Apr 13, 2018 2 min read

Daisytown United Presbyterian Church, 19 Church Street, will celebrate its 100th anniversary at 9 a.m. Sunday with a service to honor the commitment of the church’s founders and members.

The church’s origins date back to the early 1900s, as immigrants, mostly from County Ung, Hungary, began to settle in the vicinity. In 1917, a request was made for spiritual services to the Washington Presbytery, which asked Pittsburgh Coal Company to assist in erecting a building for worship.

The building was complete in 1918, and the Rev. Laszlo Gerenday carried on missionary work among the immigrants.

In 1921, the presbytery organized the English Church. The two churches acted independently, in their respective languages, until 1944 when presbytery leaders appointed the minister of the Hungarian church to assume responsibility for both churches.

Although the founders’ language was predominantly used in services, the second generation of Hungarians was becoming more assimilated into America’s culture. They believed English should be introduced to remain relevant in the community. So a transition began, with English the main language of the service, with a hymn and the Lord’s Prayer done in Hungarian.

In 1956, the two churches were united as one, and declared in a resolution, “Beginning with Jan. 1, 1956, the church will become self-supporting.” In the following years, said current Pastor Beverly Bonnell, people learned to set aside their national origins in order to better serve the entire community, realizing that believers, no matter what language they spoke, were “one” in Christ.

The church became the center of many community gatherings at the Hungarian Hall in Daisytown, offering ethnic foods like halupki, halushki and nut rolls. Families would gather for “bacon roasts” in the backyard.

Bonnell invited the public to attend Sunday’s service, which will begin with the church bell ringing at 9 a.m. Refreshments will be served after the service.