SHENANDOAH - In the near future, the Shenandoah Mennonite Church will move to its new house of worship in the borough in the former Holy Ghost Polish National Catholic Church, which closed its doors due to falling membership.
On Sunday, the last Mass was celebrated at Holy Ghost PNCC by its pastor, the Rev. Robert P. Plichta, and the deconsecration of the church was held Tuesday by the Right Rev. Bernard J. Nowicki, bishop ordinary of the Central Diocese of the Polish National Catholic Church, Scranton.
Shenandoah Mennonite Pastor Dale A. Weaver said the process is moving forward to obtain ownership of the church.
"We have reached a sales agreement to purchase the building," Weaver said on Monday. "That is in motion."
The Mennonite church owns its current location at 239 W. Centre St. and is only about one block away from Holy Ghost PNCC.
"We've been at 239 W. Centre for two years. We're going to move into the church building for worship and our current location will be used as our activities center," Weaver said. "A Christian day school is also in our plans for that current building."
Weaver said the connection between the two groups was due to their proximity to each other.
"We came in contact with them just by being neighbors, assisting them at different times, using their parking lot," Weaver said. "Just by being close we learned to know them. They became aware we were looking for a church building and we became aware they were looking to sell. That's how the contact was made."
Weaver said the Shenandoah church is affiliated with the Myerstown Mennonite Church.
"We have a large congregation as part of the mother church, which is Myerstown Mennonite Church," Weaver said. "That is the mother church that gave birth to this new church. That is a large congregation of about 200. We have a joint membership. There are about 10 members here in Shenandoah, but we work together. It's a 'church plant.' We reach into new areas, and in our church planting efforts we seek to be a blessing to the community. When our church was full, we plant a new church and that's when Shenandoah was started. The Lord led us to Shenandoah and a lot of people said we picked a good place."
If all goes well, the first services will begin in the new church at 28 N. Chestnut St. in the first weekend of May.
"We're hoping to have our first service in the first weekend of May. We're going to have weekend meetings and it's going to be open to the community," Weaver said. "We'll be getting the church ready with some cleaning. We don't plan to make any renovations. The stationary contents like the pews are staying."
Weaver, 47, his wife, Connie, and their family moved into Shenandoah in July 2010. The couple has nine children.
"We are the Mennonite denomination and part of the Anabaptist group," Weaver said. "Our beliefs are, of course, Christian. We believe in the New Birth for our salvation and the Bible is the authority for our life."