The following article appeared in the Plain Dealer, March 24, 2010

It began as a Sunday school in a log cabin 182 years ago and grew into an urban mission of social justice, world peace and Christian worship.

Euclid Avenue Congregational Church, with its storied history, suffered a terrible blow Tuesday when a fierce fire, perhaps ignited by a bolt of lightning, gutted the 123-year-old stone edifice at East 96th Street and Euclid Avenue.

Tucked within the steel-and-glass canyons of the sprawling Cleveland Clinic campus, only charred outer walls remained standing when firefighters, battling from midnight until sunrise, finally extinguished the blaze.

Priceless stained glass windows, a grand pipe organ, rare historical documents and precious artwork were all destroyed.

"Everything's completely gone," said the Rev. Terri Young, interim pastor of the 200-member congregation founded 167 years ago. "It's a tremendous loss."

Congregation member Kim St. John-Stevenson of Cleveland Heights, said she didn't know how she was going to break the horrible news to her two small children who, just last Sunday, were with her and her husband worshipping in the church.

"I feel like we've lost part of our family," she said. "This is devastating. We have church members who have been in the congregation for 70 years."

Asked what the congregation intends to do, St. John-Stevenson said, "We don't know. We're taking it one day at a time. We are a strong community of faith and our faith will get us through this. We have lost a physical space, but we haven't lost what keeps us together as a family."

That family, she noted, includes a diverse mix of people: rich and poor, black and white, gay and straight.

Euclid Congregational was one of the first racially integrated churches in the city.

In a 1968 story published in The Plain Dealer, the church's then pastor, the Rev. Robert Duff, said, "Our church had been integrated since the days of the Civil War, but we've had much more racial integration in the last 15 years."

In recent years, the congregation, keeping with its tradition of social justice, has been involved in prison ministries and helping poor and homeless people.

Before the founding of the United Nations, the church, in an unusual move, adopted a resolution calling for a world government to promote peace, limit armed conflicts and regulate nuclear weapons.

"We believe that peace is not merely the absence of war, but the presence of justice, of law, of order," the resolution read. "World peace can be created and maintained only under a world federal government, universal and strong enough to prevent armed conflict between nations."

Euclid Congregational traces its roots to a Sunday school started by Sally Mather Hale in 1828. Fifteen years later, 10 women and nine men met in Hale's log cabin schoolhouse and organized a church.

It was initially affiliated with the Presbyterian denomination, but because Presbyterians at the time were too tolerant of slavery, a number of members broke off and established a Congregational church, which, today, is part of the United Church of Christ.

"It was founded by abolitionists," said member Joan Southgate, 81, of Cleveland's Glenville neighborhood. "It has a long and strong history of reaching out to a broad community. I really felt at home there. It's hard to believe it's gone. It was such a beautiful church."

As other congregations moved from the city, Euclid Congregational announced on its 125th anniversary back in 1968 that it was committed to its urban mission. It partnered with Case Western Reserve University for various social programs and held classical musical concerts in its grand sanctuary.

Now, without a home, the congregation was planning to gather Tuesday night at Mt. Zion Congregational Church at University Circle for a prayer service and to talk about its future. It plans to celebrate Palm Sunday and Easter at First United Methodist Church on Euclid Avenue at East 30th Street.

"There has been an overwhelming outpouring of support from other congregations," said the Rev. Curtis Ackley, minister and executive for the Western Reserve Association of the United Church of Christ. "It's really heartening to see the community coming together around them."

Demolition crews began tearing down parts of the skeletal remains Tuesday as fire officials continued investigating the cause of the blaze.

A security camera mounted on a nearby Cleveland Clinic building may have captured images of lightning hitting the structure. The Clinic has turned over the security tape to fire investigators.

Streets in the area may be closed again today as demolition continues.

Plain Dealer reporters Margaret Bernstein and Donna J. Miller and news researcher JoEllen Corrigan contributed to this story.