RESEDA : Church Is Ready to Rebuild After Fire

It’s been nearly ten months since an arsonist reduced the sanctuary of the Grace Hungarian Reformed Church to a blackened husk. Now, church members are finally ready to replace it with a more traditionally designed church building, complete with some un-churchlike accessories--an advanced security system, non-combustible materials and two guard dogs.

“We have the ball rolling,” church elder John Torocsik said Monday. “We have decided to stay; we have decided to build. Now it’s only how fast and how big.”

The new church will be “definitely more ornate and churchlike,” Torocsik said, explaining that the old building lacked a steeple and stained-glass windows.

Last December’s $300,000 sanctuary fire was one of a series of mysterious attacks on the church. The attacks began with break-ins and thefts and culminated with three fires over the course of eight months. One destroyed the church office and a second gutted a house on the church property before the final attack on the sanctuary.

Fire investigators and the Federal Bureau of Investigation looked into the crime as a possible hate crime but there were no arrests. Torocsik said the identities of the perpetrators are still unknown.

Since the fire, the church congregation has dwindled. The 35 or so regular service-goers now meet in a tent on the church property at 18858 Erwin St. Declaring that they would not be frightened away from their property, the remaining members held fairs, food sales and collected donations to rebuild the church.

So far, Torocsik said, Grace Hungarian has collected about $20,000 to supplement the $300,000 insurance payment for reconstruction.

The church has also benefited from the closing of a 1920s-era Hungarian Reformed church in Pennsylvania. Stained-glass windows and an organ are among the items that have been shipped across the country to stock the new church, said Torocsik.

Torocsik said he hopes to see the new church complete by Easter of next year.