Hostyn Has Had to ‘Scale Down’ Initial Church Rebuild Plans

June 9 this year will mark the third anniversary of the deadly Hostyn Church explosion.

Just before the 9 a.m. Mass that day in 2022, a gas explosion tore apart the Queen of the Holy Rosary Catholic Church. A few parishioners arrived early for Mass. One of them, 75-year-old Verlene Kuntschik, had stepped inside the church before the explosion. She died from the injuries 11 days later.

The congregation has been celebrating Mass inside the Parish Hall ever since then. Local organizations began raising funds to rebuild the church almost immediately. It took nine months for investigators to gather information before any debris could be removed from the site.

The Church’s pastor at the time of the explosion was Father Felix Twumasi. Church leadership has since directed him to advanced studies as part of his career development. He departed the parish at the end of last May. Hostyn welcomed its new pastor, Father Eddie Winkler, last June.

The parish unveiled initial architectural renderings for a new church at the Hostyn Mayfest last year.

“That original church design came in way over budget,” Father Winkler said in an interview with the Record last week. “We felt we needed to scale down. A lot of the decorative things on the exterior we knew would have to go.”

Winkler said he should receive cost estimates for the new design and a construction timeline in a few weeks.

“In a couple of weeks we’re supposed to get a pretty good estimate of the cost from our contractors,” he said. “Then we’ll know more.”

Winkler said his parishioners are anxious to move out of the parish hall and into a new sanctuary.

“Yet I’m very impressed how several have come to me saying they don’t want to lose the intimacy that we have developed in the hall,” he said. “We’re so close together. Hopefully the new design is going to give us that intimacy, with the pews kind of wrapping around the altar.”