HOLY TRINITY CHURCH MOVES TO
BUILD A NEW CHURCH
By Mr. Adrian Zmed, Actor
Dear faithful of Holy Trinity Parish and distinguished
guests and friends,
From the first
meeting on June 25, 1939, at the home of Petru German to this day, the history
of Holy Trinity has been one of much effort and growth to be a live Orthodox
Christian witness in California and one which enjoys its roots in the Romanian
tradition.
Incorporated in
1940; purchasing its first property in that same year; its second move in 1947;
its present housing in the old Holy Apostles Episcopal Church since 1949, Holy
Trinity has earnestly sow to root itself permanently.
The clergy who served the parish, Reverend Fathers
Grigore Coste, Victor Barbulescu, Coriolan Isacu, Anchidim Useriu,
Richard Grabowski and Constantin Alecse each added some particular hand to the
shaping of this parish and are an intimate part of the live of the community
and the personal histories.
With the organizations such as the Ladies
Auxiliary (1948); LAROY (1960); Orthodox Brotherhood (1970), and the Parochial
School (1948), Holy Trinity was helped on a local level and took its place on a
national, Diocesan level as well, being presently considered as one of the 10
big parishes of the Romanian Orthodox Episcopate of America.
Now, after more than 60 years of existence, the new 2001 building committee is working hard
to raise funds to build the new church facilities, complete with church school classrooms,
youth activity facilities, a cultural center, and sufficient room for the
social activities.
Since 1987, the year the Sunland
property was purchased, a building
program was launched in a positive structured manner.
At that time, the
following were the items of immediate importance to be established by the
Building Committee:
1. The exact
map location of all the church membership to help determine its present and
future growth locations.
2. To
determine the suitability for future growth in the present location versus a
new location.
3. To
determine the full implication of building on the present site on Verdugo Road
versus building in a new location.
4. Look at the
possibility of purchasing an existing church that could be architecturally
modified to suit Holy Trinity's future needs.
5. To
determine where to look for new church property at an affordable place that
would meet the needs of the future needs of the Romanian American generations.
An all-out effort covering all
points ensued, including a proposal of approximately 2 + acres that was being
considered as a new building site, which was eventually discarded as not
suitable for the purposes.
That same year, Mr. Miron Bonca and
Fr. Alecse were able to locate another parcel of land of approximately 7.6
acres in Sunland, California, known as the Wentworth Street Property.
The 7.6 acres could
be purchased for approximately $240.000.00, without any utilities (gas, water,
electricity and sewer, located close enough to make this available land a prime
choice for purchase consideration).
The property is
located on Wentworth Street, Sunland (the Hansen Dam area) between Freeway 210
and Freeway 5, making it an ideal location for the purposes based on the church
membership map of greater Los Angeles.
Members of the building committee
and architectural groups all agreed that this property would be well suited for
the coming generation's needs. It was
also determined to be more economical and better suited to build on new land
than to build on the current confined space on Verdugo Road, which is
surrounded with light industry and is not conducive to the future growth of the
Holy Trinity Church in the coming generations.
On June 14, 1987, the Holy Trinity
Special General Assembly meeting overwhelmingly approved the purchase of this
property.
Very soon, after receiving the
General Assembly approval, approximately 11 individual soliciting teams were
formed to solicit funds from members and nonmembers, each according to their
capabilities, to collect the entire amount of $235,000.00 needed for escrow
closing. Thus, on October 14, 1987 transaction CLOSED.
The newly purchased property on
Wentworth Street, in Sunland, is located in a residential area. To build on that
property, the Holy Trinity had to go through 4 Public Hearings in order to
secure its Conditional Use Permit: (1) December 4, 1987, The Zoning
Administrator; (2) March 15, 1988, The Board of Zoning Appeals; (3) June 28,
1988, The Planning and Environmental Committee and (4) July 26, 1988, The Los
Angeles City Council. The outcome of this last hearing was the
adoption by the LA City Council of the recommendation of the Planning and
Environment Committee to grant us the Conditional Use Permit, also imposing on
Holy Trinity Church 21 specific conditions.
For the last decade (1990-2000),
the parish instructed the Building Committee to plan-ahead the fund raising
programs, the drawing of the general blue prints and decide on vigorous actions
when the time to start construction is right.
During this time, 7 Building
committees were appointed, headed by the following chairpersons: Joseph Oros,
Miron Bonca, Mircea Popa, Traian Pincu, Ion Anton, Dr.Sorin Muntean and
presently, Mrs. Maria Pincu.
Now, as the New Building Committee,
under Maria Pincu’s chairmanship, undertakes vigorous actions to raise funds to start building the new
church facilities, Holy Trinity church thanks all of its members and
non-members who have contributed so generously to the Building fund to date and
the many more who were and presently are involved in contributing their efforts
to build a New Holy Trinity Romanian Orthodox Church and Cultural Center for
the future generations of Romanian-Americans in Southern California.
Last, but not least, Holy Trinity
thanks all of you, participants and generous donors at this fund raising event,
thus helping us to see our dreams come true, hopefully, very, very soon.
Thank-you all for coming. God Bless
America, and God Bless you all.
________________________________
ADRIAN
ZMED
A short Biography
Adrian just finished a run in the National Tour of
"Chicago" as Billy Flynn.
Prior to that he starred in the
American Premiere of "Children of Eden". He played Danny Zuko in the
Broadway and National Tour productions of "Grease". He also portrayed the Narrator in
"Blood Brothers" and Marvin in "Falsettos", both on
Broadway and the National Tour. Off-
Broadway and Regional credits include: "1776","Eating
Raoul", "Evita", "Lend Me A Tenor", "Prelude To A
Kiss", "Jesus Christ Superstar" and "Godspell". TV audiences will best remember Adrian from
"T.J. Hooker" and "Dance Fever". He has made numerous guest appearances on series, most recently
"Caroline In The City", and "Diagnosis Murder". He starred in many movies of the week,
including the just aired "Storm Chasers", and received an Emmy Award
for a children's special. Feature films
include "Grease 2", "Bachelor Party", and he just completed
shooting a film called "Running From the Shadows". Soundtracks: "Grease2",
"Bachelor Party", "Eating Raoul", "Children Of
Eden" , his own solo album and an upcoming CD based on "Robin
Hood". Adrian is the proud father
of two sons, Zach and Dylan.