At 130 Years, St. Andrew Parish celebrates the past, looks to the future
July 29, 2019 at 12:37 p.m.
Since 1880, the ever picturesque little white, wood-framed St. Andrew Church that’s situated along Monmouth Road in the bucolic center of Jobstown, has stood as a testament to the historic faith community of that section of Northern Burlington County.
This year, Father Joseph Hlubik, administrator, and his parishioners saw the 130th anniversary of the parish’s establishment as an occasion to honor its rich and distinguished history, to acknowledge significant changes that have taken place along the way, and to celebrate the faith community they have become today.
Bit of History
Historical accounts passed down through generations indicated that there were 11 families who either founded St. Andrew Parish or became members shortly after the parish was established.
For most of the families, their initial arrival to New Jersey came by way of having fled the economic and spiritual privation of Ireland following the mid-19th century famine.
They landed in Burlington and eventually made their way to Jobstown to live and work in that rural, farming community. But it was challenging for these devout Catholics to practice their faith, especially since the two closest Catholic Churches – St. Mary Parish, Bordentown, and Sacred Heart, Mount Holly – were a number of miles away, and their primary mode of transportation, especially in the early years, was on foot.
With determination and despite their relatively limited means, however, they banded together to build a house of worship to call their own.
Father Hugh McManus, pastor of Sacred Heart, was instrumental in establishing the mission in Jobstown. As one who was a native of Ireland, he empathized with the plight of the Jobstown folks and their desire for wanting to attend a church near where they lived.
A handwritten certificate of incorporation of St. Andrew’s was dated Feb. 23, 1880, and the church was built that year for a total of $2,400. The church was dedicated Sept. 19, 1880 by Bishop Michael Corrigan of Newark with about 150 people in attendance.
From 1880 to about 1920, St. Andrew was a mission of Sacred Heart Parish. Then the church became a mission of St. Mary Parish until it returned to Sacred Heart in 1945, where it remained until 2008 when it was named an independent parish of the Diocese of Trenton.
The simple architecture of the wooden church was indicative of the faith and relative poverty of the Irish founders and it reflected the dedicated and simple lifestyle of the people who worked in many projects to support their church.
The original church had an L-shaped barn to house the horses and carriages of parishioners during Sunday services, but the barn was removed around 1930. Stained glass windows and the statues which 
were the gifts of the early families bear plaques naming the donors.
The church added the hall area in 1988 when it became apparent that the community had grown beyond the capacity of the original church building.
Priceless Memories
While there are many historical highlights for which the parish is thankful, probably the most meaningful is the number of current parishioners who can trace their ancestry with the community back three generations, including those who are related to the parish’s founders.
Lifelong parishioner Marie Rahilly, age 89, recalled that her great grandparents, Mary and Thomas Beakey, were among the founding families who had emigrated from Ireland to Jobstown.
“I’ve been here all my life, it’s my family’s church and I like it here,” the spry and extremely sharp octogenarian said. “I know a lot of people from years ago up until the present time. It’s a friendly, small country church. I never chose to go anywhere else.”
Sixty-year-old Andy Litecky was two years old when he and his family started attending St. Andrew Church. As a youngster, he was an altar server; as an adult, he was a fifth grade catechist during the time his two daughters were in the religious education program and he currently serves as president of the parish pastoral council.
Litecky explained that his father was a cabinet maker and worked on the church’s original sacristy and cabinetry. Litecky himself was pleased to lend his skills in mechanical engineering in the 1980s and helped to develop plans to add the church hall, which was built adjacent to the church proper. The church hall continues to be used today as a multifunctional room.
To accommodate the crowd at weekend Masses, chairs are set up in the hall. During the week it’s used for various ministry gatherings. On Wednesdays, when religious education classes are held, full-sized partitions are set up to create individual classrooms.
A new project that will be underway is the installation of high efficiency heating and cooling systems, Litecky said, then added that the current mechanical room, which houses the furnace and hot water heater, will be converted into a parish office.
“St. Andrew’s is a home base for my faith,” Litecky said, “and for 130 years, St. Andrew’s has been a place where people come to worship and practice their faith.”
Among lifelong parishioner Dorothy Archer’s many fond memories of St. Andrew are the day when she married Richard, her husband of 53 years, raising her five children in the parish, and three years ago, when she and Richard observed their 50th wedding anniversary with a Mass and reception in the parish hall.
Archer said she is pleased to see more young families and children around for Mass and in other various ministries. She enjoys doing her part as the treasurer of the Altar-Rosary Society, serving as extraordinary minister of Holy Communion and on the leadership committee.
To witness her parish’s 130th anniversary, Archer said, was symbolic.
“My parents and grandparents went there and it feels like home to me,” she said, and “for me, the 130th anniversary “ means that (as a parish) we are moving forward and at the same time, we are remembering the people who did so much work to make us where we are today.”
130 Years Later
The celebratory highlight for the parish’s 130th anniversary was having Bishop John M. Smith offer a Mass of Thanksgiving Sept. 12, and the picnic that followed at Springfield Township Veterans Memorial Park.
During the Mass, Bishop Smith consecrated the new altar table which was designed in the shape of an “L” to conform to the “L”-shaped interior structure of the church building. The new altar allows Father Hlubik to have better contact with the congregation who are in the main body of the church as well as the overflow who are in the adjacent hall.
“I wanted to be able to connect with both sides visually and prayerfully,” said Father Hlubik. “The table is designed that allows me to face both groups of people.”
At the Mass, Bishop Smith also blessed an icon which was specially “written” for the parish by local iconographer, Kristina Sadley of Hamilton Township. The icon is called the Pantocrator in Greek, which in English is “ruler of all” or “Lord of the Universe.”
On the icon, the Scripture is opened to the beatitudes from Matthew’s Gospel. The fingers of Christ’s right hand are raised in benediction as “to give us a blessing,” said Father Hlubik. The cloak of Christ is blue, representing heaven and the divinity of Christ; the inner garment is red, representing his humanity and Passion.
The colors serve as a symbolic representation of the incarnation as Christ is true God and true man.
Father Hlubik said St. Andrew is a flourishing community with about 450 families who hail primarily from Columbus, Jobstown, Juliustown and Mansfield, and some coming from further distances – Wrightstown, Sykesville and even Moorestown.
There are more than 200 students in the religious education program, and a host of ministries which are carried out by the parish staff and a throng of willing volunteers.
Father Hlubik admitted he never anticipated that his priestly ministry would lead him to serve in St. Andrew Parish. But in a sense, he regards his 2008 appointment as administrator to be quite providential.
He is a native of Chesterfield; his home parish is St. Mary, Bordentown; he is a graduate of Northern Burlington Regional High School, and best of all, he said is that his grandmother’s house used to be located on the grounds adjacent to the parish.
“Whenever we visited grandma,” Father Hlubik said, “we came here to St. Andrew.”
“I had no clue whatsoever that I’d be back here, but I’m thrilled,” said Father Hlubik, noting that in addition to his parish responsibilities, he is also chaplain at Trenton Psychiatric Hospital and an adjunct professor at The College of New Jersey, Ewing, where he teaches Ancient Christianity and Scripture.
“I love the people here,” he said. “There’s a good spirit of independence, an ethic of hard work and a great spirit of family. The people want a good spiritual life here and it’s very easy to work with and minister to people who have that desire.”
Related Stories
Tuesday, September 24, 2024
E-Editions
Events
Since 1880, the ever picturesque little white, wood-framed St. Andrew Church that’s situated along Monmouth Road in the bucolic center of Jobstown, has stood as a testament to the historic faith community of that section of Northern Burlington County.
This year, Father Joseph Hlubik, administrator, and his parishioners saw the 130th anniversary of the parish’s establishment as an occasion to honor its rich and distinguished history, to acknowledge significant changes that have taken place along the way, and to celebrate the faith community they have become today.
Bit of History
Historical accounts passed down through generations indicated that there were 11 families who either founded St. Andrew Parish or became members shortly after the parish was established.
For most of the families, their initial arrival to New Jersey came by way of having fled the economic and spiritual privation of Ireland following the mid-19th century famine.
They landed in Burlington and eventually made their way to Jobstown to live and work in that rural, farming community. But it was challenging for these devout Catholics to practice their faith, especially since the two closest Catholic Churches – St. Mary Parish, Bordentown, and Sacred Heart, Mount Holly – were a number of miles away, and their primary mode of transportation, especially in the early years, was on foot.
With determination and despite their relatively limited means, however, they banded together to build a house of worship to call their own.
Father Hugh McManus, pastor of Sacred Heart, was instrumental in establishing the mission in Jobstown. As one who was a native of Ireland, he empathized with the plight of the Jobstown folks and their desire for wanting to attend a church near where they lived.
A handwritten certificate of incorporation of St. Andrew’s was dated Feb. 23, 1880, and the church was built that year for a total of $2,400. The church was dedicated Sept. 19, 1880 by Bishop Michael Corrigan of Newark with about 150 people in attendance.
From 1880 to about 1920, St. Andrew was a mission of Sacred Heart Parish. Then the church became a mission of St. Mary Parish until it returned to Sacred Heart in 1945, where it remained until 2008 when it was named an independent parish of the Diocese of Trenton.
The simple architecture of the wooden church was indicative of the faith and relative poverty of the Irish founders and it reflected the dedicated and simple lifestyle of the people who worked in many projects to support their church.
The original church had an L-shaped barn to house the horses and carriages of parishioners during Sunday services, but the barn was removed around 1930. Stained glass windows and the statues which were the gifts of the early families bear plaques naming the donors.
The church added the hall area in 1988 when it became apparent that the community had grown beyond the capacity of the original church building.
Priceless Memories
While there are many historical highlights for which the parish is thankful, probably the most meaningful is the number of current parishioners who can trace their ancestry with the community back three generations, including those who are related to the parish’s founders.
Lifelong parishioner Marie Rahilly, age 89, recalled that her great grandparents, Mary and Thomas Beakey, were among the founding families who had emigrated from Ireland to Jobstown.
“I’ve been here all my life, it’s my family’s church and I like it here,” the spry and extremely sharp octogenarian said. “I know a lot of people from years ago up until the present time. It’s a friendly, small country church. I never chose to go anywhere else.”
Sixty-year-old Andy Litecky was two years old when he and his family started attending St. Andrew Church. As a youngster, he was an altar server; as an adult, he was a fifth grade catechist during the time his two daughters were in the religious education program and he currently serves as president of the parish pastoral council.
Litecky explained that his father was a cabinet maker and worked on the church’s original sacristy and cabinetry. Litecky himself was pleased to lend his skills in mechanical engineering in the 1980s and helped to develop plans to add the church hall, which was built adjacent to the church proper. The church hall continues to be used today as a multifunctional room.
To accommodate the crowd at weekend Masses, chairs are set up in the hall. During the week it’s used for various ministry gatherings. On Wednesdays, when religious education classes are held, full-sized partitions are set up to create individual classrooms.
A new project that will be underway is the installation of high efficiency heating and cooling systems, Litecky said, then added that the current mechanical room, which houses the furnace and hot water heater, will be converted into a parish office.
“St. Andrew’s is a home base for my faith,” Litecky said, “and for 130 years, St. Andrew’s has been a place where people come to worship and practice their faith.”
Among lifelong parishioner Dorothy Archer’s many fond memories of St. Andrew are the day when she married Richard, her husband of 53 years, raising her five children in the parish, and three years ago, when she and Richard observed their 50th wedding anniversary with a Mass and reception in the parish hall.
Archer said she is pleased to see more young families and children around for Mass and in other various ministries. She enjoys doing her part as the treasurer of the Altar-Rosary Society, serving as extraordinary minister of Holy Communion and on the leadership committee.
To witness her parish’s 130th anniversary, Archer said, was symbolic.
“My parents and grandparents went there and it feels like home to me,” she said, and “for me, the 130th anniversary “ means that (as a parish) we are moving forward and at the same time, we are remembering the people who did so much work to make us where we are today.”
130 Years Later
The celebratory highlight for the parish’s 130th anniversary was having Bishop John M. Smith offer a Mass of Thanksgiving Sept. 12, and the picnic that followed at Springfield Township Veterans Memorial Park.
During the Mass, Bishop Smith consecrated the new altar table which was designed in the shape of an “L” to conform to the “L”-shaped interior structure of the church building. The new altar allows Father Hlubik to have better contact with the congregation who are in the main body of the church as well as the overflow who are in the adjacent hall.
“I wanted to be able to connect with both sides visually and prayerfully,” said Father Hlubik. “The table is designed that allows me to face both groups of people.”
At the Mass, Bishop Smith also blessed an icon which was specially “written” for the parish by local iconographer, Kristina Sadley of Hamilton Township. The icon is called the Pantocrator in Greek, which in English is “ruler of all” or “Lord of the Universe.”
On the icon, the Scripture is opened to the beatitudes from Matthew’s Gospel. The fingers of Christ’s right hand are raised in benediction as “to give us a blessing,” said Father Hlubik. The cloak of Christ is blue, representing heaven and the divinity of Christ; the inner garment is red, representing his humanity and Passion.
The colors serve as a symbolic representation of the incarnation as Christ is true God and true man.
Father Hlubik said St. Andrew is a flourishing community with about 450 families who hail primarily from Columbus, Jobstown, Juliustown and Mansfield, and some coming from further distances – Wrightstown, Sykesville and even Moorestown.
There are more than 200 students in the religious education program, and a host of ministries which are carried out by the parish staff and a throng of willing volunteers.
Father Hlubik admitted he never anticipated that his priestly ministry would lead him to serve in St. Andrew Parish. But in a sense, he regards his 2008 appointment as administrator to be quite providential.
He is a native of Chesterfield; his home parish is St. Mary, Bordentown; he is a graduate of Northern Burlington Regional High School, and best of all, he said is that his grandmother’s house used to be located on the grounds adjacent to the parish.
“Whenever we visited grandma,” Father Hlubik said, “we came here to St. Andrew.”
“I had no clue whatsoever that I’d be back here, but I’m thrilled,” said Father Hlubik, noting that in addition to his parish responsibilities, he is also chaplain at Trenton Psychiatric Hospital and an adjunct professor at The College of New Jersey, Ewing, where he teaches Ancient Christianity and Scripture.
“I love the people here,” he said. “There’s a good spirit of independence, an ethic of hard work and a great spirit of family. The people want a good spiritual life here and it’s very easy to work with and minister to people who have that desire.”