Middle Collegiate Church picking up
pieces after devastating blaze
BY ROBERT POZARYCKI,
TEQUILA MINSKY AND
DEAN MOSES
Their sanctuary may lie in
scorched ruins, but the
congregation of Middle
Collegiate Church in the East
Village keeps the faith, and their
ministry, going.
The morning after a six-alarm
fi re that began in a nearby structure
and gutted their 128-year-old
church, Middle Collegiate Church
planned an 11:45 a.m. worship
service, held virtually during the
pandemic. According to Reverend
Jacqueline Lewis, the church’s
senior pastor, the service offers
a way for residents to mourn
the devastation but also pray for
greater unity and rebuilding going
forward.
Lewis thanked the many New
Yorkers who offered sympathy
and support following the devastating
Dec. 5 blaze. The Middle
Collegiate Church is one of the
original religious congregations
in New York history and a beacon
of the local progressive movement
— welcoming people of all
backgrounds, regardless of race,
color or sexual orientation.
The building may be ruined by
the blaze, but the church itself —
its people — remain in tact and
united in love and faith, Reverend
Amanda Ashcraft, Middle Collegiate’s
executive director minister,
said on Dec. 5 while surveying the
damage.
PHOTO BY DEAN MOSES
Totally gutted and devastated.
Historic Middle Collegiate
Church felled by a fire that
struck around 4:30 am. Saturday
morning.
“God is showing us, with the
first responders and the volunteers
who brought food and
coffee and with the many ways
this community is already showing
up and coming together after
this immense tragedy,” Ashcraft
said. “We also know and we’ve
learned, even in new ways since
the onset of COVID, that God is
in no way contained by four walls
and a church building. This amazing
movement of love and justice
Firefighters work to put out heavy fire that vents through the roof of Middle Collegiate Church
in the East Village during a five-alarm fire on Dec. 5, 2020.
that is Middle Church is going to
continue to show up in different
ways after this tragedy.”
Asked about the church’s future,
Ashcraft said that remains
unclear given not just the fi re,
but the unrest related to the
COVID-19 pandemic. Still, she
affi rmed that the congregation
will go on.
“I know that it’s really really
hard to swallow — especially in
a year that has already seen so
much racial, and economic, and
climate injustice,” Ashcraft said.
“We’re still living in the middle of
this horrifi c global pandemic and
to have this happen to your faith
community makes you really wonder
what the hell is going on. We
can say, even so, we will be okay
and we will rise from the ashes.”
Sunday morning, Dec. 6,
Middle Collegiate Church held
a virtual Sunday service, with
Lewis leading her sermon on
what marked the second day of
advent and mourning.
“I am sad today because our
beautiful building has burned
down, but I light this candle in
expectation. In hope that peace
will soon come,” she said.
Tearfully, Lewis remembered
her tenure at the church and the
generations of lives who’ve been
touched by it, and the heartache
she felt when visiting the site this
morning to observe the wreckage.
“The skeletal remains of our
sanctuary, guys, it’s a tough site
to see,” Lewis said.
From opening its doors following
the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist
attacks to helping people clear
soot and dust from their eyes
when the Twin Towers fell, to the
many weddings, baptisms, funerals,
and the ultimate closure due
to COVID-19, Middle Collegiate
Church has been a peaceful sanctuary
for thousands.
“Our grief is excruciating because
our love is so great,” Lewis
added.
Despite the extreme pain
and upset, Lewis wants to look
towards the future of rebuilding,
making their church a bigger location,
PHOTO BY LLOYD MITCHELL
a space for children to learn,
and developing a community
center for art.
“Why a fi re, what happened?
We don’t know that’s being investigated,
but gosh, I’m so sad
about it and I’m mad about it. But
something else is also happening
inside of me, I’m beginning to
imagine that out of these ashes,
out of our grief, something is
going to emerge that is going to
surprise us,” she said with tears
streaming down her face and a
small smile appearing.
If you would like to help
Middle Collegiate Church, visit
middlechurch.org/donate.
PHOTO BY TEQUILA MINSKY
Comfort in a time of loss among members of Middle Collegiate
Church, which was gutted by a six-alarm fire on Dec. 5, 2020.
Schneps Media December 10, 2020 3
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