Fire Guts Coptic Church

The parishioners of St. Mark Coptic Orthodox Church had planned to spend this week joyously preparing for their upcoming Easter holiday.

Congregants looked forward to decorating the bell-towered parish in West Los Angeles with palm fronds and olive branches to celebrate their Palm Sunday this weekend. They were going to drape the marble altar in white velvet on Easter eve--April 26--to honor the resurrection of Christ.

Instead, they spent Monday picking through the ashes of an early morning fire that engulfed the sanctuary, gutting the 25-year-old church that claims the distinction of being the first Egyptian Coptic Orthodox congregation in the United States.

Devoted congregants who arrived for midday Mass found yellow police tape cordoning off wide-open church doors, with the acrid smell of smoke tainting the air, and the altar that served as their religious heart charred like a black skeleton.

Stunned members huddled in front of the church on Robertson Boulevard--some crying, others simply staring gape-mouthed at the site or fretting quietly with friends in Arabic or English.

Through all the confusion, they managed to find a spiritual meaning amid physical calamity.

“God always plans for things that we are not always aware of,” said Father Markos Hanna, one of the church’s two priests, who is from Cairo. “He must have a plan--maybe for repentance, maybe for sincere prayer, maybe for personal sacrifices.”

The cause of the fire was not immediately known, but parishioners offered their own speculation after speaking with investigators: a botched burglary. Three amplifiers had been ripped from the altar and left toward the front door near donation boxes whose tops had been jimmied open.

A special unit of local and federal investigators--the so-called House of Worship Task Force, formed in the wake of a series of suspicious church fires primarily in the Southeast--scoured the scene Monday for clues. The unit, consisting of the Los Angeles Fire Department, the Los Angeles Police Department, the FBI and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, responds to fires in Los Angeles that involve religious institutions.

Even as leaders of the quiet congregation grappled with their loss, they forged ahead with plans for their upcoming religious observance.

The Robertson Boulevard parish has built a following of about 650 families since it was founded a quarter-century ago. It is an outgrowth of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt, which was established by St. Mark the Evangelist, an apostle, in A.D. 56, according to literature provided by Hanna. The first Church of Egypt was built in Alexandria; the Coptic line is one of four ancient churches in the Western world, including the Church of Rome, he said.

Holy Week begins this Sunday for the Coptic Orthodox church, culminating with Easter on April 27, a weeklong period of prayer and reflection that is expected to attract about 2,000 worshipers.

Church leaders wondered aloud how to accommodate the religious Masses--possibly using a small chapel that survived the fire, or erecting a tent outside or renting a social hall nearby.

The fire, they said, only strengthened their resolve.

“We’re ready to clean up,” said Gigi Ramzi, 28, who left work and drove to the church Monday morning after hearing news of the fire. “It’s a very critical time.”

Others in the crowd offered their own defiant words, pledging to rebuild despite a lack of funds. The church has insurance, but it won’t cover all of the costs.

“It’s not going to stop us,” said Amani Hanna, the priest’s wife. “It took us so much to build, and it’s gone in an hour. Some lesson to teach us. I hope we learn it.”

The fire erupted about 4 a.m. Monday in the area near the altar at the back of the church.

Oddly enough, a worshiper from a Sikh temple a few doors away noticed the flames while walking to an early morning yoga session. The man scurried to Los Angeles City Fire Station 58, across the street from the Coptic church, and notified firefighters.

They responded immediately, but not before the fire gutted much of the inside of the church, destroying the altar, a magnificent wooden cross and delicate paintings of Jesus, the apostles and other significant figures--half a million dollars worth of damage.

“Irreplaceable,” said Father Bishoy Gobreial, the church’s other priest. “I’m very sad about the pictures.”

The priests and their congregants seemed baffled that anyone would seek to harm their modest religious enclave, the first of 13 Coptic Orthodox parishes in Southern California and 80 across the country. Other local Coptic churches are in Santa Monica, Torrance, Pasadena and Bellflower.

Priests at the West Los Angeles church canceled Monday’s Mass. But “we will celebrate the Holy Week,” vowed Bishop Serapion, the leader of the Coptic Diocese of Los Angeles, which covers Southern California and Hawaii. “We will celebrate Easter. The church will be repaired and be in better shape than now.”