Church finds home in York’s historic district

The Saints Peter and Paul Roman Catholic Mission bought the old Temple Beth Israel.

By KAREN MULLER
Daily Record staff
The brick building with domes, arches and spires seems out of place, a castle amid row houses and cracked sidewalks on South Beaver Street in York’s historic district.

The most casual observers heading downtown may not notice the building, which has lost some of its luster in its nearly 100 years.

But the aging building has served the community well; many groups have quietly made it their spiritual home.

Reform and Orthodox Jews and Christians have worshipped beneath its high, arched ceiling.

And now another religious group can be added to the list. A small group of Catholic traditionalists, Saints Peter and Paul Roman Catholic Mission, bought the building Jan. 12 for $135,000 from the Maranatha Church of God in Christ.

They will dedicate the church at their first service in York 9 a.m. Sunday.

The church celebrates Mass in Latin each week — as was done by Roman Catholics before Vatican II in the 1960s. As the congregation of about 70 people searched for a place of their own, they worshipped in a Comfort Inn in Centerville.

Temple Beth Israel built the synagogue in 1907 for its 41 original families. The congregation thrived there and grew too large for the building. They moved to York Township in the 1960s. After the Reform congregation, the Orthodox Adas Israel moved into the building for a few years until it joined with the Conservative Ohev Sholom Congregation in Springettsbury Township.

The Maranatha Church of God in Christ came in 1974 and stayed until 1996 when it moved to an old church at the corner of West and King streets. Maranatha kept ownership but leased the building to a variety of small Christian congregations, including two Spanish churches. The New Holy Chapel Church of God in Christ, led by the Rev. Ronald Banks, stayed through November.

Reach Karen Muller at 771-2024 or kmuller@ydr.com.

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