Priest retires after serving for 35 years at South Greensburg church

The Rev. John Nosal, archpriest of St. Michael’s Antiochian Orthodox Christian Church, thought moving to South Greensburg was too good to be true.

“I’ve lived in Greensburg virtually half of my life and when we first moved here, after about a month, I said to myself, ‘now what’s going to go wrong,’” said Nosal, 71. “Everything was just so lovely. I kept waiting for something to be wrong with Western Pennsylvania and I never found it.”

Nosal had served the church since September 1988, watching the cycles of life among his parishioners. He said he watched some of them grow up, baptizing them as children; seeing them at services over the years; marrying them; and, in some cases, baptizing their children.

After nearly 35 years of service, Nosal celebrated his last Divine Liturgy on Sunday morning. The church quickly filled with parishioners waiting to say their goodbyes.

After the service, guests were invited to attend a luncheon where Nosal’s family and friends gathered to celebrate his time at St. Michael’s.

Many of the attendants could be heard singing his praises, describing him as a “wonderful man,” a “great role model” and “a man of God.”

Nosal said he has been able to witness the phases of the church over the years. It began as a small “neighborhood church” and went through an expansion to meet the need for more space for a larger congregation. He said that he is happy to be retiring at the “top of his game.”

Nosal said he will move to South Carolina to live with his family after two years of living apart.

“We closed on a house in February of 2021, and then it was just a matter of us not knowing how long it would be until they found somebody to come (to St. Michael’s) after me,” he said.

Nosal said he is excited to be with his family including his 6-month-old grandchild.

“I’ll have some nice family responsibilities,” he said.