The school-church, unique in the Baltics, was a wooden two-storied building with a bell tower.

This activity was based on a written regulation from the former chairman of the Estonian SSR Council of Ministers, Arnold Veimer, to the chairman of the Meremäe rural municipality Executive Committee.

The church, still surrounded by scaffolding, was inaugurated on June 15, 1952, by Bishop Roman of Tallinn in honour of Transfiguration of Our Lord.

On October 27, 1953, Bishop Roman gave Vilemon Talomees a letter of thanks for his selflessness and self-sacrifice in applying all his skills, will, and workforce into building a handsome new church and presbytery, with outbuildings for the Obinitsa congregation.

The Holy Patriarch, who awarded him the right to wear a badge of distinction, appreciated his work.