Church Closings

JANINE UNGVARSKY Times Leader Correspondent

KINGSTON -- It was a moment that tied generations together as little Isabel Shoemaker’s first memories of St. Mary’s Annunciation Church twined together with memories of her great-grandmother on the day the family church closed its doors for good.

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Deacons John O’Connor, left, and Raymond Pieretti assist Mae Perles, 98, center, as she kisses the altar at the conclusion of the closing Mass at St. Mary’s Annunciation Church in Kingston.

Bill tarutis/for the times leader

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The Knights of Columbus lead the procession from St. Mary’s Annunciation Church to St. Ignatius Church in Kingston on Sunday afternoon.

Bill tarutis/for the times leader

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With the 14-month-old too fidgety to stay in the packed pews, the toddler and her mother, Susan, paced the church vestibule, where the little girl asked again and again to dip her fingers in the holy water font.

From her mother’s arms, she dunked tiny fingers in a basin held by one of two angel figures flanking the center door, then dabbed her hand to her own forehead or her mother’s in the initial gesture of the Sign of the Cross.

“She’s the holiest kid here today,” her mother said as Isabel giggled and blessed herself again. “And the special thing about it is those angels have plaques on them with my grandmother’s name. They were given in her memory,” Susan Shoemaker said, gesturing toward a small plaque on the base of each statue that said they were given in memory of Mary Adams and her children.

Shoemaker and her daughter, along with son Jacob, 7, came to St. Mary’s for the final Mass on Sunday with Shoemaker’s parents.

“They’ve always belonged here, and we came to support them,” said Shoemaker, whose siblings traveled from out of state to be there for her parents.

“I have very mixed emotions,” said Shoemaker, who received three sacraments at St. Mary’s. “I feel sad for this parish, but I belong to St. Ignatius.”

The churches will be joined now that St. Mary’s is closed. “To see my family all together again in a beautiful church at St. Ignatius makes me happy. It’s going to bring my family together,” Shoemaker said

While she and some others took the change in stride, others left the church for the last time with red-rimmed eyes and tear-streaked cheeks. Some came out of the church, founded in 1902, with boxes of tissues clutched to their side, too distraught to speak when asked about the closing.

The church’s pastor, the Rev. Daniel Yenkevich, addressed that sadness during his homily.

He told parishioners to remember their parents, grandparents and great-grandparents who founded the church and sustained it. “They crossed the ocean knowing they would never see their beloved Lithuania again. They had many hardships and made unbelievable sacrifices,” Yenkevich said.

“This brings us to a moment of thanksgiving for everyone who ever walked through the doors of this beautiful church in the name of Jesus.”

Recalling the fun of bazaars and church breakfasts, the celebrations of the Rosary, Christmas and Easter, Yenkevich reminded parishioners to be grateful to God for all that happened in the church and for the fact that some of the church’s religious objects will help rebuild a church devastated by Hurricane Katrina as well as St. George’s, a church in Lithuania that served as a warehouse in World War II and is now being returned to the use of the Catholic Church.

“As we say farewell today, we look forward to a new beginning,” Yenkevich said. “We must rise and follow where Jesus leads us.”

After saying ceremonial farewells to the baptismal font, confessionals, altar and other places in the church that play key roles in its faith, the congregation gathered outside the Zerby Avenue church as church bells tolled a slow, steady peal. Then the church’s oldest member, Mae Perles, 98, locked the door one final time while the church’s choir sang a Lithuanian hymn in honor of the Blessed Mother. Caroline Rukstalis, a member for 59 years, sang with the choir.

“I’m sad, sad, sad, but what are you going to do?” said Rukstalis, who taught Sunday school and helped with the altar during her years at St. Mary’s. Asked what she’ll miss most, she didn’t hesitate.

“Christmas. It would have been nice to have it here one more time,” she said, as she watched a procession led by the Knights of Columbus leave to walk the short distance to St. Ignatius for a brief ceremony and a welcome reception.

Pauline and Paulette Pecukonis, mother and daughter, respectively, can relate to what St. Mary’s parishioners are going through. Two years ago, they lost their longtime house of worship when St. Hedwig’s -- just up the street from St. Mary’s -- closed its doors.

“It takes time to get over it. It’s hard,” Paulette said. “We came today because it’s still a church, and we passed it all the time. It’s hard to see it close and I know they’ll continue to close,” Pauline said.

Though they belong to Holy Family’s parish, the pair attended the closing ceremony with friend Agnes Novackowski, who also found herself displaced from St. Hedwig’s. But unlike the Pecukonises, Novackowski had joined St. Mary’s, so Sunday found her saying goodbye to her church home for the second time in two years.

“It’s hard -- you never forget,” she said of the experience. “It’s the same God no matter where you go, but you miss the building and it’s heartbreaking. I enjoyed belonging to this parish very much. They were so nice to those of us who came here, it was as if we went here for 50 years. The pastor was real nice,” Novackowski said.

She’ll move “down the street” again to St. Ignatius, though she fears that church might eventually close, too.

“I know it will go on there, too. You have to go through this to know what it’s about,” she said. “But in the Catholic Church, we all have the same faith, even if each parish is different. Whatever parish you belong to, appreciate it.”