Baptist Congregation Breaks Ground For New Church
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Fast-moving flames ripped through an east Baltimore church, destroying it in a matter of minutes. That was four years ago.
As Gigi Barnett explains, this weekend, members were back on their old site, breaking ground on a new church.
Members of Mount Calvary Star Baptist Church in east Baltimore called it a great loss. Their building went up in flames in the early morning hours one February day in 2010.
"I don't know what to think. My heart aches. I mean, aches," said Rev. Alex Young, Sr., the church's pastor, at the time.
That was then and this is now. After four years, Mt. Calvary is rebuilding.
"We're going to break ground and rebuild," Young said.
This weekend, the congregation celebrated with song and prayer to tell the community that they're coming back.
The cause of the blaze is still a mystery.
"We never found out what caused the fire," Young said. "It's very heart-breaking."
Over the last four years, members moved twice, looking for a suitable location. The church only had a small insurance policy to cover the fire damage, so it had to raise money for much of the new building from scratch.
"Everybody was calling. 'What can we do? We miss it,'" said Cattie Ambrose. "I was married there. My parents were married there."
Ambrose joined the church 40 years ago. She says members vow to rebuild because their church was a safe haven for children and teens in the community.
"We can do more things with them. We want to get the Girl Scout troops back in session, we want to work with the youth and get them off the street," she said.
The church moves into its brand new building in a year.
For nearly four years, church members were able to use a neighboring building at Bethesda Methodist Church on Harford Road.
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