Congregants Mourn Church’s Latest Fire : Religion: Damage from the second blaze this month is put at $1.2 million. Leaders worry about the less tangible effects on their multicultural Wilshire district membership.

The church where Shirley Temple was married, now home to a multicultural congregation that hears services in four languages, was hit with its second fire this month when its west wing burned Monday night.

It took 15 fire companies 59 minutes to extinguish the fire at Wilshire United Methodist Church, leaving portions of the wing gutted, prayer halls singed and the pipe organ destroyed, Fire Department spokesman Jim Wells said.

On June 6, the Wilshire district church was hit by a smaller, electrical fire that caused $120,000 in damage, Wells said.

Monday’s fire, which is still under investigation, started at 11:03 p.m. and caused about $1.2 million in damage, Wells said.

Church members said they are worried about damage to less tangible things.

“We have insurance,” the Rev. Chang Soon Lee said Tuesday. “But what’s important is the spirit.”

That spirit is one of tolerance and unity, say those affiliated with the church. Wilshire United Methodist has eight services every Sunday in four languages--English, Korean, Spanish and Tagalog, the Filipino language. Occasionally, the entire congregation joins for one large ceremony. The church provides rehearsal space to the Gay Men’s Choir of Los Angeles and welcomes lesbians, gays and bisexuals.

The church’s outgoing pastor, the Rev. Alan Jones, says it is not uncommon to see Koreans or Filipinos attending English or Spanish services, and notes that the English-language ministry is about 70% black, with groups from the Caribbean and Africa.

“This is a pioneering congregation. You don’t find congregations like this often, when you find so many people sharing,” Jones said. It is an example of cross-cultural unity, Jones said, and, after the fire, “people are anxious this is putting a block in the process.”

Church members were visibly upset when they came by Tuesday morning to survey the damage. One Filipino woman started sobbing as she entered the building. A group of Koreans stood in a circle in the church offices and uttered a brief prayer, then returned to dealing with the dozens of contractors, engineers and fire officials milling throughout the building.

“There’s a lot of grieving, a lot,” Jones said as he stood in a scorched prayer hall. “The people who really value this place . . . to see something like this is horrendous.”

But many say the reaction to the latest fire is a testament to the congregation’s unity.

“I think everyone will stay together,” the Rev. Mpyana Nyengle said, “because people have been calling and crying and talking about their sense of family.”

That unity is based on sharing spiritually across cultures, say those associated with the church.

“Los Angeles is a multicultural vision, so we want to be a good example of how different people live together,” said Lee, who will take over as pastor July 1. “Even though we are different, the spiritual are able to be one family.”

The church has changed considerably since it was founded in 1924. Back then it was a Congregational parish, Jones said, but it was sold in 1931 and became Methodist.

For years the church served high society in the area and was the site of Shirley Temple’s first wedding on Sept. 19, 1945. But “the population started to change,” so the congregation changed with it, Jones said. Multilingual services have been phased in over the past decade.

Sunday’s services will be held in the Ebell Theater across the street. Church officials say they expect to be able to rebuild the church enough to have full services in the future.

And many are looking on the bright side. “It does show us we don’t necessarily need a building to worship in,” said Frances Keith, who has been going to Wilshire United Methodist for more than 40 years. “The building is not the church. We’re the church.”