Faithful gather to bid ‘farewell’ to Carman church gutted by fire

CARMAN — Mary Heard was shocked when she found out a fire had ripped through her church last week. That shock was reinforced Sunday morning as she met with fellow church members for worship.

“You’re used to coming into church. You’re used to having coffee and visiting with everybody and things like that, and it’s been taken away from you,” Heard, a founding member of Grace-St. John’s Anglican Lutheran Church in Carman, said. “But the people are here, which is the most important thing.”

That message was reiterated repeatedly at Bell Aura Bed & Breakfast as parishioners met for worship for the first time since the suspicious Thursday morning fire left the 59-year-old building shuttered. The business, itself a former church, is located across the street from Grace-St. John’s.

Lisa Salazar, who has attended Grace-St. John’s for 15 years and leads the church council, said the blaze left her feeling devastated and powerless.

“You feel like you should do something, (and) you don’t know what to do,” she said. “But I feel like we have a really good team. Our council is really good about leaning on each other and helping each other through a crisis.”

Pastor Trudy Thorarinson addressed the tragedy in her sermon, which she said could be boiled down to nine words an elementary school-aged parishioner shared with her after the fire: “At least Jesus is OK. We didn’t lose him.”

Parishioners left Bell Aura near the end of the service and stood in front of their scorched church for a short time of “blessing and farewell” to the building.

Tuesday marks the 24th anniversary of Grace Lutheran and St. John’s Anglican merging to create one congregation. The congregation has met in the building, built in 1965, since March 18, 2001.

John Carley was encouraged to see that the Bible that sits on the pulpit survived the blaze and that it was put on display during the “blessing and farewell” ceremony.

“The building is gone, but we still have our symbol, and I think that was really good,” the 88-year-old parishioner, who has attended St. John’s Anglican and Grace-St. John’s for 50 years, said. “I think that gave me some assurance that yeah, we’re still here.”

“It will be a real test of our faith as we move along without our building,” Carley added.

Thorarinson believes the parishioners at Grace-St. John’s will pass that test.

She describes the congregation as a loving group of people who are always eager to hug one another when they meet for worship.

“There’s joking around — it’s not always serious on Sunday morning,” said the pastor, who has led the church for nearly 16 years. “But at the same time, their faith is strong. They’re a fun congregation.”

Police were sent to the building at about 4:15 a.m. Thursday. Firefighters were not able to enter the building because the floor had already collapsed into the basement, RCMP said previously.

There was no one inside the building at the time, police said. The fire was deemed suspicious, and the RCMP and the Office of the Fire Commissioner are investigating.

The church has about 90 members, with around 30 people attending Sunday mornings, Thorarinson said.

She is not sure where the congregation will meet for worship for the foreseeable future, but the church’s council is scheduled to meet this week and will discuss the matter then.

Church members have united together in their disbelief and grief, Thorarinson said.

aaron.epp@freepress.mb.ca