On Sunday, January 5th, Pastor Paul Tellstrom announced his retirement from the pulpit of Altadena Community Church.
The 69-year-old pastor has Parkinson’s disease. He is getting slower and slower. His physical strength is declining.
Two days after Tellstrom announced his impending retirement, the beginning of a difficult transition for any congregation, the church burned to the ground.
The Eaton Fire reduced the 78-year-old Spanish Colonial Revival shrine to ashes. And the homes of at least 15 members of the small, aging United Church of Christ congregation were attacked.
“I’m exhausted,” Terstrom admitted Sunday, raising his hands. Stress made their tremors worse.
Still, he and many of his members come to Montebello-Plymouth Congregational Church, where joint services are held and where many of the congregation hear the adage that people of faith often repeat when disaster strikes their place of worship: said. It’s not a church. we are the church.
“Our church will always come together and always be together until that’s no longer possible. A fire won’t stop that,” said Telstrom’s husband, Carl Whidden.
At least a dozen religious buildings, including several Christian churches, synagogues and mosques, were among the more than 10,000 structures damaged or destroyed in the deadly and still-raging Eaton and Palisades fires. is included.
Altadena Community Church was founded in 1940 and the sanctuary was built seven years later. It sits near Altadena Drive and Lake Avenue, with red-tiled roofs and an imposing bell tower overlooking the San Gabriel Mountains.
In 1986, during the AIDS crisis, the church declared itself “open and affirming.” This means that people of all sexual orientations are welcome to the pew. Pride flags were often flown in the sanctuary.
Like many congregations, our congregation has shrunk over the years. There are about 60 members, many of whom are elderly.
A charred cross that once adorned Altadena Community Church lies in the rubble after Saturday’s Eaton Fire.
(Allen J. Scherben/Los Angeles Times)
Tellstrom and Whidden were at their home in Pasadena, about a mile from the church, when the Eaton Fire broke out Tuesday.
Tellstrom’s cousin, who lives on the West Side, called and asked if he could go to her house to escape the Palisades fire. It can be done, the couple said. However, he had to take part in their evacuation.
Whidden, 71, said he watched the church burn on television.
“It was a scary reality,” he said. “In my head, I think our church is on fire, but emotionally it takes time to catch up.
“We had a beautiful big circular stained glass window in the church, and the flames were licking down through the big windows and shooting out. Violence – I’ve never seen flames this intense. There is no.”
Jesus was depicted in the stained glass window.
“Every time I go out, I look up and there he is,” Whidden said. “It’s really hard to see it replaced with this much fire.”
Members of Altadena Community Church selected a new stole for their pastor during a joint Sunday service with Montebello Plymouth Congregational Church.
(Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)
Before Sunday’s service at Montebello Plymouth Congregational Church, the Rev. Mitchell Young made several of his pastor’s stoles — long, colorful strips of cloth worn around the neck that, to many, represent the yoke of Christ. I prepared a coat rack with ten coats on it.
Last year, Young’s wife, Nitaya, made about 500 stoles from colorful fabrics. All the stoles and robes Terstrom had collected over decades of service were burned.
Young said Tellstrom asked him as he prepared for Sunday’s service. Are you wearing a robe or stole? You may have to rent it. I don’t have anything. Everyone was burnt out. ”
Terstrom selected a rainbow-colored stole from the rack.
Sherry Taylor, a 25-year member of the Altadena congregation, entered the sanctuary and proudly displayed a T-shirt with the church’s name on it to longtime member Michael Okamura.
“We are Altadena!” said Taylor, 74.
And, with a laugh, she said of some of the comforts added about two months ago. “The new pew cushion didn’t last long.”
Mr. Tellstrom led the communion service, breaking bread to symbolize the body of Christ and inviting everyone to the table.
Whidden, a tenor, sang a dedication song titled “Anchor Hold.”
Even if the ship is battered, the anchor will hold up / Even if the sails are torn, the anchor will hold up
The Rev. Rachel Pryor preaches Sunday at Montebello Plymouth Congregational Church in Montebello.
(Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)
In a short sermon, the Rev. Rachel Pryor, pastor of the United Church of Christ Southern California and Nevada Conference, said in a short sermon that Altadena was “a place that was probably just a little bit more than other places in this great city. It was a little bit harder to be alone. People may feel like they can be part of a community.
“This is a place that the people who once lived here wanted to return to. It’s a place where you can buy tools at Ace Hardware Store, gossip, or talk to your neighbors while walking your dog. It’s a place where people choose to retire because of the things they encounter.”
Even before Sunday, she said, Altadena Community Church members were “struggling to figure out” what the next best thing for the congregation was.
“In the name of your church, the community is right there,” she said. “And in the weeks and months to come, even as we walk through the flames and the charred remains are cleaned up, those values will be shared by the people, not the buildings, that make Altadena the special place it is.” It will be shared by the people who are there.”
Pryor said after the service that it’s unclear what will happen next for the church. She wanted people to know they don’t have to make a decision right away. And that we should take time to grieve what we’ve lost.
The Rev. Paul Tellstrom (right), pastor of Altadena Community Church, hugs one of his members after receiving stolen property during a joint Sunday service in Montebello.
(Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)
As worshipers filed past, Terstrom smiled and calmly offered hugs and handshakes. Mr. Whidden walked over, a huge smile on his face, and wrapped his arms around her husband.
“I think they did a great job,” he said with a laugh of Whidden’s musical solo. “I was unprofessional and took out my phone to record.”
In the parking lot, Tellstrom said he was very tired.
He has been a pastor in Altadena for about four years. Prior to that, he retired from Irvine United Congregational Church, where he served as senior pastor for 13 years before resigning following a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease.
“But I got better. Then the pandemic happened and I got bored and got better,” he said.
Altadena Church was looking for new leadership after its pastor of 20 years retired.
“I perked up, threw my hat into the ring, and said – I actually said it during the interview – ‘You don’t need me.’ I’m too old. , not a prize pig,” he said.
Still, he got the job. He was the first to tell the congregation that he would not last long.
“It was really great, but I realized I was really exhausted.”
Tellstrom, who plans to retire in March, was pleasantly surprised to see so many members come to Montebello from all walks of life.
“They have come. But they are tired. They are older. And we are not growing. We are a small church. But they are very, very faithful.”
He said a question often asked at times like this is, “Where is God when something terrible happens?”
“God is in the eyes of the first responders who rushed in and cleared the way so we could start fighting the fire,” he said. “God is in the people who stand on the side of the road and give out free water because they know people need water. Among the responders who are keeping us safe.”
Montebello Plymouth Congregational Church volunteer Mamie Okamoto gave a message of Japanese healing to her congregation and members of Altadena Community Church, which lost its Altadena campus in the Eaton Fire, during a joint Sunday service in Montebello. We handed out symbolic paper cranes.
(Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)
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