Fire Guts LGBTQ-Friendly Middle Collegiate Church
East Village congregation known for fi erce advocacy of racial, social, and queer justice
BY PAUL SCHINDLER
Firefi ghters battled
through the morning on
December 5 to bring under
control a massive inferno
that gutted the historic Middle
Collegiate Church in the East
Village.
The six-alarm blaze began at
4:48 a.m. inside a vacant, fi ve-story
building adjacent to the house
of worship at the corner of Second
Avenue and East Seventh Street.
Flames then quickly spread to the
church, constructed in 1892 as a
new home for one of the fi rst religious
congregations in New York
history.
Fire Department offi cials said
the fl ames fi rst developed on the
fi rst fl oor of the vacant building,
then rapidly spread to the fl oors
above and the adjacent Middle Collegiate
Church.
Middle Collegiate has for decades
served as a beacon in New
York, championing social and racial
justice issues and making itself
a welcoming home for many in
the LGBTQ community.
Within moments of the fi re breaking
out, fl ames could be seen pouring
out of every fl oor of the vacant
building and many of the church’s
dozen Tiffany stained glass windows.
City Councilmember Carlina
Rivera reported on Twitter there is
“signifi cant damage” to the house
of worship.
No civilians were reported injured,
but the Fire Department
said three fi refi ghters wound up
being hospitalized for injuries not
considered life-threatening. After
daybreak, fi refi ghters were still at
the scene working to extinguish
hot spots.
The cause of the fi re is under investigation.
Reverend Jacqueline L. Lewis,
Middle Collegiate Church’s senior
minister known to her congregants
as Reverend Jacqui, expressed
heartbreak over the destructive
inferno, but also resolve to rebuild
and continue the church’s mission.
“We are devastated and crushed
Firefi ghters work to put out heavy fi re at the roof of Middle Collegiate Church during a six-alarm fi re.
A dance performance during a service at Middle Collegiate Church.
that our beloved physical sanctuary
at Middle Collegiate Church
has burned. And yet no fi re can
stop Revolutionary Love,” Lewis
tweeted. “We thank God that there
has been no loss of life. We know
that God does not cause these
kinds of tragedies but is present
with us and to us as we grieve,
present in the hugs and prayers of
loved ones.”
Members of the Middle Collegiate
Church have been holding virtual
services during the COVID-19
pandemic, and Lewis wrote that
would continue on Sunday in spite
of the tragic fi re.
The roots of Middle Collegiate
Church date back to 1628, when
Manhattan was part of the Dutch
LLOYD MITCHELL
MIDDLECHURCH.ORG
colony of New Amsterdam.
The church’s current East Village
sanctuary was constructed
in 1892 and houses what the congregation
calls New York’s Liberty
Bell, which rang on July 9, 1776
— fi ve days after America declared
its independence from Great Britain
— from the church’s original
sanctuary on Nassau Street in the
Financial District.
The bell moved with the church
over the years and is traditionally
rung to mark every inauguration
and death of an American president.
Co-affi liated with the United
Church of Christ and the Reformed
Church of America, today’s Middle
Collegiate Church takes pride in
COMMUNITY
having “one of the leading multicultural,
multiracial congregations
in the United States” and promoting
marriage and racial equality.
During the COVID-19 pandemic,
the Middle Collegiate Church
has allocated 10 percent of its budget
to programming related to the
Black Lives Matter movement, and
allocated grants to help struggling
individuals pay their rent or mortgages.
For many queer New Yorkers,
Middle Collegiate is a bastion of inclusiveness
and love.
Writing in 2008 in Gay City
News, Kate Walter recalled fi rst attending
the church after a diffi cult
break-up with a longtime partner.
She arrived there shortly after
Middle Collegiate had come under
fi re from its parent denomination,
the Reformed Church of America,
for its advocacy of marriage equality.
“I like being pastor of a church
that is being disciplined for its positions,”
Reverend Jacquie told her
congregation.
The church’s motto is “Welcoming,
Artistic, Inclusive, Bold,” and
Walters recalled a dance theater
piece staged for World AIDS Day
and the December Advent Sundays
leading up to Christmas that
was centered on an HIV-positive
pregnant woman on the Lower
East Side.
The church’s renowned and
rocking gospel choir was founded
in 1986 — when the beloved Reverend
Gordon Dragt was still pastor
— by Jerriese Johnson, an HIVpositive,
African-American gay
man who was an actor and singer.
When Johnson died several years
later from AIDS-related causes, the
choir was renamed in his honor.
In 2016, the choir was awarded
the Best Float Prize in Manhattan’s
LGBTQ Pride March. A decade
earlier, Gay City News’ Andy
Humm wrote about the church’s
fl oat that included “a boisterous
mix of brilliantly-clad drag queens
and congregants wearing identical
lavender T-shirts,” joined by Rever-
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