Parishioners mourn the loss of their spiritual home

SYCAMORE - Parishioners tried to make sense of the destruction while attempting to comfort each other as they watched flames and black smoke rise from their church Monday evening. "It's absolutely horrible," said Beth Johnson of Sycamore, a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. John. "It was wonderful. It was home," she said, her eyes reddened from crying as she joined others gathered on Ottawa Street watching firefighters battle the blaze. The 65-year-old church was destroyed by a fire Monday evening, leaving its congregation without a permanent house of worship for the first time since spring 1885. "I can't believe it," said Lowell Evans of Sycamore, a 52-year member and former elder of the Lutheran church. "It was the most bea