{"id":1267,"date":"2023-08-18T11:55:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-18T11:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmonicafernandez.com\/?p=1267"},"modified":"2024-12-23T03:59:21","modified_gmt":"2024-12-23T03:59:21","slug":"what-presidential-candidates-need-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmonicafernandez.com\/?p=1267","title":{"rendered":"Montclair Church Plans To Rebuild, Warns of Scammers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Montclair\u2019s Grace Presbyterian Church is looking ahead, with plans to rebuild, after the historic church suffered significant damage\u00a0from a fire Tuesday<\/a>, said Pastor Robin Miller\u00a0Curr\u00e1s at a press conference Friday, where Curr\u00e1s expressed gratitude\u00a0toward first responders and firefighters who put out the blaze.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always prayed for the people who run towards the danger instead of away from it,\u201d said\u00a0Curr\u00e1s. \u201cWe are so incredibly grateful for the firefighters for putting themselves in danger for our church, for an empty building.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Members of the church, Forth Ward Councilor David Cummings, and Assemblyman Thomas P. Giblin (D), District 34th, also attended the conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Curr\u00e1s\u00a0praised the\u00a0community support<\/a>\u00a0of people who have offered to help with the repair expenses.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Pastor Robin Miller Curr\u00e1s at a press conference Friday at Grace Presbyterian Church. (MARIA MONICA FERNANDEZ)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

She also warned about scammers reaching out to people, pretending to be affiliated with the church and asking for money or gift cards to get help with the reconstruction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have been called by parishioners who have been called by these scammers. Please, don\u2019t fall for it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Curr\u00e1s\u00a0emphasized that the church only accepts donations through the church website or checks mailed to their address: 153 Grove Street, Montclair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou can go to the church website,\u00a0\u00a0gracemontclair.org<\/a>. There is a donate button in the pull-down menu; you\u2019re going to hit \u2018church rebuilding funds,\u2019\u201d said\u00a0Curr\u00e1s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She also encouraged people to share their special memories and stories of the church at a newly created email \u2013\u00a0\u00a0gracepc@gmail.com<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This Sunday, services will be held on the lawn of the manse at 63 Tuxedo Road, next to the church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to set up tents and we\u2019re asking people to bring their lawn chairs. And we\u2019re going to worship outside. We\u2019ve got music all planned and refreshments,\u201d said\u00a0Curr\u00e1s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the following week, worship will be held at the Presbyterian Church of Upper Montclair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Curr\u00e1s\u00a0confirmed the fire at the church started in the basement, but the cause is still unknown and the investigation ongoing.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For now, access is restricted to the older part of the building, the sanctuary, and the fellowship hall.\u00a0Curr\u00e1s\u00a0expects to have access to the education wing soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe front of the sanctuary is completely destroyed. There was a pipe organ that\u2019s gone. There is no floor in the office space next to the sanctuary,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Church officials are also expecting water damage in the basement from the four feet of water that accumulated while firefighters sought to control the fire Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYesterday, one of the firefighters told me he had a hard hat on while digging out, trying to get to the bottom of the basement. He got hit in the head with a beam that fell. We don\u2019t want to be down there,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fourth Ward Councilor Cummings took a moment at the microphone to congratulate the work of the fire and police department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a perfect example of showing up and doing the work that they do,\u201d said Cummings<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also called on Montclair residents to support the church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure there\u2019ll be plenty of financial support. Montclair is known for coming together and wrapping around things. This is when you see the best of Montclair and the church will return a couple of years from now,\u201d he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Assemblyman Thomas Giblin expressed his support for the church\u2019s rebuilding and encouraged Montclair residents who work in the construction industry to step forward for a prompt rebuilding.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPerhaps we could do the reconstruction in a shorter period. There are many professionals within our community \u2013 architects, engineers, people with experience in building. I think what we have to do is to let them know,\u201d said Giblin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When asked if there would be money from the state to help the reconstruction of the church, the assemblyman said he couldn\u2019t guarantee that. He shared that he brought a personal check for $1,000 to give to the church.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For now, Curr\u00e1s\u00a0is taking things one day at a time. She will be away for the next week, but she and her team will be working to keep offering a weekly place of worship to their community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe got a million offers of places where we can worship, so we\u2019ll make that decision when I get back,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
See Story<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Montclair\u2019s Grace Presbyterian Church is looking ahead, with plans to rebuild, after the historic church suffered significant damage\u00a0from a fire Tuesday, said Pastor Robin Miller\u00a0Curr\u00e1s at a press conference Friday, where Curr\u00e1s expressed gratitude\u00a0toward first responders and firefighters who put out the blaze. \u201cI\u2019ve always prayed for the people who run towards the danger instead […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12466,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[146],"tags":[17,62,61],"class_list":["post-1267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-print","tag-human-rights-post","tag-legislature-post","tag-new-jersey-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmonicafernandez.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmonicafernandez.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmonicafernandez.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmonicafernandez.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmonicafernandez.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1267"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmonicafernandez.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1317,"href":"https:\/\/mmonicafernandez.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1267\/revisions\/1317"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmonicafernandez.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmonicafernandez.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmonicafernandez.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmonicafernandez.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}