The southern Manitoba congregation of Grace-St. John’s Anglican/Lutheran is finding new strength / emerging even stronger following a devastating fire which fully ravaged its 60-year-old church building.
The blaze began in the early hours of the morning on March 13. Local firefighters in Carman were dispatched to the scene shortly after 4:00 AM, but were unable to enter the church building. The fire had already burned through the main flooring, forcing the fire department to attack from the outside.
The church has since been deemed a total loss, while investigators look for leads in what local RCMP are now considering a ‘suspicious’ fire.
“It’s one of those moments where you look up and see three or four fire trucks, police cars and an ambulance parked outside the church. You’re just sick to your stomach,” said church pastor Rev. Trudy Thorarinson.
“I received a text from one of our members who lived just down the street. I got there around 7:45 AM, and by that time the flames were pretty much all out. One of the firefighters brought me to where the front doors used to be and showed me how the floor had fallen right through to the basement. He also took me to the side of the sanctuary, where I peeked inside but it was just so smoky and dark in there. I just looked towards the pulpit area and there was the parament, but it was all melted and almost gone. The microphone was gone, and the pews were very smoke-damaged.”
For Rev. Thorarinson, Grace-St. John’s has been her home for the past 15 years. Seeing the church in such a sorry state immediately filled her with strong emotions.
“It was quite the sight to see,” she shared. “I didn’t know what I was expecting, but it wasn’t that. I just I couldn’t believe it. You know, that instant sickness feeling you get deep in the stomach? It was just so upsetting and vibrating and all that sort of stuff you just never wanted to see.”
Despite reeling in the aftermath of a church building gone far too soon, Rev. Thorarinson almost immediately began working on the next steps for her congregation and the community it serves in the surrounding Carmen area. Emails and phone calls with bishops, fellow church leaders, neighbouring congregations and locals poured in.
Thanks to the generosity of others, the congregation was able to have its regular weekend worship just a couple days later right across the street at the former Presbyterian church, which now serves as the local bed and breakfast in town.
“One of the firefighters was able to salvage our altar Bible from the blaze,” Thorarinson said. “It was pretty scorched, and you’d have to wear gloves and a mask to touch it, but one of our members brought it home, got the smoke smell out of it and put it in a case to preserve it. Following that first service after the fire, we all walked over, lifted the ‘do not cross’ ribbon and placed the Bible on a stand outside of the church and just did a little ceremony there.”
With the support of neighbouring churches, Grace-St. John’s has been able to worship regularly in the weeks following, despite lacking an official home address. With nine church buildings in the town of Carman, Rev. Thorarinson says her members have been offered to come worship at their congregations, but they have declined to stay together as the congregation of Grace-St. John’s as it continues to do worship slightly differently this spring.
“Our average weekly attendance is about 30 people,” she said. “The Boyne Lodge and Towers Senior Home has been great in allowing us to hold worship in their common room, and have been insistent on us not paying rent. A congregation in Cold Lake reached out because their church building recently burned down and helped us go over how to deal with some of this. We had congregations in Thompson, Winnipeg and even locally in Carman – the United Church here has been very good to us – all reach out to help us along our way back up.”
“We’ve had lots of offers from congregations outside of Carman as well to have us over and worship with them,” she added. “As much as we graciously appreciate it, we still need to be together, grieving together. Our members are doing pretty good. Some of them are still feeling displaced. It feels different. The very first Sunday was a very emotional Sunday. We had numerous members who walked in the building with tears in their eyes. But they’re doing alright. We will get through this and hope to be stronger because of it.”
