Throwback Worship Night: A Koinonia Family Reunion
A packed house joined us for our Throwback Worship Night on Sunday, July 27. Old friends embraced in the aisles, younger faces mixed with those who had been there from the start. As soon as the first chord was played, the decades fell away as the music and the memories that had carried this fellowship through forty-plus years came rushing back.
This wasn’t just a concert, it was a family reunion in the presence of the Lord. Held just a few days after the Celebration of Life service for Pastor Tony Joseph, it capped off a week to remember His faithfulness, to rejoice in His goodness, and to return in heart to the One who called us all together in the first place. Praise His holy name!
(Video below)
From Pizza Parlor to Praise Band
The story of Koinonia Fellowship has always been interwoven with music. Long before there was a stage, a sound system, or a “worship team,” there were voices lifted in praise around tables at Pudgie’s Pizza. The songs were simple, yet they carried the fire of a generation determined to love the Lord with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength.
As Pastor Ray Viola recalls, “Worship was always rooted around loving the Lord. The setting didn’t matter. Whether behind a trash can at Pudgie’s or later on a platform—it was the same heart.”
From those humble beginnings, God began adding instruments and people—Henry and Denise Viola picking up guitars, friends joining in with harmonies, and an entire fellowship learning to express their love for Jesus in song.
The Sound Grows
As the church grew, we were graciously welcomed into the building shared by Congregation Shema Israel. Pastor Ray still remembers walking into a Sunday service and seeing “a wall of amps.” The acoustic era had given way to something bolder.
Guitars got louder. The sound became more layered. Maranatha! Music and Vineyard Worship songs began to fill the sanctuary, led by men with long hair and hearts on fire for the Lord. It was raw, unpolished, and utterly sincere.
Jamie Cole, who began leading worship at Koinonia in the early 1990s, still remembers his first Sunday vividly.
“I hadn’t been back to church in a while,” Jamie says. “But hearing Hank and Denise lead worship—it felt like salve to a wound. Like home.”
“The music was never meant to be the focus,” Pastor Ray says. “It was about growing in grace, about knowing God more deeply.”
A Place To Belong
In 1997, Koinonia Fellowship moved to its current location on Main Street in East Rochester. The very first wedding in the new building was that of Ilya and Zalina Fedotov—two gifted worshipers whose ministry would shape the next chapter of the church’s music.
Ilya came to faith through a Calvary Chapel street ministry in Moscow. When he emigrated to the US in the late 1990’s, he arrived at JFK on Monday and was in the congregation at Shema on Wednesday.
“I always felt like I belonged.” Ilya said. “I never felt like a foreigner. That’s a testament to the Christianity we espouse at Koinonia.”
Over the years, worship leaders came and went—Henry, Pat Tharp, Jamie Cole, David Crespo, Ilya and Zalina—each bringing their own gifts, each adding a verse to the song of the church. Original compositions began to emerge, eventually filling three albums’ worth of music. And yet, the purpose never shifted from worship to performance.
Pastor Ray summed it up this way: “I’m so grateful for all these brothers and sisters who have said, ‘Okay Lord, we’re here to worship You.’”
As the final chord of the evening faded, no one was quick to leave. People lingered, talking, hugging, praying. The Father’s Heart provided hot dogs in the parking lot as the sun set. The music had ended, but the worship continued—in conversations, in renewed commitments, in hearts turned again toward the Lord.
If you were there, you know—it wasn’t just about remembering the past. It was about rejoicing in God’s faithfulness and returning to the heart of worship, the same heart that’s been beating at Koinonia since the very beginning.
