Rising from the Ashes
By
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 says, Be joyful always, pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
The congregation of First UMC in
“We are looking forward very much to being in our “new” sanctuary. Our celebration service is scheduled for November 22 at 3 p.m. We wanted to have it later so that it would be easier for some of our sister denominations to come and celebrate with us,” says Rev. Sara Barberee, pastor of First UMC in San Augustine.
Blessing in the Midst of Turmoil
The fire started in the attic, demolishing the ceiling and spreading to the sanctuary of the 100-year old church. “There are blessings in this somewhere and this congregation will find them,” said Rev. Barberee at the time the fire took place.
It is not easy to find blessings in a catastrophe, although some were obvious. There was the blessing of community support. Almost the entire small town of
There was the blessing of firefighters, 16 truckloads of them, being cognizant and taking special care not to break any of the stained glass windows in the church. And there was the blessing of having strong faith, so strong that, at the time, members of the congregation were able to use the gift of humor to comfort one another. Comments like, “Isn’t this taking Ash Wednesday too far?” and “We don’t have to look for ashes next year,” were heard throughout the crowd of more than 300 who gathered to offer help.
A New Beginning
“I think the thing that the city itself has missed the most is our carillon, which played twice daily, and has been silent since February 25. Yesterday, the church bells rang again, and the phone began ringing with phone calls from people all over town rejoicing that they had been restored.”
One of the newest renovations is the beautifully enlarged chancel area featuring three stained glass windows that were previously covered over by the choir loft. We elected to move the choir loft, where it had actually been previously, and incorporated the space into the chancel. The windows had been vandalized some time in the past, and the center of each window was just plain blue stained glass.
We contacted a company about replacing that area with a symbol of the Trinity in each window. So, as one sits in the congregation and looks toward the chancel, one sees the communion rail at floor level, the pulpit/lectern level one step up, and the upper level is reserved for sacramental use: our Lord’s table, baptismal font, and a glass cabinet to hold our communion ware—all of this backed by those three beautiful windows.
The lower level of the church, which is devoted to the youth, has been finished for several weeks, and they are all moved in. They have an enlarged and updated kitchen, a game room, an open area for games, handicapped accessible bathrooms with showers, a storage room, and two classrooms.
All of San Augustine has been supportive, she said. “They have prayed with us, cried with us, laughed with us, waited with us, and hoped with us. The beauty of a small town is that there are no strangers.
“Every day another item is checked off our list of what has to happen for us to be ready. The pews are back in place, the chancel furniture has arrived, and we are just waiting for the elevator to be finished and inspected so that we can use the elevator to move the furniture up to the sanctuary.”
Rev. Barberee offers a cautionary word to churches: “Every year at charge conference time, we are asked if our insurance is adequate. I am here to tell you that if it is not, take care of it. We would have been in a lot of trouble if we didn’t have enough insurance.”