An Historic Altadena Church, Lost to the Eaton Fire, Begins the Long Journey to Resurrection

Parishioner Bob Schaper knew what he was looking for had to be there somewhere in Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church in Altadena — although there wasn’t much that remained.

“That is what’s left,” Schaper said, as he pointed to a blackened entryway that, since the devastating Eaton Fire, now opened to a charred field of destruction. “The church burned down through the floors to the subsequent [kindergarten] school rooms below. Organ, pews, the beams, roof — everything is just gone, simply gone.”

An elementary school serving some 300 students, renovated just a few years ago, was also immolated, along with a two-story suite of parish offices and a day care center. But none of the destruction deterred Schaper from his mission. Without telling a soul, he zipped up a hazmat suit, slipped on a mask, laced up some heavy boots and got to work.

“I was in there with full gear, a sledgehammer and saws, cutting away pipe and chicken wire and finally through a hole about as big as a dinner plate. I look [through it] and there’s the words: ‘To the Glory of God,’” he said.

“And it’s just like, oh! There’s the bell!”

The church’s brass bell was a gift from the family of Dean Howe, a young parishioner who died from cancer at age 15. For nearly 60 years, it rang out at the start of Sunday services.

For Matt Wright, another parishioner who helped lift the bell from the ashes, its discovery signaled hope for the church’s uncertain future.

“The bell will make its return when Saint Mark’s makes its return to Altadena Drive,” Wright said. “The bell will be a centerpiece of the new church sanctuary.”

By the second Sunday after the fire, Pastor Carri Grindon was leading the Saint Mark’s congregation at its new temporary home at Saint Barnabas Episcopal Church in the Eagle Rock neighborhood of Los Angeles — a roughly 20-minute drive from the Altadena campus.

She’s still processing the loss while making sure that everyone in the church community, many if not most of whom either lost homes or were temporarily displaced, is OK.

“I’ve just been in this mode of, do the next thing, just take care of the next person, just plan the next gathering,” she said, speaking on the porch of the Saint Barnabas parish house.

A parishioner shared a video of the church engulfed in flames, while the Eaton Fire continued its furious march across the expanse of this tight-knit foothill community. Altadena is known for its hardiness and a wild, feral spirit. But this was too much. Grindon refused to believe her eyes until she arrived on site.

“There was something about standing on the site,” she said. “A church is a particular kind of loss because it [represents] all of these big moments in people’s lives. It’s unimaginable to not be able to be there again.”

Altadena lost more than a dozen places of worship in the Eaton Fire, including large campuses like Saint Mark’s and Altadena United Methodist, and storefront churches like Abounding Faith Ministries. Most have publicly expressed determination to rebuild.

But if rebuilding a home is challenging, rebuilding a faith community and its sanctuary is even harder, involving shared commitment, fundraising and a re-evaluation of priorities — all while maintaining a community that’s been scattered like embers blown by Santa Ana winds.

Charlie Cutler has seen it before, as president of ChurchWest, which provides property and other insurance to ministries across California, Nevada and Arizona, including two other churches destroyed in the Eaton Fire. One of those churches — the Altadena Community Church, another historic sanctuary and school — was directly across the street from Saint Mark’s.

“We work with over 4,000 ministries in California, and we have at least one church that is a total loss every year,” he said. “And every single time the church says we want to rebuild.”

One of the Altadena churches that ChurchWest covered

But wanting to rebuild and actually doing it are very different things, he cautioned. Cutler said that before any blueprints are drawn up or any concrete is poured, each church community should ask itself some difficult questions. Is rebuilding really the best idea? Or even possible?

He pointed to a ChurchWest client that lost its sanctuary in the 2018 Camp Fire, which largely destroyed the Northern California town of Paradise. For that church, survival meant not rebuilding at all.

“Because there’s no people, because all the people have been displaced, and the members of the congregation had gone to Chico or moved out of the area completely, they saw a decline in attendance,” Cutler said.

“Meanwhile, there was a church down the street with similar beliefs and (the churches) consolidated,” he continued. “I think they created a very healthy church — they are now one congregation that’s come together.”

The congregation of Saint Mark’s Episcopal is a vibrant mix of ages, income levels and ethnicities. That’s helped by having an elementary school and kindergarten, which attracts young families and new parents.

On April 4, some 300 Saint Mark’s Elementary school kids sang the R&B classic “Stand by Me” for hundreds of parents, school officials and elected leaders at a ribbon-cutting ceremony for its new, temporary teaching space at EF Academy private school in Pasadena.

The new, “Saint Mark’s Village” offers over 2-dozen classrooms, administrative offices, and plenty of outdoor space on the Academy’s 16 acres — all at no cost to Saint Mark’s.

Even with such generosity, Pastor Grindon recognizes the immense challenges that lie ahead. Yes, the insurance money is in the bank. But even with that, she estimates a roughly $20 million shortfall and a rebuilding master plan that could span over two decades.

“We didn’t have the perfect campus,” Grindon said. “It’s beloved, but now that it’s gone, what would we do differently? We know that it’ll cost a lot to rebuild the church and school, and those costs are only going to go up. But we want to get back there.”

Grindon envisions a 20-year reconstruction and a roughly $20 million shortfall. She imagines fundraising over time, in phases. 
“There’s no way that we, just in a straight capital campaign within the community, are we going to get there,” she said, “unless some major angels show up.”

Schaper, who located Saint Mark’s church bell, said that the arduous process of rebuilding should not consume the spirit of the people who still fill the pews every Sunday at its temporary location in Los Angeles.

“We’re at church now, we’re doing church now,” Schaper said. “Saint Mark’s is going to continue to be a church.”

Now, in his retirement years, Schaper doesn’t know if he’ll be around when the new Saint Mark’s rises again. But it’s not something he’s given much thought to, choosing instead to focus on the hard work of keeping his church family’s head up, day by day.

“We must protect and keep our arms around the people themselves. We must maintain that as number one and then put a building around that,” he said. “We have to keep going because this is going to take longer than anyone thinks.”

When Schaper uncovered the church’s bronze bell, three other parishioners helped him dislodge it. Once free, they attached it to a pair of iron bars to carefully carry it from the ruins, “like Cleopatra” in her chair, parishioner Tom Horner said.

After the bell was carefully washed, the crew lifted it once more. Then, they rang it, for the first time since January 5, the Sunday before the Eaton Fire took almost everything.