Episcopal Press and News

WESTERN MICHIGAN: Fire ravages Albion church; Sunday services to proceed

Episcopal News Service. May 11, 2007 [051107-01]

St. James' Episcopal Church in Albion, Michigan, was ravaged by fire on the morning of May 10. No one was harmed in the fire which, according to reports, was caused by an electrical fault in the church's basement.

Michigan Bishop Robert Gepert said in an e-mail to the diocese that "the rector and people are experiencing the love of God in the faces of friends and neighbors and in the offers of support from other churches and businesses in the community."

The Rev. Ed Scully, rector, told the Enquirer newspaper in Battle Creek that services would be held in the social hall this coming Sunday, May 13, and the regular Saturday soup kitchen would continue as scheduled.

"It's a building. No one was hurt," Scully told the Jackson Citizen Patron. "We will worship in the great hall until we repair the sanctuary."

Scully said an electrical fire started in the church's basement, burned through the floor and spread across the sanctuary before firefighters were alerted at 4:30 a.m.

"The stained-glass windows came from England in the 1880s," Scully reportedly said from a sidewalk across the street. "It was traumatic seeing a fireman take a hatchet to the windows."

Scully said the original church burned to the ground and was replaced in 1885.

"In the midst of the initial cleanup, it is difficult to assess future needs, but as time goes on the needs of the people of St. James will become evident," Gepert said. "I am confident that we as a diocesan community will respond to those needs as they are made known."

St. James is one of 60 parishes in the Diocese of Western Michigan, which serves the west side of the lower peninsula of the State of Michigan.