ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- It’s that time of year when many local groups provide holiday meals. Albany's Elijah Missionary Baptist Church is no different. Except this Thanksgiving, because of a catastrophic fire, they can't serve the community as they have in the past. “You cannot kill what God wants alive. And evidently God wanted me alive. Flames couldn't do it. So, one thing is brick and mortar, that's the building. But the building, the church is in here,” said Bishop, Avery Comithier.
Bishop Comithier says the church’s mission is to care for those in need. “There's a need in parts of Albany where people are on Thanksgiving Day of all days just walking around. No place to go. Three years ago, I opened the church up and I cooked the meals myself,” said the bishop.
In previous years he has helped more than a hundred community members share in a Thanksgiving Day feast. Bishop Avery tells NEWS10 Reporter, James De La Fuente, the devastating church fire is not the end of the holiday dinner. “We just serve people, no questions asked. Just serve ‘em. Even though the fire, I'm going to continue to do it. I just got to figure out the logistics of it all.”
He says if God provides, the dinner will be back on for this year, even though some of the food was also lost after the fire. “If we can permanently still be within the area, if that can happen in the matter of next Thursday, trust me, I'll be going to Walmart and getting more turkeys and more ham and whatever else and have it at a new location,” stated Comithier.
He says not all hope is lost for the congregation either. He plans to tour a nearby church with the Catholic Diocese in hopes it’s a good fit for his flock. “There is edifices in that area, in our area that we're going to be looking at tomorrow. And then we'll see what Bishop Scharfenberger and his committee will make a decision on,” said Bishop Comithier.
He said top leaders from New York State were at his Sunday service, held in a temporary location. “All of them were in attendance. The county legislators were in attendance. And it's hard to give the homily in mass when you [are] choked up because you look out, you say, wow! The membership, the community was all there, just a good feeling,” said Comithier.
The bishop says he will be back up and running, sooner than later. “When you spell the word church, c h in the beginning, c h on the end. But in the middle, it's what? U R. You are the church.” He went on to say, “We were dealt a setback just for a comeback. And we're coming back. We're coming back.”
Alyson Baker, a spokesperson with the mayor’s office says it’s too early to tell what can be saved of the historic church. “Currently they are still working on clearing debris and determining structural viability, this will likely in and of itself take time so we cannot determine future plans before knowing that information,” said Baker.
A GoFundMe has been set up for the church.
