That process could still take more than a year, but congregants saw a preview of the new church in the works for the corner of Pleasant and Middle street on Saturday.
After a fire in June that tore through the building, the Rev. Sylvia Stocker said the event Saturday was another showing of the congregation’s resilience.
“Every day I am just amazed by people’s commitment and energy and creativity,” Stocker said. “It’s not so easy having your church burn down and being homeless. They have rallied in ways I couldn’t imagine.”
The church’s fundraising campaign for the new building stood at 84 percent of its $850,000 stretch goal by Saturday, which also marked the celebration of the church’s 200th anniversary.
Since its founding in 1812, the congregation has seen one previous building go up in smoke after an 1884 fire destroyed the church’s first building at the corner of Mason and Maine streets.
The church chose to rebuild at the intersection of Pleasant and Middle streets, where the church plans to stay.
Initial designs prominently feature a historic bell in a window perch along Pleasant Street, with a glass tower (“the tower of light,” Stocker said) standing at the corner of Pleasant and Middle streets.
Plans for the new church will place the building’s entrance along Middle Street, directly across from Curtis Memorial Library, rather than along Pleasant Street, as with the previous building.
The new building also join the church and the adjacent Pennell House, which currently serves as office space for church officials.
“We’re just thrilled and we’re excited to be at this point,” Stocker said. “It’s a nice new chapter.”
In the interim, the church will continue meeting at the Minnie Brown Center in Bath. Other events are in the works, despite the difficulty of planning without a building.
“Things are much more complicated but people are stepping up to the plate,” Stocker said.
On June 12, the church will host a community discussion on immigration in Maine from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. in the Morrell Meeting Room at Curtis Memorial Library.
dfishell@timesrecord.com
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