His Eminence, Metropolitan Nicholas, hierarch of the American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese, Saturday re-dedicated St. Nicholas Orthodox Church at Jacobs Creek and consecrated its icon screen.
The bishop's blessing brought an end to an ordeal for the small parish in the former coal community that began with a January 2001 electrical fire. The blaze caused heavy damage inside the church.
Some of the church's religious symbols were also damaged. The frame to the icon screen survived the fire but new icons had to be painted by Philip Zimmerman, of New Florence.
Yesterday, the pews were filled with parish members and representatives from other area Orthodox churches for the celebration.
The bishop lauded parish members for rebuilding the church. "They were determined to see the church of St. Nicholas at Jacobs Creek open again," he said.
The church reopened a little more than a year ago.
The current church building was erected in 1961, but parish members have ancestors who go back to the immigrant miners who came to the community in the early 1900s.
