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Rebuilding

By now the story and the images are fixed in our memories: On August 15, 2023, fire broke out in our building at the corner of Grove Street and Tuxedo Road. We invite you to watch a short video that tells the story of our fire, our recovery as a congregation by God’s grace, and our rebuilding efforts.

This video was created by MERIDIAN DESIGN ASSOCIATES, ARCHITECTS, P.C. and appears here with their permission. This update, produced for the 100th anniversary of the dedication of our sanctuary, was also produced by MERIDIAN DESIGN ASSOCIATES:

We are grateful beyond words for the support we have received from our neighbors, from the greater Montclair community, and from people and organizations across the country, including the Presbytery of Northeast New Jersey. We are grateful to God that our insurance and the donations we have received to date will cover most of the cost of restoring and reopening the building. (Some recent photos are below.) As you heard in the video, our goal is to move beyond restoring and reopening the building to installing new stained glass windows and a new pipe organ.

If you have already donated, Thank You! If you would like to donate for the first time, or make another donation, please click on the link below and select “Church Rebuilding Fund” from the pull-down menu on the right or below the dollar amount. If you cannot donate, we hope you will accept our invitation to join us one Sunday soon. May God bless you for spending these minutes with us!

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Looking from the sanctuary toward the fellowship hall, we can see a semicircular panel that will be part of the design for the partition separating the two spaces. The accordion doors will be below the semicircle.
Looking toward the back of the sanctuary and the narthex, we can see the narthex partition in place. It looks odd because there is no glass in place and the doors haven’t been installed.
Center: One of the two doors that were next to the chancel (platform) in the sanctuary. Left: It’s hand-crafted replacement. Right: one of the original doors in the narthex partition; it has been cleaned up and is awaiting finishing.
One of the two door frames for the doors leading to the back of the chancel. By itself it is an amazing piece of craftsmanship.
Looking from the sanctuary toward the fellowship hall, we can see the framework for the accordion doors that will comprise the lower part of the partition.
Now this is exciting! This is a view into a new bathroom in the basement. You can see the rough drain plumbing. Is that a drain pipe for a shower at the far end? We’ll see!
Several larger trees near the building were damaged by the fire and had to be removed, but this hydrangea near the Grove Street entrance to the narthex is doing quite well, thank you!
That is one big electrical panel! Behind it you can see some of the miles (well, hundreds of feet) of electrical cable that will carry current to devices and outlets throughout the kitchen and fellowship hall.