On Sunday, Jan. 5, the Rev. Paul Tellström introduced his retirement from the pulpit at Altadena Group Church.
The 69-year-old pastor is within the throes of Parkinson’s illness. He’s getting slower. His bodily power is fading.
Two days after Tellström introduced he would quickly be leaving — beginning a transition that, irrespective of how anticipated, is troublesome for any congregation — the church burned to the bottom.
The Eaton hearth lowered the 78-year-old Spanish Colonial Revival sanctuary to ash. And it took the properties of at the least 15 members of the small, getting old United Church of Christ congregation.
“I’m exhausted,” Tellström admitted Sunday, holding up his arms. The stress had worsened their shaking.
Nonetheless, he and lots of of his members had come to Montebello Plymouth Congregational Church, which hosted them for a joint service the place many within the pews mentioned an adage oft-repeated by folks of religion when catastrophe strikes the place the place they worship: The constructing just isn’t the church. We are the church.
“Our church is all the time going to fulfill and all the time going to be collectively till it turns into unattainable to try this. A hearth’s not going to cease that,” mentioned Tellström’s husband, Carl Whidden.
Among the many greater than 10,000 constructions broken or destroyed within the lethal and still-raging Eaton and Palisades fires are at the least a dozen religious institutions, together with a number of Christian church buildings, a synagogue and a mosque.
Altadena Group Church — based in 1940, with its sanctuary constructed seven years later — stood close to Altadena Drive and Lake Avenue, with the San Gabriel Mountains seen simply past its red-tile roof and stately bell tower.
In 1986, within the midst of the AIDS disaster, the church declared itself “open and affirming,” which means folks of all sexual orientations had been welcome in its pews. Pleasure flags typically hung within the sanctuary.
The congregation, like so many, has shrunk over time. There are about 60 members, a lot of them older.
On Tuesday, Tellström and Whidden had been at their house in Pasadena, one mile from the church, when the Eaton hearth began.
Considered one of Tellström’s cousins who lives on the Westside referred to as, asking if he might go to their home to flee the Palisades hearth. He might, the couple mentioned. However he must be a part of them as they evacuated.
Whidden, 71, mentioned they watched on TV because the church burned.
“It was a actuality that was crammed with horror,” he mentioned. “My thoughts’s taking in that it’s our church on hearth. However emotionally, it takes some time to catch up.
“We’ve got — we had — a big, round, lovely stained-glass window contained in the church, and the flames had been licking out of that enormous window, simply flying out. The violence — I’ve by no means seen such violent flames.”
The stained-glass window depicted Jesus.
“Once you stroll out, you all the time search for, and there he’s,” Whidden mentioned. “It’s simply actually exhausting to see that changed with all these flames.”
Earlier than the service at Montebello Plymouth Congregational Church on Sunday, the Rev. Mitchell Younger set out a coat rack bearing dozens of pastor’s stoles — lengthy, colourful items of material worn across the neck that, for a lot of, represents the yoke of Christ.
Younger’s spouse, Nitaya, made round 500 stoles out of colourful material final 12 months. All of Tellström’s stoles and robes collected over a long time of ministry burned.
As they ready for Sunday’s service, Younger mentioned, Tellström requested him: “How do you gown on your church? Do you put on robes or stoles? I could need to borrow one. I don’t have any. All of them burned.”
From the rack, Tellström selected a rainbow-colored stole.
As she entered the sanctuary, Sherry Taylor, a 25-year member of the Altadena congregation, proudly confirmed off her T-shirt — bearing the church’s title — to fellow longtime member Michael Okamura.
“We’re Altadena!” mentioned Taylor, 71.
Then, she chuckled and mentioned of some comforts added about two months in the past: “The brand new pew cushions didn’t final lengthy.”
Tellström led Communion, breaking the bread symbolizing the physique of Christ, saying all had been welcome to the desk.
Whidden, a tenor, sang an offertory track titled “The Anchor Holds.”
The anchor holds, although the ship is battered / The anchor holds, although the sails are torn
In a short sermon, the Rev. Rachael Pryer, convention minister for the Southern California Nevada Convention of the United Church of Christ, mentioned Altadena “was a spot, perhaps just a bit bit greater than in another elements of this large metropolis, the place it was a bit of bit tougher to be lonely, the place folks would possibly really feel like they might change into a part of a group.
“It’s a spot the place individuals who used to dwell there wished they might return. It’s a spot the place folks select to retire as a result of they need to get their instruments and their gossip on the Ace Ironmongery store and run into neighbors whereas they’re out taking their canine for a stroll.”
Even earlier than Sunday, she mentioned, members of Altadena Group Church had been “struggling to discern” what the congregation’s subsequent finest steps had been.
“Group is true there within the title of your church,” she mentioned. “And within the weeks and months to return, after we are by means of the flames, and when the charred stays have been cleared away, these values will nonetheless be shared by the folks — not the constructing — by the those that make Altadena a particular place.”
What comes subsequent for the church, Pryor mentioned after the service, is unclear. She hoped folks knew they didn’t need to determine instantly. And that they need to take time to grieve what has been misplaced.
As worshipers filed previous, Tellström gave hugs and handshakes, smiling and stoic. When Whidden walked up, his face broke into an enormous smile and he wrapped his arms round his husband.
“I feel you probably did an exquisite job,” he mentioned of Whidden’s musical solo, chuckling. “I used to be unprofessional and pulled out my cellphone to document.”
Within the car parking zone, Tellström mentioned he was very drained.
He has been the pastor in Altadena for about 4 years. Earlier than that, he had retired from Irvine United Congregational Church, the place he was senior pastor for 13 years earlier than stepping down after his Parkinson’s prognosis.
“However I obtained higher. After which the pandemic hit and I obtained bored and higher,” he mentioned.
The Altadena church was looking for a brand new chief after its pastor of 20 years retired.
“I obtained my vitality again, and I threw my hat within the ring, and I mentioned — I really mentioned this throughout my interview — ‘You don’t need me. I’m too outdated and I’m no prize pig,’” he mentioned.
Nonetheless, he obtained the job. He advised the congregation upfront he wouldn’t be a long-timer.
“It’s been actually great, however I spotted I used to be actually carrying out.”
Tellström, who is ready to go away in March, was pleasantly stunned to see so a lot of his members come to Montebello in any case they’ve been by means of.
“They got here. However they’re drained. They’re older. And we’re not rising. It’s a small church. However they’re very, very trustworthy.”
He mentioned the query typically requested in instances like these is: The place is God when horrible issues occur?
“God is within the eyes of the primary responders who confirmed up and minimize a path in order that we might begin to assault the hearth,” he mentioned. “God is in these people who find themselves standing on the aspect of the street giving out free water as a result of they know that folks want it. God is within the responders who’re retaining the buildings secure round so that folks have one thing to return to.”
