In 1888, the brotherhood of Saint John the Baptist was organized in Mayfield. This was only two years after a similar brotherhood in Shenandoah had succeeded in persuading Metropolitan Sylvester Sembratovich of Lvov to send the first Greek Catholic priest to America to minister to the many Russins in need of religious and spiritual leadership. Father John Volyansky was a married man when he arrived in America. He was greeted with great enthusiasm by his own people. But too soon he discovered that everyone else treated him with open hostility, particularly the Polish and Irish Roman Catholics. They simply could not accept the idea of a married priest under the jurisdiction of the Pope of Rome. Father Volyansky finally was forced to celebrate his first Divine Liturgy in a private home. The great festivity of this occasion was described by Dionisij Salaj, one of the founders of the parish, in the "Remembrances of my Journey to America in 1881." The first Russins in the area had attended the Irish and later the Polish church, but always they had dreamed of the day when they could have a church of their own rite. When that day came, every Russin in the anthracite region traveled to Shenandoah to participate, "All the 'diaki' (cantors) of which there were quite a number from Galicia and Uhro-Russin, tried to outdo each other. It was like the Syrian Church in New York during a hierarchal liturgy!" Soon after this service Father John traveled to Philadelphia with a delegation of the most distinguished members of the Russin colony, for an audience with the Roman Catholic Archbishop. Archbishop Ryan refused to speak to the delegation or to recognize Father Volyansky as a priest, since he was a Greek Catholic and a married man. The delegation returned home greatly frustrated and at a loss as to their next course of action, in that they lacked authority to begin construction of a church without the permission of the proper ecclesiastical authority. Their troubles were compounded by vicious attacks from the pulpits of both the Irish and Polish Roman Catholic pastors, who took the action of the Archbishop as approval of their own prejudice. However, under the advisement and encouragement of a young Polish friend of the Russin colony, one Casimir Raise, who told them to ignore the Archbishop since this was a free country and in that Father Volyansky had the necessary authorization from his own Metropolitan in Lvov. Land was purchased and the blessing of the foundation of the new church brought together a huge crowd of Russins for the festive occasion.

The Irish and Polish priests, having learned of Archbishop Ryan's refusal to meet with Father John and the delegation, increased the tempo of their attacks on the Greek Catholic community. They forbade their flocks to have any contact with Father Volyansky's flock, under pain of excommunication. Diojisij Salej in his account of the occasion of the blessing of the foundation of the new church describes the event as follows: "The lots were purchased and the construction began. When the foundation was completed, the ceremony of blessing was arranged and a great number of people gathered to participate. The weather was beautiful. When the rite of blessing was begun, great tears of joy watered the ground. We are incapable of describing the joy, even though we saw the insulting behavior of the "lyakhs" toward us, for they did not remove their hats before the holy Cross. But they did this because of their fear of Lenartowicz (the pastor of the Polish church), who threatened every Pole with expulsion from the church if he dared to participate openly in the blessing of the foundation of the new church."

This feeling of passionate hatred for the Greek Catholics on the part of their Roman Catholic brethren was the dominant attitude for many years, and which lasted well into the middle of the twentieth century. Although, in all fairness to the individuals involved, there were many Casimir Raises who stepped forward to help the Russins. However, if one were to examine the official biographies of both Archbishop Ryan and Archbishop Ireland (who had an historical encounter with Father Alexis Toth in St. Paul, Minnesota), he would find no mention whatsoever of either father John Volyansky or Father Toth. One must assume that either the incidents, which loomed so important in the eyes of the Greek Catholics were completely unimportant to the two hierarchs of the Roman Catholic Church at that time, or it remained for many years a source of real embarrassment to them. Possibly in the future a more objective telling of these two crucial encounters as well as many others will be presented for the edification of all Christians.

Father John Volyansky ultimately built the church in Shenandoah, and more Greek Catholic priests arrived in the next five years to establish parishes in Hazelton, Kingston, Olyphant, Freeland, Wilkes Barre, Philadelphia Pennsylvania, Jersey City New Jersey and Minneapolis Minnesota. In 1890, on the 29th of October, eight of the ten Greek Catholic priests in America at that time held their first formal meeting in the parish home of Father Alexander Dzubay in Wilkes Barre. The two who refused to attend did so because they preferred to meet in a hotel room rather than in the parish home. Despite the pleas of Father Alexis Toth, Father Constantine Andruhovich of Shenandoah and Father Cyril Gulovich of Freeland did not attend this first historic meeting. The clergy who did participate met under the presidency of Father Alexis Toth of Minneapolis. The two secretaries of the meeting were Father Theophan Obushkevich of Shamokin and Father Eugene Volkay of Hazelton. The other participants were Fathers Alexander Dzubay, host-pastor of Wilkes Barre, Joseph Zapotosky of Kingston, Gregory Grushka of Jersey City, Gabriel Vislosky of Olyphant and Stephan Yatskovich, co-pastor of the Wilkes Barre parish.

After the celebration of the Divine Liturgy, including a remembrance of Many Years for their bishops, Metropolitan Joseph of Lvov, and bishops John of Prayashev and John of Peremysl, and the singing of Eternal Memory for the newly-departed, priest Zenovij Lyahovich, the clergy held a formal meeting in the rectory. The agenda for the meeting was a comprehensive survey of all the major problems the Greek Catholic clergy and their parishioners faced in an ethnically and religiously hostile climate. The agenda was couched in formal phraseology, but reveals nonetheless problems of deep emotional, spiritual and psychological depth and complexity. Point two of the agenda states: "to beg our home bishops (ordinaries), not to release us from their jurisdiction, and not to turn us over to the care and jurisdiction of the Latin bishops here." It was one of the most important items on the agenda, for it struck at the very heart of the dilemma of the Greek Catholic Uniate priest who found himself trying to organize a parish life while under the authority and jurisdiction of bishops who were either indifferent to him or who openly rejected him as a priest. They had even gone so far as to make formal complaints to Rome, asking that the Uniate priests be forbidden to come to America. This problem was real, for the Greek Catholic priest was totally different from the Roman Catholic priest. His rite was not the Latin, but Eastern; his nationality was Russin (or "Ruthenian" as the Roman Catholics called them); he was married and had a family; the language of his church was Slavonic, not Latin. Though the Roman Catholic bishops and clergy were familiar with the Greek Catholic rite, theirs was book knowledge, an abstraction. They had never had occasion to meet them in their home countries, let alone have them living across the street in their own towns. Archbishop Ireland's meeting with Father Alexis Toth was an emotional explosion which Father Alexis describes in graphic detail. So intense were the emotions involved that Archbishop Ireland's hand trembled continuously for the fifteen minutes it took to read the introduction from Toth's own bishop. One wonders how such an emotional conversation as described by Father Alexis could have been carried on in Latin, a language normally reserved for prayer and formal ecclesiastical documents. "When Archbishop Ireland said, 'I have already protested to Rome, and asked them not to send such priests here,' Father Toth asked, 'what kind of priests do you mean?' Archbishop Ireland replied, 'Such as you.' Father Alexis protested, "But I am a Catholic priest of the Greek Rite. I am a Uniate; I was ordained by a canonical Catholic bishop!' Archbishop Ireland said, 'I do not consider either you or that bishop Catholic. Besides that, I have no need here for a Greek Catholic priest. It is enough that there is a Polish priest here - he can be priest for the Greeks also.' Father Toth, dismayed, protested, 'But he is of the Latin rite. Our people do not understand him or the rite. It is very unlikely they will turn to him. After all, that is why they built their own church!' Archbishop Ireland retorted, 'I did not give any permission for that, and I do not give you jurisdiction to act here!" Father Toth writes, "I was deeply hurt by such crass fanaticism of a representative of the papal church, and answered sharply: 'In that case, I need neither your jurisdiction nor your permission. I know the rights of my church (Father Alexis was a canon lawyer in his diocese). I know the agreement under which the Unia was formed, and I will act accordingly." Father Toth continues, "The Archbishop exploded, and I no less. Words followed words, and it went so far that it is not worthwhile to reconstruct our conversation."

No doubt it would have been impossible to reconstruct a conversation of such deep emotional content. One must remember that neither Archbishop Ireland nor Father Alexis Toth were able to express themselves fluently in their own native tongues. The profoundly emotional explosion had to be held within the rigid confines of a Latin vocabulary and formal grammatical structure. It was a formal battle, reminiscent of two medieval knights jousting on the field of honor, each in an unwieldy coat of armor, encased from head to toe. The description Father Alexis Toth has left us, despite its brevity, reveals the awesome dimensions of a formidable struggle between two giants. It would be interesting to read Archbishop Ireland's description of this event, (if such a description exists in his personal diary), or of his secretary, who was no doubt present.

The near encounter of Father John Volyansky and the all-too-real encounter of Father Alexis Toth clearly indicated the religious climate at the highest ecclesiastical levels.