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In the early morning hours of Nov. 11, 2010, flames licked up the cypress walls and shot out the roof of St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church on Barrow Street. As dawn broke, church members and other concerned members of the community gathered to watch firefighters battle the blaze, crying over the loss, and then vowing to rebuild.
The electrical fire consumed the beloved historic landmark, reducing the church, parish hall and one school building to a pile of ashes. For days after the fire was put out, ashes floated through the downtown area, and the odor of char lingered in the air.
Church members recovered bits and pieces of their church as keepsakes: fragments of the colorful stained-glass windows that once lined the sanctuary and parish hall, a short stack of hymnals and Books of Common Prayer somewhat protected from the fire underneath a pew in the rear of the sanctuary, and some pieces of the slate roof.
But on Sunday, the congregation gathered at the corner of Barrow and Belanger streets to once again worship and bless the site where the little white church on the corner will be rebuilt.
“It was a glorious day the Lord provided… We had a terrific turnout, and it was so fitting to me that it was two years ago to the day that we could have this ceremony,” said the Rev. Craig Dalferes.
“The variety of people out here – people from Grace Lutheran (where St. Matthew’s congregation has been worshipping), local dignitaries, people from the school – all for the same goal: to get the church and school built” is heartwarming, said Mike Niette, congregation member.
“We had people from across the whole community (here) and they helped put us here. … We want the whole community to rejoice with us as we reach this important milestone,” Dalferes said. The attendance of local public officials including Parish President Michel Claudet, Council Members Christa Duplantis and Pete Lambert and Fletcher Technical Community College Chancellor Travis Lavigne “was really meaningful, and I’m grateful for them being here.”
Plans for the new 5,200-square-foot church involve replicating the building as closely as possible given available funding while updating it for greater handicapped access and enlarging the seating area to accommodate nearly 200 worshippers. The 4,000-square-foot parish hall is separate from the church and shifted on the site to place the church itself closer to the corner. The 5,500-square-foot school building will house four classrooms and a science lab.
“The (school) children have been placed, and we all have our classrooms (some temporary), but when they come out, they see the empty lot. They know the church is gone,” said Cheryl Matherne, St. Matthew’s Head of School. “Worship is important to them. We worship every morning.” After the fire, students gathered to worship on the blacktop play area until one child asked the right person when they would have the church back. The answer given the student, Matherne said, was that they would have a place of worship the next day – and that person donated the church tent as promised.
Sunday was a day that 14-year-old Courtney Cangelosi, a St. Matthew’s Episcopal School graduate whose drawing of the church graces T-shirts that have been sold as a fundraiser for the rebuilding, had been counting down on a dry-erase board in her bedroom. So when asked to read a psalm during the groundbreaking ceremony, “I couldn’t turn it down. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” she said. “I wasn’t nervous at all.”
In a procession headed by a cross carved from a cypress timber recovered from the burned church, Dalferes censed the church construction site; as smoke rises from the incense-burning thurible, it symbolizes the prayers offered to God for the blessing of that holy ground. While prayers were read, the congregation followed in procession around the church site’s perimeter.
“It was powerful,” Dalferes said. “When I saw all those people walking around the perimeter, that was just powerful.”
Nylon cords were strung from corner to corner of the future church, forming the Greek letter X (Chi), the symbol of both the cross and the name of Christ. Then Dalferes used a golden shovel to turn dirt at the spot of the future altar.
“We’re lucky they could get the bell to put in the new church,” said 10-year-old Abby Lyle, a St. Matthew’s chorister who performed at Sunday’s services; the old church tower’s bell is being refurbished so it can once again signal the beginning of worship. “Even though the modular buildings are here, it will be nice to have the school building back,” said Lyle, whose then-third-grade classroom was lost in the fire. She also said she’s sad that the church’s stained-glass windows were lost.
“We have final plans in place for the bare essentials, but fundraising will be ongoing to finish out our project,” Dalferes said. Dollars raised will help replace such items as those stained glass windows and pews. “We anticipate construction will begin in the near future, most likely before the end of the year and complete in 12 months” as indicated by the project’s bidders.
“I think when you see the first piling driven” said Niette, “people will really believe we’re rebuilding.”
Contributions can be sent to St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church Building Fund, P.O. Box 568, Houma LA 70361.
St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church’s Rev. Craig Dalferes, assisted by Eucharistic Minister Hildegard Blanchard and Crucifer Alex Gilbert, leads a prayer after breaking ground at the site of the new church’s altar; construction may begin on the new church, parish hall and school buildings, consumed by fire Nov. 10, 2010, by the end of the year.
