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Rep Power: 4  |  Price's Greek church marks its 90th year
Quote: Price's Greek church marks its 90th year
Weekend celebration to include various activities
By Carrie A. Moore
Deseret Morning News
John Nikas was a small boy growing up in the heart of Utah's coal country when the world leader of the Greek Orthodox Church picked him up and hoisted him overhead, no doubt to the adoration of the Greek community in Price.
 Utah Historical Society
Thousands of young Greek men came to Utah in the early 1900s after poverty forced them to leave their families behind and seek opportunity as coal miners in America.
Metropolitan Athenagoras Spyrou of Kerkyra, primate of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North and South America, visited the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church during an American tour in 1931, seeking to boost the spirits of the poor Greek immigrants who toiled in area coal mines.
His visit was also designed to unite the factionalism that had developed among the immigrants over political developments in their mother country, some of which had spilled into Carbon County.
Though the area was — and remains — isolated in some ways from the larger Orthodox community by virtue of its location, top church leaders are still mindful of the congregation there, which is celebrating its 90th anniversary with a variety of activities this weekend.
Hundreds of visitors are expected to converge on Price this weekend to remember the church that kept their community together through good times and bad. Nikas will be among them, returning to a cavalcade of memories, including baptisms, weddings and funerals for scores of church members where he and his brother were called on to be the official "chanters" in keeping with Orthodox tradition.
He recalls with ease the stories he heard as a young boy about the mine explosions in Castle Gate and Winter Quarters — the former in 1924, the year of his birth. The March 8 blast killed 172 men, including 50 Greek miners. "It was an absolute lifesaving thing for the community to have a church to bury their loved ones," Nikas said. "Those kinds of things precipitated interest in the Greek community throughout Carbon County."
In fact, the church wasn't large enough to accommodate all 50 miners and their families, so the combined funeral was held at a public hall, according to historian Helen Zeese Papanikolas. The event left an indelible mark on the struggling community, as widows "wore black dresses and stockings and black Mother Hubbard caps for the rest of their lives," she wrote in her book, "Toil and Rage In a New Land: The Greek Immigrants in Utah."
 Joe Rolando
The Greek Orthodox Church in Price was consecrated in 1916. It was Utah's second and featured traditional Byzantine construction.
The title aptly described the situation faced by young Greek men, thousands of whom came to Utah in the early 1900s after poverty in their native land forced them to leave families behind and seek opportunity in America. The influx began after 1900, when a census showed there were only three Greeks in Utah. By 1910, there were more than 4,000 — only a handful of them women.
A strike in 1903 by European coal miners working the Carbon County mines opened the way for the new immigrants to become strike breakers, which did nothing to endear them to residents in the area. Most had no English language skill, making them dependent on translators and labor agents to help manage any employment issues.
Because their families were in Greece, the men spent their personal time in coffee houses that sprung up throughout the area, where they found some measure of companionship with their fellow Greek miners, according to Papanikolas. Religion was something of a distant memory in the early years, but the impetus to establish a church grew until the community built and consecrated their church in 1916.
It was the second Greek Orthodox church in Utah, featuring traditional Byzantine construction "in which the dome rested on a square supported by pillars," Papanikolas wrote. "The nave of the church is in the form of a cross. The icons, called 'the Bible of the unlettered,' cover the 'iconostasis' or altar screen. The lamps burned oil that had been blessed at the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.
"As in the Salt Lake church (Holy Trinity), there were few seats, following Greek custom that decreed it disrespectful to sit during the three-hour service."
Original hand-painted frescoes continue to adorn the interior of the church, which features icons of Christ, the Virgin Mary with the child Jesus, John the Baptist, St. George, St. Demetrios and the archangels Michael and Gabriel. Depictions of the evangelists and 12 Apostles watch over happenings within the sanctuary from the church's interior dome.
Father Mark Petrakis was the church's first priest, whose arrival was hailed by the local newspaper that described him with shoulder-length hair, wearing a black robe, silver cross and a tall priest's hat. The story included a hope that his presence "would have a steadying influence on the Greek boys," Papanikolas wrote.
From that point forward, the church became the center of Greek spiritual and social life in the area, Nikas said, remembering the wide variety of Greek fraternities — both male and female — that met and served in the church through the decades.
Religious traditions around holy days and feast days became a focal point of community life, and Greeks were a large enough segment of the population (at one time numbering several thousand) that their annual Great Friday procession — featuring a flowered tomb held aloft by several male congregants — at one time paraded down the town's Main Street.
It's difficult to quantify what the church has done for generations of local Greek families, but the current parish council chairman, Roy Nikas, said the church is now home to approximately 200 members. "It's a lot smaller than what it used to be with 3,000 Greeks in the area." Average age of congregants is the mid-50s, he said, and a number are now in their 80s.
Though today's members have largely assimilated into their new culture, services are still offered in Greek as well as English. Spirituality was what held their ancestors together, Nikas said, underscoring their "very deep religious belief in God in the Orthodox faith." The congregation continues to hold its annual Greek Festival, much like its sister church in Salt Lake City, drawing people from the community at large to experience Greek culture and customs.
The church has seen scores of priests come and go, Nikas said, with 17 having served there since 1956. The current priest, the Very Rev. Archimandrite Athanasios Emmert, "wins the longevity award," having served for the past six years after being appointed by Metropolitan Isaiah, Bishop of Denver (which oversees the Utah churches).
In a letter, the bishop paid tribute to the immigrants who built the church as hardworking people, many of which were not able to fulfill the dream of assisting their families back in Greece, because they died in mining accidents. "Their blood watered the ground and helped the growth of the parish, along with the hands of many others who fulfilled many happy dreams."
The bishop will join with local officials in overseeing church services on Sunday to celebrate the anniversary. Organizers said they wanted to hold the anniversary festivities now, rather than waiting to celebrate a century of worship, because many of the church's oldest members might not survive to enjoy the events.
| http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,650207990,00.html |
20th November 2006, 12:28
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