BUTLER TWP — The Rev. Douglas Lorance, archpriest and pastor of St. Michael Greek Ukrainian Catholic Church, 610 Hansen Ave., already had his favorite gift in advance of birthday Friday, April 14.

“I’ve got my health, and I like what I’m doing,” said Lorance who turned 75. “As far as I’m concerned, I’m going to go on as long as God wills it.”

Lorance already has approached or reached some impressive milestones. He has been a priest for 38 years, which will become 39 years on Sept. 30. He’s been the pastor at St. Michael for 26 years which makes him the longest reigning and oldest active pastor in the Diocese of Parma, which encompasses 48 Greek Ukrainian churches in Ohio, Western Pennsylvania, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky and North and South Carolina.

In fact, Bishop Bohdan Danylo named Lorance archpriest, a title given in recognition of a priest’s service and wisdom.

Lorance said he’s had plenty of life experience to develop whatever wisdom he had.

He was born and grew up in Houston, Texas, where he attended the University of St. Thomas.

“There I met a group of dynamic, athletic priests who were happy with what they were doing. That impressed me,” he said. After he got the calling to the priesthood, he went to a monastery where he spent two years learning to speak Ukrainian.

“It’s not the easiest language. But it’s like other languages, if you have a desire to learn it, you will pick it up,” said Lorance.

When he was ordained Sept. 30, 1984, he was the first Texan, non-Ukrainian to be ordained in the diocese.

After stints at churches in Parma and Toledo, Ohio; Houston and the Pittsburgh suburb of Jeannette, he arrived in Lyndora to minister St. Michael’s 70-member congregation. Through the years he’s also endured an initially undiagnosed ruptured appendix and a serious car accident.

He said St. Michael was established in 1906 by immigrants who arrived in the area to work in the steel mills.

“We’re the mother church of all the orthodox churches in Lyndora,” he said. “They all split away.”

He said of St. Michael. “I don’t want to confuse people. We are orthodox in our thinking, but we are under the Pope, but we have our own bishops.”

He added the makeup of the congregation has changed in the last several years, adding five young families with eight children recently.

“When COVID hit, we kept the church open. We had special sections and we sanitized everything. Some people joined us then and stayed,” Lorance said.

Lorance said he would celebrate his 75th birthday by going to dinner with a few friends, including longtime friend and fellow priest, the Rev. Emil Payer.

“I’ve known him for 35 years. When I moved to Jeannette, I was by myself. I didn’t know anybody. He was a priest in the parish next door. He called me up and invited me to a get-together with brother priests in the area,” Lorance said. “I’ve asked him for advice. He’s a very knowledgeable priest.”

The Rev. Payer, a Latin-rite Catholic priest, said he met Lorance when Payer was pastor of a small church, St. Boniface, in a parish near Lorance’s Jeannette church.

“We were having a special devotion ... and I invited all the neighboring priests,” said Payer. “That was the first time we met and we stayed in touch. I’ve helped him now and then.

“I think friendships are something that can’t be planned,” said Payer. “They happen when something clicks.”

He said respects Lorance for his devotion to his congregation especially in the year since the war began in Ukraine.

Lorance said St. Michael continues to raise money for Ukrainian relief efforts through the sale of decorated Ukrainian eggs throughout the year. Relief efforts are close to home for him.

“Several priests in our diocese have brothers that are in the fighting. That’s how personal it is,” he said.

He said in addition to tending to the needs of his congregation and raising funds for Ukrainian relief, St. Michael also safeguards a collection of relics of the saints.

Collected by the Relic Crusade, a group of Catholics, lawyers and relic experts who search the world to ransom saints’ relics back to the church, st. Michael houses 75 to 100 relics that have been authenticated as genuine, said Lorance.

“Relics can help people embrace and encourage prayer life by following in their example,” said Lorance.

Negotiations and later the construction of a secure and alarm-equipped ossuary to hold the relics, as well as the transport of the relics to Lyndora, lasted from 2005 to 2015 when the relics went on display.

Relics range from hair from Mother Teresa to the heart tissue of St. Monica, patron of troubled marriages.

Each case in the ossuary contains a picture of the saint, a plaque with his or her name and the reliquary containing the relic.

Lorance said anyone wanting to visit the should call the church at 724-283-0363 to set up an appointment.

When questioned about his choice to join the priesthood, Lorance said, “They say you are unable to marry. But is everyone able to be a doctor, able to be a lawyer. God gives you the grace. I am very happy with what I am.”

And he has no plans to retire any time soon.

“I feel I can go another 45 years. I just have a feeling about this. I have my health through the blessing of the Lord,” he said.