plaster and created the possibility of mold in the ductwork and walls."
All liturgical items requested by former members of Holy Resurrection were gifted to Holy Trinity, His Eminence said, and only the icons which were "irreparably damaged or professionally deemed unsalvageable were left to the demolition which afforded them the opportunity to be buried." The process to salvage as much as possible took more than a year to complete and included removing the stained-glass windows.
Months of work on this task included also numerous interactions with electric, water and sewer authorities as the Cathedral and rectory were commingled. Asbestos in the ceiling, floors and caulk around windows also needed mitigation. This immense project was managed with exceptional care and effort, and this sad task is recognized with profound gratitude by the former community of Holy Resurrection, our diocesan Council and the archbishop.
His Eminence also said that the painfulness of having to close a parish has been made worse by media coverage that "has offered speculation and invited agitation" against the diocese and the archbishop himself. With opinions and assessments being offered by individuals who are not directly involved, Abp. Mark said it is ironic that "the former community members have had nothing to say contrary to the decisions that have been made as painful as it undoubtedly is for them to witness."
The legacy of Holy Resurrection continues at Holy Trinity, His Eminence said, and the members of Holy Trinity have welcomed their former neighbors "with a spirit of compassion and generosity."
"We pray for the continued growth of the Church in Wilkes-Barre, recognizing that the Church is first made of living stones and that the legacy of any parish community is in the living faith of its members traditioned down the generations," His Eminence concluded. "That legacy now lives at Holy Trinity, which now embodies as completely as is possible the mission and ministry formerly embodied at Holy Resurrection Cathedral."
The closure of the Holy Resurrection parish and later demolition of the cathedral can be attributed to many factors outside of the parishioners' control, with the foremost being population decline and reduced employment opportunities due to the closure of steel mills. While Orthodoxy is certainly on the rise in various regions of the U.S., it must be noted that this is simply not the reality across the board.
Demetri Patitsas, a member of the schismatic GOC-K (which indicates that it is under the self-proclaimed Archbishop Kallinikos of the Church of the Genuine Orthodox Christians of Greece), had made attempts to purchase the cathedral and make it the home of an Old Calendarist parish and his non-profit, St. Paul’s Fellowship of Labor.
His interview with UOJ-USA from June, along with previous reporting on the situation in Wilkes-Barre, can be read here.
