Verona Presbyterian Church sets date for its final service

Verona Presbyterian Church will soon shut its doors for good.

Church leaders said its membership has dwindled over the years from more than 400 to just 31 people, and about 10 come to Sunday services religiously.

The pandemic also had a tremendous impact in cutting programs and stopped in-person services for many months.

Its 69th annual Strawberry Festival took place in 2019 and has not since returned.

An after-school program offered for decades also stopped due to covid.

Its last service is scheduled for 10 a.m. Aug. 21 at 566 South Ave.

Brian Wallace, associate minister for Emerging Ministries of Presbytery, will be moderating and preaching.

The Hilltop Toddler & Preschool that was housed at the church is moving to Trinity Tower United Methodist Church along Saltsburg Road in Penn Hills.

“It’s like a death,” said longtime parishioner and former deacon Jill Ruhling of Penn Hills. “It’s a building and we know that. It’s not a parent, but when you have walked through those doors and started downstairs at 3 years old in a Sunday school class, as many times as my family has, to have that as my faith journey and to share it with my husband and children and now my grandchildren, there are no words.”

Ruhling said she has mixed emotions about the pending closure due to all of her family’s history with the church.

“I don’t want my grandchildren to not have that Sunday school experience that I had,” she said. “I don’t want them to be the only two children in this church now because we don’t have any young families. I want them to have a church home so they can have a place to know and love Jesus as much as I do … I don’t know where life is going to take me and my family.”

Founded in 1857 as an organization of the Valley Presbyterian Church along Fourth Street in what is now Oakmont, the church began as a small congregation of about 57 members.

Church documents indicate the group was able to construct a new church edifice at the corner of South Avenue and Allegheny River Boulevard in the spring of 1897. The Rev. H.S. Kinsman was its pastor.

An expansion of facilities was prevented due to the Great Depression and the flood of 1936.

Its current location at the intersection of Second Street and South Avenue, across from Cribbs Field, was constructed in 1952.

Ruhling’s sister, Joyce Cosnotti, was the first baby baptized in that building. Ruhling and her husband, Jim, were married there in 1982.

The former church building along the boulevard became an AZ Chevrolet, a furniture store called The Choir Loft and is the current home of Verona Dental Care.

Ruhling said her parents, Clarence and Sophia Mason, “were married, bought a car and a couch all in the same building.”

The Rev. Martha Neba-Mbandi of Penn Hills became Verona Presbyterian Church’s pastor in September 2019. She has been a member of the church since 2008.

“A church never dies,” Neba-Mbandi said. “Thousands of children were born here, baptized here, educated here, trained here in their faith, belief and practice. They are (now) all around the country.

“The building may die. It may be broken, but the church continues in different forms and in different people spreading their faith, which was birthed in this church … The church is not a building. It is a people.”

Neba-Mbandi said her future plans include going to Cameroon in central Africa to start a school.

As far as the church, the reverend said the building is in good shape and they needed to make a move not only because of low membership, but before a major repair was needed.

“We looked at our resources and we felt that if something major happened – like we have a problem with the heating or the roof or anything like that, like we needed a lot of money – we were not able to finance it,” Neba-Mbandi said. “The quality of the building is just going to dwindle and we might lose the building.”

After about a year of searching for potential buyers, including other churches, it was sold to Cynthia K. Franck’s Child Care, which has locations in Penn Hills, Forest Hills and Verona.

It is unclear when the business would move in or what may happen to church artifacts.

Church leaders said all proceeds would be donated to various nonprofits and organizations including various local churches, Verona police and fire departments as well as Riverview and Penn Hills school districts.

Nancy Wright, the listing and selling agent for the property via RE/MAX, said it was sold for $200,000 cash and the deal closed on Aug. 3.

Wright said she is aware of some renovation plans such as new windows, painting and specialty lighting for deaf children.

“It’s a done deal,” Wright said of the sale. “They are going to have it meet the standards of a daycare.”

Messages left with officials at Cynthia K. Franck’s Child Care were not returned as of press time.