Joliet church plans reopening event one year after fire

• Reprints

Westminster Presbyterian Church in Joliet, Ill., is holding a dedication ceremony July 10, 2011, after being destroyed by a fire a year ago. | Art Vassy~Sun-Times Media

July 10 Celebration

Westminster Presbyterian Church holds services and open house, inviting the community to see its rebuilt sanctuary on the one-year anniversary of the church fire.

Church location: Larkin and Clara avenues.

Community invited to tour church. Refreshments provided through the afternoon. Bring lawn chairs.

Schedule

10 a.m.: Worship and dedication service

1-5 p.m.: Open house

1-2:30 p.m.: Organ and piano music

3 p.m.: Carillon concert on the church lawn

Article Extras

Updated: October 29, 2011 12:39AM

JOLIET — The sanctuary at Westminster Presbyterian Church was destroyed by fire nearly a year ago. The one-year mark comes Sunday, July 10, and the church is celebrating. Everyone is invited.

The sanctuary has been rebuilt with lots of help from church members and more.

“We received a lot of moral support from the community and different churches in our area. We want to say thank you,” said Dale Evans, co-chair of a church building committee that oversaw the reconstruction.

The church at Larkin and Clara avenues will hold a dedication service and open house with music and fellowship on the one-year anniversary of the fire.

Evans and others at Westminster tell stories of church members pulling together, neighborhood boys volunteering their work, other churches contributing to the cause, and donations coming from unexpected places.

“The fire and chaos that ensued afterward I wouldn’t wish on anyone,” Pastor Matt Robinson said. “I thank God that no one was hurt. But now that it’s over, I look at it and it was a renewal. It brought us together.”

From darkness to light

It would not be a stretch to say the past year was a religious experience.

“This was my chance to serve my church and be involved,” said Drue Ballard, who retired from her job as a school cafeteria food manager before getting involved with the reconstruction effort. “We always kept it in mind that this was for everybody and for the glory of God.”

After the fire and reconstruction, the pews are more full than they were before, church members say. The church has even gained a few members over the year, Robinson said. But, he added, “A lot of our regular members are more regular.”

Where there was darkness on July 10, 2010 — a sanctuary burned so badly that it was completely covered with ash and soot, so badly that the only part of the structure remaining today are the trusses — now there is light, literally.

Church members remark with delight on the stained glass windows that were built into the new sanctuary.

One of those windows has changed the most recognizable feature of the church, which stands along one of Joliet’s busiest streets. Motorists driving by on Larkin Avenue could not help notice the large cross that ran the height of the outside wall of the church. Another cross of the same size was on the inside.

The cross has been replaced with a smaller, round stained glass window that has a glass cross in it. Church members now call that “our cross.” Making the change was “a huge issue” for the church, Robinson said. But the church has more light now. Another new stained glass window on the opposite wall includes the figure of a dove.

“Early in the morning when the sun rises up, the dove is reflected on the (opposite) wall,” Robinson said. “We thought, wow, we never intended it to be that way.”

The stained glass window with the cross at the front of the sanctuary is just transparent enough that members can see the shape of a leafy tree outside.

“I always say the cross comes alive because there’s that gentle movement in the tree,” said
Jean Reece, co-chair of the building committee.

Coming together

This church building means much to the congregation. Many of them have been members for decades and some go back to 1957, when the first service was held in the sanctuary.

“I just love to be back in the sanctuary. It means a lot to me,” said Jean Eneix.

The congregation held services outside or in the basement, which is the church hall, for nine months after the fire before the sanctuary had been restored sufficiently for their return. Eneix and others said they learned quickly after the fire that the church was the people, not the building. They also found that they could work well together without bickering while making decision after decision on matters such as carpeting, a new organ, replacement of hymnals, new music sheets. … The list is long.

“I never heard anything derogatory about anybody here,” Eneix said. “Everybody was just wanting to get into the sanctuary.”

Many people helped in many ways.

Teresa Evans became a regular at Steak N Shake, where she stopped each afternoon to buy milk shakes for the workers with Integrity Restoration Inc., the Joliet firm that did the construction work to put the sanctuary back together.

Evans and her husband, Al, have been members of Westminster Presbyterian since 1959, and, she said, “It didn’t surprise me the way the congregation came together because we are a very loving and warm congregation.”

Some of the workers from Integrity Restoration have come to Sunday services.

Rewarding experience

But it was all hard work and a lot of time, too, the pastor and church members say. The rebuilding effort was rewarding in many ways. It also was very tiring. They’re glad it’s coming to an end.

Fred Heinze had retired the week before the fire from his job at Home Depot. He took on a new job — but no pay — as the church liaison with Integrity Restoration.

“I spent an awful lot of time here,” Heinze said. “I’m looking forward like everyone else is to disbanding the (building) committee and getting back to normal.”

The committee disbands in August.

“We look forward to going out of business,” Evans said.

Looking back, Evans said, his worst fear at the start of the reconstruction of the sanctuary “was not whether it was going to get done but how we were doing to get it done peaceably.” But the work proceeded “like there was one mind set on how things would get accomplished,” he said. “This congregation from day one embraced the concept that we were going to rebuild this sanctuary for the glory of God.”

Comment on this story

www.heraldnewsonline.com