It wasn’t the Christmas they were hoping for.
But two weeks after a fire damaged the historic Second Samoan Congregational Church, Christian worshippers still gathered alongside the West Long Beach site to celebrate the birth of their savior.
The parking lot of the iconic church, which is home to two separate congregations, planned multiple Christmas services on Sunday and Monday, Dec. 24-25, despite the clergy’s and parishioners’ ongoing grief over losing access to the building and many of the relics that were inside.
Mision Catolica del Divino Nazareno, which is affiliated with the Brazilian Catholic Church, hosted a Christmas Eve service on Sunday evening and planned a morning service on Christmas Day.
The congregation for the Second Samoan Congressional Church, nicknamed “Second Samoa,” gathered Sunday morning for a Christmas Eve service, according to its Facebook page.
“We are suffering,” Bishop Rodrigo Romano, who leads Mision Catolica del Divino Nazareno, said during a Friday, Dec. 22, interview. “We have more than 200 families in our congregation and we don’t have a place to go.”
Bishop Romano led Sunday’s Mass predominately in Spanish (with a few passages in English here and there) in a tent assembled behind the church.
The crowd was about 60-70 people as the service started at 5 p.m. start but grew steadily as the evening went on. Worshipers kept bringing in more and more chairs and eventually there were nearly 150 people on hand.
A tent was constructed behind the church for the impromptu services. It was very nicely decorated for the Mass with a large painting of Mary to the left of the altar, along with flowers and banners. The tent had ample soft lighting and heat lamps for the visitors and took up most of the parking lot.
“Tonight is very different for us,” the bishop said, declaring the tent his flock’s sanctuary.
Elvis Losa of Los Angeles, who has been driving to the church for the past six months, attended Sunday’s service with his family..
“It’s very important to hold this Mass at this time because it’s Christmas,” he said. “This is my church so that’s why I’m here. Otherwise I wouldn’t have a church. I cried when I heard about the fire.”
The church, built in 1924, initially opened as the Second Church of Christ Scientist. Its facade has become an iconic piece of architecture for many Long Beach residents, and the church was added to the National Park Service’s Register of Historic Places in 2005.
But the historic building, at Seventh Street and Cedar Avenue, was severely damaged during a blaze — the cause of which is still under investigation by the Long Beach Fire Department — on Dec. 10.
Its dome, attic, roof, altar and sanctuary were charred. And valuable artifacts and materials were also damaged, church officials said previously.
But despite not being able to use the church until it’s repaired — there isn’t a timeline for that yet — the congregations still celebrated the birth of Jesus Christ.
The church, Romano said, obtained a temporary permit that will allow the congregation to hold services in the parking lot for the next six months.
“The most important thing is to find a place for us to still be with our congregation,” Romano said. “We cannot stay there for six months because they will use the parking lot to start to rebuild in the church.”
And in the meantime, he said, the congregation will welcome help of any kind — as they have lot to overcome after the tragedy.
It is, after all, the season of giving.
“All kinds of donations are welcome — we need help for a lot of things,” Romano said. “We lost all the sound system, the piano. We don’t have nothing to use right now.”
Photographer Howard Freshman contributed to this report.
