Sixteenth-century Anglican theologian Richard Hooker, best known for his Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, knew a thing or two about church institutions. “Change is not made without inconvenience,” he said, “even from worse to better.”
Through Fire and Flood
(based on text from the 2007 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study)
Midday on January 11, 2002, West Side Presbyterian Church in Ridgewood, New Jersey, caught fire. Flames swept through the 90-year-old sanctuary, and within two hours the entire structure was destroyed. The adjacent, recently renovated Christian education building was damaged by smoke that left the church offices uninhabitable for months.
The fire elicited a range of emotions in the congregation of nearly 1,500 members — shock, horror, anguish, among others. But most profoundly, the congregation experienced a coming together. As Deborah Holden-Holloway, associate minister of music, remarked to the press: “The church is fine. It’s the building that’s toast.”
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