A year after a historic Massachusetts church was destroyed in a fire, its pastor and congregants continue to focus on rebuilding for the community.
“We are here to commit ourself to the mission that God lays before this church,” the Rev. Bruce MacLeod, the interim pastor, said. The mission, he said, is to serve the community.
“Because when the fire struck, the first thing I heard was, ‘We gotta get the basketball court open. The kids need it,’” he said. Then, he added, people came to the church wanting to open the food pantry “because people need it.”
“This community would miss this church if this church were not here,” MacLeod said during an outside service at the church’s property on Sunday.
The church, which was built in 1743, was destroyed by a fast-moving fire in June 2023. Initially, there was no sign of a fire visible from the outside of the building and firefighters entered the church where they discovered flames in the attic and the steeple, Southbridge Fire Chief Paul Nornandin said. They began bringing hoses into the building.
A raging fire destroyed the historic First Congregational Church on Main Street in Spencer on Friday, June 2, 2023. (Kim Ring)
But the fire quickly spread, engulfing the steeple and racing along the roofline, sending firefighters back outside where they mounted an exterior attack, calling for mutual aid from at least a half dozen nearby towns.
Firefighters scrambled to move four fire trucks, which had initially responded and were directly in front of the church, as it became evident that the steeple was in danger of collapsing.
About 45 minutes after Normandin arrived, the steeple collapsed. It crashed down on the west side of the building as residents who’d been evacuated from the Senior Living at Prouty complex next door watched, stunned.
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Smoke from the blaze could be seen for miles and heat from the fire could be felt 75 yards away.
It wasn’t the first time the church burned down. It also caught fire in 1862 and was rebuilt just over a year later, serving 600 worshippers in 1863, according to the Historical Marker Database.
MacLeod said he was in shock last June, which he didn’t realize until he went home after the fire. But he didn’t blame God.
“I don’t think God made the fire. I don’t think God makes us sick. I don’t think God makes the bad things happen. I don’t think God does it to teach us things. I don’t think God does it to punish us. I do believe God is there with us in the midst of it,” he said.
The community felt the loss of the church. And Spencer’s Fire Chief Robert P. Parsons wondered if such a grand structure could ever be rebuilt.
Still, they moved forward.
CBS Boston reported that church officials are working to come up with a design and cost for the new church.
But no matter what it looks like, MacLeod knows his church will be built with the community at its core as he encouraged his congregants to come up with more ways to serve the community.
“It doesn’t matter to me what you believe. What matters to me is how you treat the people you meet, the people in your life, the people in this world. That is the gospel,” he said.
