On the Feast of St. Nicholas, December 6, 2004, Kenosia Construction of Danbury began excavating the site where they would later lay the foundation of the new Holy Trinity Orthodox Church. Since that day a great deal of progress has been made. Kenosia Construction, working closely with the project manager, James Zeleniak, son of the late Monsignor John Zeleniak, poured the concrete foundation and basement and erected the steel superstructure. The framing is now complete, the roof shingled and the windows installed. Heating, electric and plumbing will be in by December 2005, allowing the interior to be finished by church volunteers.
Holy Trinity is full of young and vibrant parishioners of diverse ethnic backgrounds, not only Carpatho-Russian, but also Puerto Rican, Chinese, Italian, African-American, Austrian, Russian, Romanian, Ukrainian and others. The parish has given six men and their families to the diocese as ordained clergy: four priests including Very Rev. David Cochran, Very Rev. Peter Paproski, Rev. Fr. Paul Stoll and Rev. Fr. Peter Benyo and two deacons, Fr. Deacon Robert Hubiak and Fr. Deacon Gregory Justiniano. The parish continues to grow by God’s grace, and although it has tripled in the last fifteen years, Holy Trinity is still a small parish, having just under 100 adult parishioners but they are fortunately blessed with more than 40 children providing much hope for the future.
The parish has adopted Christ’s parable of the mustard seed which reminds us that it is not size or numbers that matter in a parish, but the quality of faith. The seed of faith in building a new church in Danbury took root many years ago, and with years of proper handling, care and nutrition, is growing into a great tree under which many can take refuge. As of this writing, the “tree of refuge” has begun to blossom and unfold its branches in the greater Danbury area of south-western Connecticut. The parish future is bright and the faithful are not afraid to take on challenges presented by our Lord. They’ve worked hard for the past 10 years and only need one final push to meet their goals and are seeking your help.
In the early 1990’s, Holy Trinity’s parish family decided to build a wooden, Carpathian-style church. No other church buildings of this type existed in Connecticut and only a handful exist in the entire Northeastern United States. Nestled among the trees on the hills of south-western Connecticut, the building style suits the area perfectly and brings to mind the similarly situated churches in the Carpathian Mountains.
Some may wonder how a parish so small could undertake such a large project. Again, the community has been blessed. A main source of funding was the sale of the dear old church, home to the Danbury faithful since 1924, to the State
of Connecticut for $390,000. The tiny parish and friends have painstakingly raised $350,000 and plan to obtain a $250,000 mortgage - a large amount given the size of the parish. Even with these funds and careful management, a church of this type is quite expensive. The building alone will cost well over 1 million dollars without many extras that are now planned for the future. The site itself adds another $150,000.00 which brings the total project to about 1.5 million dollars in value. However, in order to complete the construction, Holy Trinity still needs an additional $400,000.
Providing funds are available, the building may be ready for use in early 2006, although with many deferred elements. Although these decisions are being made as the project progresses, some items currently planned for deferral are the cupolas, finishes for floors, trim work, air conditioning, optional bathrooms, etc. These and many other elements will be added over the years as funding is available. The goal now is to make the building legally usable as a House of the Lord before the parish must vacate the already sold church which is now owned by the State of Connecticut.
This may seem like a huge obstacle, yet the faithful believe that God will continue to provide for Holy Trinity. To provide a vehicle for this, they are launching an expanded fundraising campaign entitled The Trinity 400 Challenge. The challenge is to identify 400 people who will donate $1,000 (or any amount they are inspired and able to give) to help Holy Trinity complete construction of the new church building. The larger the donations they receive, the closer they come to realizing their dream. They know there are people in the community who identify with the dream of building a wooden Carpatho-Rusin style Orthodox Church in New England. Holy Trinity’s challenge is to find those generous people willing and able to help realize this dream.
A host of activities and events are also scheduled to raise funds. Holy Trinity realizes it is not fair that they should be simply expecting donations without actively continuing to work to raise money. One of the first events was the Annual Golf Tournament held in August. This now annual event, held for the last five years, has benefited both the new church fund and the All Saints Language School. The next event was the Trinity 5K Road Race which has attracted hundreds of runners each year since 1996. This event benefits both the new church and The Children of Chernobyl Relief Fund. Also, this year a second Wild Game and Ethnic Dinner is planned for Sunday, October 23 at Assumption Greek Orthodox Church hall in Danbury. All proceeds from this dinner and the raffle will go the new church. In the fall of 2005, Holy Trinity will host a reception at Danbury’s beautiful Tarrywille Park Mansion. They welcome all to come and enjoy hors d’oeuveres, wine and music at the ‘official’ public launch of the Trinity 400 Challenge led by honorary chairperson, Metropolitan Nicholas. This gathering will be a very special event and will include an informative presentation on the new church construction to bring everyone up to date, including the status of the budget and construction. There will be an opportunity for people to identify themselves as donors if they so choose.
In the spring, Holy Trinity will introduce a new Road Race on Danbury’s scenic and hilly Westside. They also are planning a 2006 benefit concert series with the internationally renowned Manhattan String Quartet, who will perform a concert of classic Russian music on the beautiful wooded grounds of the new building. It is planned that the scenic site will be the backdrop for many such events in years to come. It is hoped that Holy Trinity Orthodox Church will impact the life in the Danbury area not only spiritually, but also athletically, and culturally. Holy Trinity has been blessed with so many people who have been kind and gracious to us. These acts of kindness and charity from so many have only gone to reveal God’s continued love to mankind. The faithful of Holy Trinity accept these blessings and the resulting responsibility to share them with all those around them in whatever ways they can.
For further information regarding the project please contact Fr. Luke Mihaly, parish priest, (203) 748-0671 or at padreluke @ aol.com. James Zeleniak, project manager, (203) 270-9648 or jim_zeleniak @ go.com.
