RESILIENCE - THE FIRE
Main Line Unitarian Church began 60 years ago this year, in 1958. But it didn’t start in its current building.
It started in a building about 3 miles away in Berwyn, which had been built by the Methodists.
MLUC rented the building for a while, but then after only 2 years, they decided to buy this land, here, where we are now.
On this land was a mansion. It had 17 rooms plus a ballroom big enough to seat 125 people. It needed a lot of work, but within another year, the church opened its new doors. And a few years later, when our congregation was 10 years old, they built even more space to hold their big, busy church.
But MLUC isn't in that mansion now. The building now is only 26 years old, not 60. Here is the story of why.
About thirty years after the congregation moved into the mansion, they decided they wanted to make their building bigger again, and fancier. They raised lots of money and they hired a building company, and work began … and then disaster struck.
One night, a fire started. As far as anybody could tell, it started in some old electrical wiring. By the time anyone saw the flames, it was too late to save most of the old mansion.
The firefighters came - LOTS of them - and they sprayed and sprayed and sprayed water, but everything inside the stone walls burned. Some of the stone walls themselves were damaged by the heat and had to be torn down later. Nobody could go into the building until the fire department said it was safe. The congregation certainly couldn’t come to worship or their religious education classes or hold meetings in the building.
Several things happened next.
One thing that happened was that MLUC was given help. The Episcopal priest from the church just down the road came to them and said, “you can meet in our building for as long as you need to until you have recovered from this terrible fire!”
Another thing that happened was that members had to grieve what they had lost and plan what they wanted to do next. There were lots and lots of meetings to talk about what happened and decide whether to re-build here or move somewhere else.
And finally, the congregation made a decision and moved forward to re-build.
MLUC found out that their church was resilient.
When something is resilient it means that it can bounce back and keep growing even after something bad or damaging happens to it.
Some of us know what it’s like to be resilient, because something terrible has happened in our lives and we have gotten help, and we’ve grieved what we’ve lost, and we’ve made decisions and been able to move forward in our lives. Some kids, some grownups.
Some of us maybe have had terrible things happen but haven’t been able to move all the way through them yet. There is still time. Sometimes the process of becoming resilient takes a long time. But as long as you are alive, there is hope. You can get help, you can grieve what is lost, and you can move forward, someday.
Maybe you have been really lucky, and nothing very terrible has happened to you. Sometimes resilience isn’t about dealing with one big terrible thing but just being able to keep going when little yucky or unhappy things happen.
One symbol of being resilient is the Phoenix. Some of you might know about the phoenix from Harry Potter, or from learning about mythology. A Phoenix is a magical bird which is born from flame, lives its life, and then bursts into flames and turns into an egg - which hatches out a new Phoenix.
MLUC's church banner has a phoenix rising up out of the flaming chalice. It shows that the building might have burned, but MLUC is still here and it is still a church with loving hearts, open minds, and helping hands.
