Fairhaven Church’s 34 th pastor was Reverend Joseph James
Yurko Jr. He was born March 29, 1971 at North Braddock,
Pennsylvania to Joseph and Rebecca Dawson Yurko. He was a
1989 graduate of Woodland Hills High School and a 1993
graduate of Thiel College, where he was a member of the Sigma
Phi Epsilon fraternity.
Yurko was certified as a Methodist Minister in 1994 and worked
as a student pastor in the Western Ohio Conference from 1995-
1998. He received his Master of Divinity from the Methodist
Theological School of Ohio in 1998. That year he became a
probationary member of the United Methodist Western
Pennsylvania Conference. He was given full membership and
made an Elder in the Western Pennsylvania United Methodist
Conference in 2001. He married Dana Van Tassel and became a
father to her two sons Tyler and Zachery.
Reverend Yurko served as pastor at 16 different Methodist
congregations in Western Pennsylvania beginning with the Pine
Grove Charge from 1998-2001, the Arnold Methodist Church
from 2001-2003, and the Arnold/Braeburn Charge from 2003-
2004.
He was then appointed pastor to Duke Center from 2004-2005
before he arrived at Fairhaven Church in 2005 and the South
Hills Partnership that included at the time: Fairhaven, Carnegie,
Castle Shannon, and Spencer Churches until 2013. When he left
Fairhaven he stated that he wanted to imitate the Methodist
ministers of the past who rode a ministerial circuit for the
duration of his career.
In that spirit, Yurko was appointed to the First United
Methodist Church in Sharpsville, Pennsylvania. Two years later,
he was assigned an additional church, the First Methodist
Church of Sharon. He stayed at this charge until 2018 when he
was assigned his last post, the Christ United Methodist Church,
in Youngwood, Pennsylvania.
In his spare time, Yurko rooted for all the Pittsburgh sports
teams and was a devoted Star Wars fan. Reverend Yurko
struggled for a decade with multiple health issues until his
tragic death at the age of 49 on December 17, 2020.
Because his death occurred during the Covid 19 pandemic, his
funeral was streamed virtually to his friends and loved ones. He
is remembered as a cheerful and happy man who tried to uplift
all those he met and to impart God’s grace and love to all.
