A new chapter has begun for the parishioners at SS. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Lehighton, as well as for their new priest

The Rev. Christopher M. Zelonis was installed on Wednesday evening during a special installation Mass.

The parish lost its former pastor, the Rev. Michael Ahrensfield, last fall when he passed away unexpectedly. Zelonis actually began his work at the parish on June 18, but the installation made it official.

In an interview before the Mass, Zelonis said although he was looking forward to the service, it was bittersweet, too. His mother wouldn’t be there.

“She was very happy that I followed what I believed to be God’s will for me,” he said.

Zelonis’ mother passed away earlier this month.

Fortunately, he had been living in and near his home town over the last three years. He had been assigned to St. Michael the Archangel Parish in Minersville. And prior to that, he was in pastoral ministry at Schuylkill Medical Center and Nursing Homes and resided at St. Clare of Assisi Parish in Saint Clair where he grew up.

At that same time, his mother needed assistance, and he’s an only child. When he found out that he would be moving to Lehighton, he was concerned about the distance, even though she had begun living in a nursing home. It was only a matter of weeks after he began his work in Lehighton that she passed away.

He knows that God willing, she’ll know about this next chapter in his life.

“Maybe she’ll have the best seat in the house,” he said.

Zelonis is also comforted in knowing that family members and several parishioners from St. Michael’s planned to attend the Mass, along with many parishioners from SS. Peter and Paul.

“I’m happy that so many people will be able to be present for it,” he said.

Zelonis said he always knew what he wanted to be when he grew up. He wanted to be a priest since he was 5 years old. He said he admired the priests and enjoyed serving as an altar server with them.

“I was drawn to what I saw and experienced of the priesthood,” he said.

One of those priests, Monsignor Daniel Yenushosky, who gave Zelonis his first communion, was the celebrant at the installation Mass at SS. Peter and Paul.

“He was my pastor at St. Casimir,” Zelonis said.

Zelonis attended Catholic school from elementary through high school. As a teen, he went to the World Youth Day in Denver, in 1993 and heard Pope John Paul II speak. He was impressed by his teachings and later in life, by his strength in handling his suffering from Parkinson’s disease.

“In a culture of death, he confirmed the dignity of life in every stage,” Zelonis said.

After graduating from the Nativity Blessed Virgin Mary High School in Pottsville in 1994, Zelonis prepared for the priesthood at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Philadelphia. On June 7, 2003, he was ordained by the Most Reverend Edward Cullen, the then bishop of Allentown, at the Cathedral of St. Catharine of Siena in Allentown.

Since then, he has been the parochial vicar at St. Ignatius of Loyola Parish in Sinking Spring, director of Spiritual Activities at the former Reading Central Catholic High School with residence at St. Catharine of Siena Parish in Reading, and parochial vicar at St. Joseph the Worker Parish in Orefield and Holy Guardian Angels Parish in Reading.

Zelonis said the most difficult thing about coming to a new parish is “learning the people by name, learning about the needs — both spiritual and temporal needs of the parish, and learning to accept what I cannot change and should not change and what I should.”

One of the things Zelonis looks forward to is increasing the use of the parish’s website and Facebook page to get information out to the people. He already gave it a try by announcing the details of the installation Mass on the web platforms.

With the help of a parish volunteer who has been posting information on the sites, they have added items to help increase people’s faith and teach them about the Catholic faith.

“I look forward to growing in my own faith and growing their faith, and to be in service to them in their times of need,” Zelonis said. “Jeremiah said, ‘I will give you shepherds.’ My desire is to be a shepherd to the people.”