From ashes to Advent: Duluth church recovers from 2016’s devastating fire

Dec. 25--Elaine Wickstrom offered from either hand Popsicle-stick beards and homemade haloes.

"Shepherd or angel?" she asked the Gloria Dei Lutheran Church congregants as they filed into their surrogate church Dec. 18 in the Lakeside neighborhood of Duluth.

"Everybody gets a role in this Christmas pageant."

Their usual array of Nativity costumes destroyed by the fire last February that gutted their 110-year-old church, organizers settled for a stripped-down pageant wardrobe this year.

"We've got a lot of angels," Wickstrom said.

The parallel between the traditional Christmas story and Gloria Dei's recovery from fire was obvious. It's been 10 months of displacement so far for the members of the boarded-up church on the corner of Sixth Avenue East and Third Street. They are making do in a figurative manger on the corner of Glenwood Street and 51st Avenue East. The cinder-block church that once belonged to the defunct Faith Lutheran Church is a bit of a squeeze for a congregation with a healthy number of children, but the churchgoers appreciate their present lot nonetheless.

Smiles and warm greetings abounded in the moments before the pageant.

"I'll be an angel," said Janine Dahlquist, a white-robed member of the choir.

Baptized and married at Gloria Dei, Dahlquist covered her head with a golden halo and answered a question about resilience.

"Faith goes on," she said amid sound checks coming from an accompanying piano and trombone. "We're still here and (Jesus) Christ is with us. As long as we have our community and our faith we're really lucky."

The service unfolded in charming scenes, high-pointing with a rendition of "Go Tell It on the Mountain" that left Pastor David Carlson to say, "That's a hard act to follow."

Costs to rebuild Gloria Dei are "right around $5 million," said congregation president Brett Amundson, who donned donkey ears for the pageant in service to its Mary and Joseph.

Amundson has carried a heavy load in the aftermath of the fire, presiding over the church's business interests in dealing with engineers, architects and insurance agents.

"We're moving forward and making decisions for the next 150 years," he said.

Covered for full replacement costs, Gloria Dei and its people learned in June that their beloved brick-and-block building was structurally intact enough to rebuild around its steel beams.

Still, costs soared significantly higher than the Duluth Fire Department's initial damage estimate of less than $1 million.

"We're waiting for a second bid on the stained-glass windows," Amundson said of one pricey replacement endeavor, "and we're looking forward to starting some interior demolitions as soon as the congregation settles on a design."

Early on that fateful Feb. 18, a huddle of congregation members watched from the sidewalk in disbelief as fire encompassed the altar. The fire marshal determined that remnants of a potluck supper from the night before held the answers to a fire that simmered for hours under the floor of the sanctuary before announcing itself on that frigid morning. The fire shut down the streets surrounding the church and dozens of firefighters flooded the blaze for hours.

Restoration options are being prepared by local architects, RW Fern Associates, and a Moving Forward committee is leading the whole effort after having been first assembled to oversee some remodeling the church had planned prior to the fire.

Given the larger scope, planners are considering all options -- from returning everything back the way it was toradically turning the sanctuary to face in the opposite direction from its original position.

"That is an option we are looking at," Carlson said. "It's an example of the type of creativity we have in reimagining the space. Nothing's set in stone but people are genuinely excited about merging our values with the opportunity to shape spaces for the next generation of our ministry."

Architects have been considering how to create greater cohesion between the oldest parts of the church and its 1959 addition that brought in offices, classrooms and community rental spaces. In surveys, Carlson said the congregation valued increased accessibility above all else. The plan is to bring the main fellowship hall up to the same floor as the sanctuary and reposition the elevator on the seam between the church and its addition.

"There may be an opportunity to reclaim some spaces that the whole congregation had not really used previously," Carlson said, including some cherished spaces with lake views.

While drafting a future worship space, the church has remained grounded in its mission of service to people in the Central Hillside neighborhood.

"Be people of peace and reconciliation," Carlson said during the pageant, while asking the Sunday churchgoers to also consider the people of war-torn Syria in their prayers.

The fire happened and not 36 hours later the church had arranged to hold its monthly free breakfast at nearby St. Mary Star of the Sea Catholic Church, where it continues to host the popular event and where the two congregations have grown used to co-mingling.

"We've in turn helped them put on their German fundraiser dinner," Carlson said.

The radio and internet broadcasts of Gloria Dei's Sunday service -- that use an impressive soundboard behind the pews -- went on uninterrupted in the wake of the fire. Sunday School classes didn't skip a beat. The church kept its commitments to CHUM -- the emergency food, shelter, advocacy, support and outreach agency Gloria Dei helped to found in 1973. The church also kept its annual tax preparation going in the Hillside and is preparing to do so again in 2017.

"It was important for us not to lose our place in the Central Hillside," said Alexis Cieluch, an 18-year-old youth leader and a narrator in the pageant. "The building was really a special place for all of us and its location is a key factor."

Carlson said the church is planning a one-year observance of the fire to be held at Gloria Dei in what would be the first event there since the fire. He'd like to hold it inside the church as much as possible. Most of the members haven't yet seen behind the boarded-up windows.

It'll be a chance for people to reconnect and "let the community know we are bound and determined to come back," Carlson said. "It's important to keep that presence and it will be the perfect touchpoint for our membership."

In the meantime, subcommittees made up of a congregation that includes roughly 350 baptized members will decide the fate of the pipe organ in the balcony and any fundraising efforts sure to be required to supplement the insurance dollars.

For Cieluch, soon to embark on a college journey, it's comforting to know she'll have a church to come home to. Her family's membership in the church dates back to a great-grandmother.

"I will always come back to it," she said. "It's our stronghold in the community."

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(c)2016 the Duluth News Tribune (Duluth, Minn.)

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