North Huntingdon church shaken by youth pastor's child porn rap

By Renatta Signorin
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
October 20, 2014

http://triblive.com/news/westmoreland/6984309-74/patterson-church-tryon#axzz3GgRu8roI

Living Waters Family Worship Center, 800 Pennsylvania Ave., North Huntingdon, where youth pastor Andrew Mark Patterson, 45, of Monroeville had served. Patterson was arrested on child pornography charges for an extensive collection showing abuse of young children and babies.

In a voicemail early Thursday, Andrew Mark Patterson of Monroeville expressed remorse to the pastors of the North Huntingdon church where he recently developed a youth group.

Patterson, 45, told Pastors Roy and Sylvia Tryon in the message that there were federal agents at his home and that he wanted to resign his position as a volunteer with youth at Living Waters Family Worship Center.

The husband-and-wife pastor team at the nondenominational church were blindsided later in the day when they learned that Patterson had been arrested in connection with a three-month child pornography investigation.

“We were developing a relationship with Andrew,” Sylvia Tryon said Sunday. “I still can't wrap my mind around it.”

Allegheny County officials said that Patterson had the largest collection of child pornography seen in recent memory.

Computers confiscated from his home Thursday contained more than 1,000 images of children and at least one infant involved in sex acts with adult males, investigators said in court papers.

Patterson, his wife and their daughter started attending Living Waters during the summer, but the Tryons knew him from previous ministries, Sylvia Tryon said.

When Patterson suggested starting a youth group, the church jumped on board, she said. He had a “glowing resume,” references and was undergoing a background check, she said.

“It was just a start-up,” she said. “He's never said or done anything inappropriate. There was always at least four adults besides him (at youth group meetings).”

The group of about eight children first convened Sept. 5 and met four other times on Fridays since then, until Patterson's arrest.

Roy Tryon told about 20 congregants at Sunday worship service that the youth program had been shut down and leaders were considering its fate.

The church has been housed for the past 10 years in a one-story building resembling a warehouse on Pennsylvania Avenue, just off Route 30.

There are no wooden pews at the laid-back church, but blue chairs with thick cushions.

A bulletin doesn't indicate the order of readings or hymns.

Instead, Sylvia Tryon warmly welcomed those in attendance before the service moved into robust music played by eight people, including Roy Tryon, who delivered a sermon later in the service.

There's no set number of songs the group plays and no specific time that church lets out, Sylvia Tryon said.

“Sometimes it's 12, but sometimes we've gone until 2 or 3,” she said.

Words to hymns and Bible readings are projected onto a wall.

Members of the congregation often laughed, spoke out in agreement or shouted “Amen” during Tryon's sermon.

He and Associate Pastor Doug Round addressed the situation during their messages.

“I sincerely pray that that whole family, that all of them, will find forgiveness,” Round told congregants.

Tryon added that “our body has taken quite a hit.”

“We're handling this the best way God leads us to do that,” he said. “Please don't hold anything against this family.”

Patterson is being held in the Allegheny County Jail in lieu of $125,000 bail. He is charged with two counts of possession of child pornography.

He declined to speak with authorities upon his arrest.

No attorney for Patterson was listed in online court records.

Monroeville police filed an additional child endangerment charge against Patterson and his wife, Tina Marie Patterson, 41, because officers serving the search warrant Thursday discovered “deplorable conditions” inside the home.

The couple purchased the home in May 2006, according to county property records, and live there with their 14-year-old daughter.

The home had an overwhelming stench of urine and ammonia, and floors were covered with dog feces, dog food and garbage, according to court papers.

Ten Pomeranian dogs were seized by animal control officers, police said.

Preliminary hearings are set for Oct. 28 before District Judge Jeffrey Herbst.