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 beautiful church in the community," he said. "Every church member in this community will be affected by this tragedy because it was such a beautiful-looking church." More than a hundred people waited in the cold to see firefighters attempt to save the building. "This is a tremendous loss," said Paul Meier of DeKalb. Meier's grandfather, Paul Nehring, provided much of the funding and donated the property on which the church was built. "It was our spiritual home and an architectural diamond," he said. Edna Carroll of DeKalb will miss the sun shining through the priceless stained-glass windows above the altar. "They were just gorgeous," said the former church secretary as she looked at the shattered window panes. Though the life of the building appears at an end, the congregation has not given up on its church. "The church is the people," said former Pastor Henry C. Dequin. "The congregation will regroup and will decide where to go from here." "The love of all of the people in this church is strong enough to survive this," Johnson said. "I know we will all pull together and rebuild." Paul L. Mikolajczyk can be reached at pmikolajczyk@pulitzer.net.