Small Hungarian church in Beaver Falls blessed with dynamic, loving congregation

Feb. 01--BEAVER FALLS -- Endre Csoman leafs through a large, black book. Page after page bear names -- neatly penned in cursive -- of people baptized or married at Third Avenue Calvin Reformed Church in Beaver Falls, some more than 100 years ago.

Most -- either they or their forebears -- emigrated from Hungary seeking a better life for their families. Others, like 78-year-old Endre, were among nearly a quarter-million Hungarians who fled their homeland following a crushing attack by the Soviets in 1956 to defeat a national uprising during the Cold War.

Endre was 18 when he escaped, leaving behind his parents, brother and sister.

"It's been so long ago -- 60 years ago this past October," he said softly, reflecting on that harrowing time.

Through it all and even today, God, he said, has been his and the congregation's abiding strength and sustenance.

Two words on a plaque above a portal leading to the little church's sanctuary state it clearly: "Isten Hozott." Translated it means "God brought us."

A new beginning

In the early 1900s, large numbers of Hungarians came to Beaver Valley seeking work.

"A lot of people that actually came to Beaver Falls or New Brighton or Woodlawn in Aliquippa or Ambridge or Midland came from various parts of West Virginia or from the soft coal region, the anthracite area of Hazelton," said Endre, who lives in Patterson Township.

"All of the immigrants who came around the turn of the century pretty much went to the coal mining industry. Steel mills were just beginning, although Homestead and Pittsburgh had steel mills, but Beaver Falls didn't."

Finding a job was important, but so was connecting with a church.

"One of the first things Hungarians did before they built their homes was they built their churches," said Arlene Csoman, 76, Endre's wife, who's also of Hungarian ancestry.

By 1903, early immigrants of the Reformed faith appealed to Shenango Presbytery, which had started missionary work with Hungarians in Farrell and Sharon, to extend worship services locally.

Adam J. Schodle, a seminarian studying in Pittsburgh who spoke Hungarian, led services at a Presbyterian church at the corner of Eighth Avenue and Ninth Street.

But soon the growing congregation wanted to establish a house of worship of its own. In 1908, they purchased a Methodist church at 1012 Third Ave., built in 1870. The Rev. Louis Bogar, the first minister, conducted services in Hungarian.

The Csomans joined the church shortly after their marriage in 1962.

Endre, a cousin and friend came to the United States in 1957 as refugees. They first escaped to Austria, then to Germany, before arriving at Camp Kilmer in New Brunswick, N.J., a former Army camp that became a resettlement camp for some 30,000 refugees following the Hungarian Revolution.

"Somebody had to sponsor you," Endre said, "either an individual, group or church. You had to have a sponsor."

They waited three months until the First Hungarian Reformed Church in Hazelwood came forward to sponsor about 180 refugees.

"Some of us were farmed out to other churches and many of them were non-Hungarian-related churches," he said.

His trio was taken in by the Rev. David Barkley, a minister at a Methodist church in Pittsburgh's Hill District.

"Now, you mind, we didn't speak the language. None of us. English, no," Endre said, his speech, even today, laced with an accent.

"He (Barkley) knew some German and we knew some German and that's how, actually, we communicated" -- along with sign language.

A serendipitous encounter with a general manager at the former Buhl Planetarium, the predecessor of the Carnegie Science Center, helped Endre locate and find work in Beaver Falls.

The manager, born in Hungary, came to the United States with his parents as a young child and spoke fluent Hungarian.

"He heard us talking. Hungarians are loud, mostly all foreigners are loud," Endre said. "We noticed he was watching us. We couldn't figure out why."

The manager introduced himself and invited them to his home for dinner.

"He had connections in Beaver Falls. He had relatives," Endre said. "Through his relatives we ended up in Beaver Falls."

Those connections also helped Endre land work at Mayer China where many other immigrants -- Serbs, Poles, Croats, he said -- were employed.

"I have to say I have nothing but fond memories of the 9 1/2 years I spent in the pottery. Very welcoming. They couldn't do enough for you."

How he met Arlene is fortuitous, too.

"The first person I met in Pittsburgh stepping off a bus was her father. Her father, like many from the church (First Hungarian Reformed Church), did a lot for the newcomers. They felt, you know, that we gotta help."

Arlene's father -- Alexander "Alex" W. Kovacs -- took a day off work to greet the new arrivals.

"As we were coming off the bus, he picked four of us with so-called long hair. He took us to a barbershop, a Hungarian barber in Hazelwood."

Some months later, Endre attended a harvest dance at a Hungarian Club in Coraopolis.

"I actually went with the late Johnny Namath, who was Joe Namath's father," Endre said. "He took us. We didn't drive."

They again ran into Kovacs who invited them to another harvest dance the following week at a Hungarian Club in Pittsburgh where he was president.

That's when he met Arlene.

Endre followed up with a letter, asking to see her once more.

Again, Namath drove him to the Pittsburgh social club.

"I wanted her to meet this guy (Kovacs)," Endre said, not knowing Kovacs was Arlene's father.

"Her father was downstairs. We were upstairs. She said she's not allowed downstairs because of a bar."

"I was 16," Arlene interjected.

"And I insisted," Endre said.

He accompanied Arlene to the downstairs club and motioned to her father.

"He came out and I said, 'I want you to meet this young girl.' And he put his hands up and said, 'That's my daughter!'"

"The rest is history," Arlene said.

They dated four years, married and became parents of five children -- three sons and two daughters.

Endre would go on to work 24 years as a master mechanic at the former Babcock & Wilcox Co., later to become McDermott International Inc. and then Koppel Steel Corp. -- before he moved to Washington, D.C., to work for eight years as national vice president/secretary at Hungarian Reformed Federation of America. He also worked two years at William Penn Association, a fraternal life insurance company in Pittsburgh, before retiring two years ago.

New life for church

Like most churches, attendance at Third Avenue Calvin Reformed Church has ebbed and flowed.

In its pre-World War II heyday, Endre estimated membership as high as 450. Today, usually a dozen people attend Sunday services; maybe 20 on holidays.

Postwar, young families migrated in increasing numbers from cities to suburbs, gravitating toward newer churches being established in those areas.

But Endre, a church trustee, suggested another factor impacted Third Avenue Calvin Reformed Church.

"The language killed the church," he said. "That was the downfall."

The last Hungarian-speaking minister left the church in 1967, Endre said. "You want to stick to the mother language. Sometimes, you stay too long."

Arlene, a chief elder, agreed.

"I understand Hungarian, but I couldn't understand what they (ministers) said because I don't know the big words. We lived with grandma when I was growing up. I knew the kitchen language -- I know what a leg and an arm and stuff was -- but I couldn't understand the ministers," she said.

People leave churches for various reasons. It happens in every congregation, Endre said.

"Unfortunately, maybe that was the blessing for the church because the heart was really never there and those few that remain, they carry on."

The church came close to closing in the late '80s.

But Arlene said an amazing thing happened.

"It really was a miracle," she said.

"We tried to stop the closing of the church. We would have an 80th anniversary for the people that were left," she said -- a $10 per person dinner to honor the sacrifices of the early Hungarians who founded the church.

But the church had no social hall. No dishes. No silverware. No tablecloths.

The Csomans appealed to the Hungarian Reformed Federation of America for seed money. They found a hall within walking distance and purchased supplies.

Invited guests included not only church members, but sister churches in Ohio and Pittsburgh and other churches in the community.

More than 200 came.

"We had $1,000 left and started a building fund," Arlene said. "That was the new beginning for this church."

The leaders asked for permission to be released from Beaver-Butler Presbytery to pursue relationships with like-minded Hungarian churches.

"Today, we're under the leadership of the United Church of Christ, but the Hungarian churches have their own synod called the Calvin Synod," Endre said.

Most recently, the church has relied on supply pastors and lay speakers. The Rev. Imre A. Bertalan, also executive director of Bethlen Communities, a retirement community in Ligonier, is current supply pastor who preaches as his schedule permits. Usually, it averages from a couple of Sundays a month to every Sunday.

"I fell in love with the congregation when I first visited them back in 2002," Bertalan said.

Many congregations affiliated with the Hungarian Reformed Church, especially those in western Pennsylvania, are small and struggling, he said, but within each is a "desire to love and to serve" and that's especially true of the Beaver Falls congregation.

"It is a very generous congregation; a very loving congregation," he said, pointing to its varied mission work in the community and beyond.

"They just realize we can do more together than individually."

Their faithfulness, resiliency and strength, Bertalan said, "comes from God ... God has a plan for this congregation and the future is bright."

'God provides'

Third Avenue Calvin Reformed Church is an intimate space. The original church, in constant need of repairs, was demolished and a new one, considerably smaller, was built in 1957 -- about 80-by-30 feet, Endre estimated.

A center aisle divides the sanctuary with seven rows of pews on each side. A sense of peace and tranquility pervades.

The walls are a warm, honey-colored paneling; the windows imitation stained glass; the floor carpeted in dark blue.

Six rows of pews were removed in back to create a social space for meetings, fundraisers and dinners.

Off the sanctuary is an office. A partial basement includes restrooms, small kitchen, storage and utility room.

It's lovingly tended by members who clean, repair and maintain it.

"We keep it like we keep our house," said Arlene. "This is like our home."

Endre and two sons, Endre "Butch" L. Csoman of New Galilee and Joseph Csoman of North Sewickley Township, have undertaken major repairs including replacing the sanctuary's main doors; installing a new furnace, air conditioning and hot water tank; adding new bathroom fixtures; and creating a kitchen in the utility area.

To help with costs, the church rents the manse next door, which Endre and sons also renovated.

"We have a couple of fundraisers every year," Arlene said, including making "kolbasz and hurka" -- Hungarian sausage -- and an annual chicken paprikas dinner open to the public. On Good Friday, the church hosts a fish dinner.

At Christmastime, the children present a pageant.

"We give a box of candy to everyone who comes to church," Arlene said. And at Easter, the church hosts an egg hunt for the children and everyone receives a chocolate cross.

"We have a mission fund every week," Arlene said. "Whatever you want to put into it -- you can put in 50 cents, or a dollar, $5 or $20 -- whatever you want to do. We don't keep track of it. We don't know who gives what."

That money goes to help the needy in the community.

Money collected in November and December -- close to $400 -- was donated to a Blackhawk High School student with cancer, Arlene said.

The church also sent $700 to a Hungarian church in McKeesport to help repair a boiler.

Food baskets were given to needy families at Thanksgiving.

In three years, Arlene estimated mission collections raised more than $6,000.

Others to benefit from the church's generosity have included the Salvation Army, Calvin Synod Youth Camp, Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh and Sun Valley Indian School.

"It's been like one miracle after the other," Arlene said.

"God provides," Endre said, "but you got to have your heart in it. That's the bottom line and you have to take care of it ... All we need to do is keep going and hand it down to the next generation. Hopefully, they take interest in it."

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