RED BANK – As the eyes of the world watched the spire of the iconic Notre Dame cathedral collapse in flames Monday, a local parish was remembering the resurrection of its own house of worship from a similar devastating blaze.
Plumes of heavy smoke blacked out the sky above Trinity Episcopal Church at 65 West Front St. Easter Sunday, April 14, 1968, when a fire broke out in the basement choir room just before 2 p.m.
It quickly spread throughout the structure, but not before parishioners and the church’s leader, Father Canon Charles H. Best, rushed back in to rescue what they could. Among those items were a silver chalice donated to the church in 1867 and a wooden cross that served as the centerpiece of the congregation’s annual Easter celebrations.
“We all chipped in and saved what we could, but it was my father who went in and helped carry the cross out,” recalled former borough administrator Stanley Sickels Monday.
“It was 7 feet tall and full of holes, and every Easter the church members would put flowers in the holes. It was a symbol for our parish and very important that it was saved.”
Sickels, who was 12 years old on the day of the fire and would later serve as the borough’s fire marshal for 38 years, said following the blaze, Sunday sermons were moved to Red Bank’s Masonic temple on Maple Avenue. The cross was placed outside the front door as a beacon to let church members know where the congregation was gathering.
It took an estimated 250 firefighters and 30 apparatus from the Red Bank Fire Department and other nearby companies to contain the flames in a battle that lasted more than 17 hours.
Those who enter Trinity Episcopal today will see the church’s magnificent 120-year-old stained glass windows still intact.
According to the church’s current rector, Father John Mason Lock, many of the fire personnel on hand to suppress the flames consciously attempted to preserve the glass, and even set up a barrier with their hoses to ensure the blaze never reached the windows.
Lock said when the fire was finally suppressed, the church was in ruins, but the spirit of the surrounding community was resolute.
“Over the next year individual donors and businesses from inside Red Bank and around the Two River community helped raise $184,000 to fund the facility’s reconstruction. If you compare their fundraising effort to today, you’re talking about a figure around $1.3 million. It’s a huge figure for a small church,” Lock noted.
Exactly 373 days after that tragic blaze, parishioners reentered Trinity Episcopal for the first time, not only to praise the resurrection of their lord and savior on Easter Sunday 1969, but also to celebrate the rebirth of their church on the site it had been since 1850.
This Easter Sunday, 50 years after the fact, Lock hopes to use this tragic moment and joyous community rebirth as a teachable moment for his parishioners.
“There is a lesson here that goes beyond the historical relevance of the fire. This congregation persisted in the face of great adversity and the greater community supported its efforts,” Lock said. “So often we look after our own. We look inward. But sometimes it takes a tragedy to open our hearts to others. Sometimes, out of tragedy, you witness the strength of a community and the willingness of individuals to help and serve and care for one another. And it’s unfortunate that it takes a tragedy, because this is the way it’s supposed to be all the time.”
While he was tuned in to the destructive fire at Notre Dame Cathedral, Red Bank Mayor Pasquale Menna said he couldn’t help but draw parallels between what he was watching and what those borough residents observed five decades ago.
“Lots of people, lots of parishioners, who were standing outside Trinity Episcopal that afternoon didn’t think their church would ever see the light of day again as a house of worship. And here we are 50 years later,” Menna said. “Though on a much smaller scale, I think the story of Trinity Episcopal can serve as a message to the people of France. It will certainly take longer than a year for the cathedral to be restored, but through the strength of the global community, it will be restored.”
Lock and the Trinity Episcopal parish will conduct their annual flowering of the cross Easter Sunday at 11:30 a.m., and follow with a special 50th anniversary celebration of the rebuilding of their church. After the ceremony, the church will host an egg hunt.
