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Construction can now begin on a project to transform the former First Congregational Church on North Main Street into housing after new plans, updated to reflect an agreement between developers and the neighboring Greater Islamic Society of Concord, got their final city sign-off last week.

Were looking forward to getting underway after a bumpy start, developer Ben Kelley said.

The Islamic Society sued the City of Concord last fall, arguing that its concerns about parking availability it had long used parking spaces on the church property had been unfairly sidelined during the approval process by the Zoning Board. Kelley and developing partner Jonathan Chorlian made an agreement with the Islamic Society and its president Ali Sekou, also a city councilor, to give it some land between their two properties that includes a driveway where parking spaces will be added.

As part of the agreement, the Islamic Society agreed to drop its lawsuit against the city.

The new arrangement got a green light from the Zoning Board in February and another from the Planning Board last week. Kelley and Chorlian can now start construction in earnest on their plans to put 30 one- and two-bedroom apartments in the 1937 church, adding a boost of new housing downtown. Some demolition work began last week, with substantial construction work set to begin within a month and wrap up by spring of next year, Kelley said.

City council has approved seven years of property tax relief for the development, totaling an estimated $393,000, under a state law incentivizing the rehabilitation of historic buildings towards the public benefit. It must be substantially complete by the end of March 2025 to receive it, under terms extended by the council this month.

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Construction of housing project in former Church to begin with parking dispute in the rearview - Concord Monitor

Christian homes on fire in Al-Fawakher village on 23 April 2024. Image: CSW

Source: CSW

Extremists attacked the Christian community in Al-Fawakher village in Minya Province, Upper Egypt, following rumours that they were planning to build a church.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) sources report that several homes and properties belonging to Christians in the village were destroyed on 23 April, and that local police and firefighters, led by the deputy governor and the head of the police department in Minya, acted quickly to contain the situation.

The police have launched an operation seeking to arrest the instigators of the violence, including those who spread rumours online about plans to construct a church.

CSW's Founder President Mervyn Thomas said: "CSW condemns the latest sectarian attack in Upper Egypt that comes as the Coptic Orthodox community prepares to celebrate Easter. An unacceptable culture of intimidation and discrimination is still far too prevalent in this region despite positive steps taken by the Egyptian authorities in recent years, and the personal commitment of President Sisi to fight sectarian extremism and promote equality of citizenship. Egyptian citizens should all be free to practice any religion or belief of their choosing without fear of threats or physical violence. We commend the swift intervention by the local authorities, and urge the government of Egypt to continue to tackle extremism, sectarian hatred and incitement, ensuring an end to policies and practices which create division between communities."

In a separate development, the Egyptian government issued a memorandum designating Sunday 5 and Monday 6 May as bank holidays to celebrate Labour Day, which falls on 1 May. The memorandum has sparked outrage amongst the Coptic Orthodox community for ignoring Orthodox Easter Sunday, which falls on 5 May.

Coptic activists suggested to CSW that the move may be intended to appease Egypt's Salafi Muslim community, who consider recognising Easter to be sinful, as it defies the mainstream Islamic doctrine which denies Christ's crucifixion and resurrection.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide is a human rights organisation specialising in freedom of religion or belief. We work in over 20 countries across Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America. See: http://www.csw.org.uk

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Egypt: Christian homes attacked following rumours of planned church construction | ICN - Independent Catholic News

Snow was in the air and an Arctic breeze swirled over Belushya Guba as Bishop Iakov blessed the plate that will serve as foundation stone for a new local church. On site was an assembly of military men in uniform and local civilians. A video shared by the 12th Directorate shows the bishop leading a ceremony and spraying so-calledsacred water over the attendees.

The square in the center of the small military town will be site for a new churchwith space for at least 150 people. Construction will soon start and progress quickly a local military representative saysin a video. Photos show piles of timber ready for shipment from the mainland to the remote archipelago.

Bishop Iakov was brought to the archipelago with a special flight organized by the Russian Ministry of Defense. The prelate, known as the Russian Orthodox Church special envoy on Arctic affairs, had with him an icon of Serfim Sarovsky, the 18th Century saint that is considered the official protector of the 12th Main Directorate.

The new church will carry the saints name, and the icon will decorate its walls.

Iakov is reportedly himself the initiator of the construction projects at Novaya Zemlya.

Ahead of Patriach Kirills visit to the archipelago in 2018, Bishop Iakov presented the idea to the church leader, state news agency TASS reported. During the visit, the Patriarch announced the plans.

A new and bigger church building is to be erected on the site of an existing chapel, which in turn is to be dismantled and moved to the nearby settlement of Rogachevo. In addition, a new chapel is to be built in Severny, the military town located in the Matochin Strait.

Judging from statements made by the Patriarch, many young clergymen might soon be sent to Novaya Zemlya for training and education. It is a place well suited for testing of their spiritual strength, Kirilltold TASS.

It is especially for those that want to make a church career, for candidates and archbishops, he explained.

He also proposed the development of a special program on church service in the Arctic.

Photos from the visit show Patriarch Kirill being guided around in Belushya Guba by military leaders, among them Aleksandr Tsinitsyn, head of the local military base.

Novaya Zemlya is strictly closed military area and test site for nuclear weapons. In the period between the mid-1950s and 1990, a total of 132 nuclear weapon tests were carried out at the archipelago, among them the 50 Mt Tsar Bomba.

The nuclear testing was organized by the 12th Main Directorate of the Ministry of Defense. Subcritical experiments continue until this day.

Bishop Iakov is instrumental in many of the Russian Orthodox Church initiatives currently unfolding across the Arctic. The prelate was present when a large Orthodox cross in 2023 was erected in Franz Josef Land.

He was also a key person behind the disputed erection of a cross in the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard. Together with representatives of Russian state company Trust Arktikugol, Iakov placed the 7-meter high religious monument on the hillside of Pyramiden, the abandoned coal mining town.

The Governor of Svalbard knew nothing about the new cross ahead of its erection. In an interview with the Barents Observer, Governor Lars Fause says the illegitimate action will have a consequence.

The Environmental Protection Department will follow up, Fause said in acomment.

The efforts to erect Orthodox crosses across the Arctic is part of a church project supported by Patriarch Kirill.

Since 2012, the Russian Orthodox has in cooperation with the Russian Armed Forces and the Geographical Society built churches, erected crosses and sanctified sites across major parts of the Arctic.

Lawsuit: Head of the Harbor trustees broke law with vote for church project Newsday

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Lawsuit: Head of the Harbor trustees broke law with vote for church project - Newsday

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First Baptist Church of Amboy to celebrate 100th anniversary of building dedication Shaw Local News Network

WATERFORD The bells of St. Thomas may soon chime no more.

Leaders of St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church have made the difficult decision to demolish a historic old sanctuary that might be the oldest church in Waterford.

The 1880 structure at 300 S. First St. is a cornerstone of the Catholic community in Waterford, with a towering steeple whose bells can be heard chiming every day.

But church leaders say the structure is in disrepair and that the cost of repairing it is simply too much.

Blaise Beaulier, the churchs director of administration, said officials are taking steps to prepare for razing the deteriorated chapel. Although no timetable has been set, he said, officials hope to complete the demolition sooner rather than later.

The future of the old church building has been under consideration for the past two years, Beaulier said.

While he acknowledged the buildings historic and sentimental value, he said there are no other options.

Its a very emotional thing, he said. We have to make decisions that are in the best interests for St. Thomas.

Historic preservation advocates are saddened to hear that a piece of Waterford history soon will be gone.

Robert Gariepy, a member of the Waterford Heritage Committee, said he and others tried to get the St. Thomas church a state historic landmark designation that might protect it from demolition.

State officials denied the request, he said, because of cosmetic changes that have altered the original appearance.

Gariepy said the building remains the oldest church in Waterford, and many people will miss hearing the bells chime each day from the clock and bell tower.

Its just heartbreaking, he said. A lot of people do not want to see that icon go.

Built for $20,000 just a few years after the U.S. Civil War, the church replaced an original St. Thomas chapel that had stood in Waterford since 1851. A growing parish demanded more room for Sunday worship in the 1880s.

The chapel served generations of church-goers until 2007 when an adjacent former Catholic school was razed and a new St. Thomas Church was built in its place at 305 S. First St.

The parish currently serves about 900 families.

The old 1880 structure currently serves as the location for a food pantry. Church leaders are relocating the food pantry in preparation for demolition of the old house of worship.

Sarah Crupi, a member of the St. Thomas pastoral council, said she and her colleagues have reluctantly come to the realization that they do not have enough money to restore the property.

Noting that similar historic landmarks are preserved elsewhere around the world, Crupi called it a shame to lose part of Waterfords history.

Its pretty sad, she said.

Gariepy, who also is a member of the St. Thomas parish, said he heard estimates in excess of $1 million for the cost of repairing the 1880 church. An earlier estimate, he said, showed it would cost $250,000 just to restore the bell tower and steeple.

Unless a large donor comes forward to help, Gariepy said, he sees no hope of staving off the wrecking ball.

I dont know of any other way, he said.

St. Thomas leaders will need approval from the Catholic archbishop of Milwaukee to move ahead with demolition. A spokeswoman said Monday the archbishop had not yet received a request regarding the Waterford church.

Beaulier said stained glass windows and other important artifacts have been moved into the new church. Other materials will be salvaged and preserved for some sort of tribute to the old chapel, he said.

Our intent is to further capture the memory and essence of the building, he said. We plan to continue moving forward to best serve our parishioners and our surrounding community with the decisions we have made.

The farmhouse is one of the few reminders of the once rural landscape of Madison's Far West Side. Formerly Uno Pizzeria, the house is now part of a housing development of apartments along Mineral Point Road.

This undated aerial photo shows a more recent layout of the farm along Mineral Point Road.

The former Uno Pizzeria & Grill that was housed for 26 years in a historic farmhouse closed in 2016, but the 132-year-old building is being preserved as part of a 64-unit workforce housing development along Mineral Point Road. The house will soon be moved to a new foundation, lower left, closer to the road and will be used for a community room, kitchen and fitness center.

The former Uno Pizzeria & Grill that for 26 years was in a historic farmhouse at 7601 Mineral Point Road is slated to be moved closer to the roadway to make room for a multifamily development.

Construction workers with Connery Construction prepare the site where the farmhouse will be moved in the coming weeks.

In 1980, the Shopko under construction along Mineral Point Road was on the edge of farmland and much of the Far West Side had not been developed. Mineral Point Road is on the left and West Towne Mall in the background.

Awnings and other modern additions to the 1890 farmhouse, seen here in 2015, are being removed to restore the building to more of its original look.

The gathering room of a restored interior of an historic farmhouse that once housed Pizzeria UNO restaurant at the new UNO Terrace housing development on Mineral Point Road in Madison, Wis. Thursday, Nov. 16, 2023. JOHN HART, STATE JOURNAL

The restored farmhouse's exterior is largely unchanged but the interior has been modernized to serve as a community room for the residents of Uno Terrace.

Northpointe Development design manager Emily OBrien walks through one of 64 living units at Uno Terrace. The apartments and town homes include granite counter tops and a washer and dryer in each unit. The development was completed in September and only a few units remain available to rent.

To accommodate a new, adjacent apartment building, the historic farmhouse was moved closer to Mineral Point Road. The project also add a large outdoor patio and porch.

Northpointe Development design manager Emily OBrien enters a commons area from inside a restored farmhouse that has been incorporated into the Uno Terrace.

Emily and Sean OBrien of Northpointe Development show off the remodeled interior of a more than 130-year-old farmhouse along Mineral Point Road. Now part of Uno Terrace, the farmhouse is serving as a community room for the 64-unit housing development.

A childrens play area in a gathering room at the Uno Terrace housing development honors the history of a restored farmhouse which once was home to a Pizzeria Uno.

A quatrefoil window, one of the signature design elements of an historic farmhouse which has been incorporated into the new Uno Terrace housing development in Madison.

An historic farmhouse that once house Pizzeria Uno has been restored and incorporated into the new Uno Terrace housing development on Mineral Point Road in Madison.

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Waterford prepares for the heartbreak of seeing its oldest church come down - Journal Times

Mike Bell used Blender, open-source 3D computer graphics software, to model the collapse of the First Congregational Church in New London. (Courtesy of Mike Bell)

Mike Bell, a retired architect in South Africa, does animations on YouTube that explain building collapses, plane crashes and other topics. (Courtesy of Mike Bell)

News of a building collapse on another continent isnt the kind of thing that normally sends people into a frenzy of activity.

But when Mike Bell, an architect in Cape Town, South Africa, heard about the fall of New Londons First Congregational Church, he knew instantly he had to determine the cause. Its the same reaction hes had to other disasters.

My mind goes into overdrive, he said. When I see the photographs and I hear the witnesses talking and the sequences, my brain just must, must figure it out.

Bell, 61, whose rsum includes the design of a 40,000-seat soccer stadium in South Africa built for the FIFA World Cup, is retired after a 35-year career. He now makes videos for YouTube in which he explains complicated things in a simple manner with 3D animations for your enjoyment, his bio reads.

With 58,000 subscribers, Bell has made videos on everything from a drone strike that killed the leader of al-Qaida to the implosion of a submersible exploring the Titanic. But he has a specialty.

You really do need to have a niche, and building collapses totally are my niche, he said. Theres nobody else who does it and who can do what I do.

Mike Bell, a South African architect, used Blender, open-source 3D computer graphics software, to animate the Jan. 25 collapse of the First Congregational Church.

His recreation shows the towering granite spire falling inward through the roof of the building.

Graphics courtesy Mike Bell

Mike Bell, a South African architect, used Blender, open-source 3D computer graphics software, to animate the Jan. 25 collapse of the First Congregational Church.

His recreation shows the towering granite spire falling inward through the roof of the building.

Graphics courtesy Mike Bell

To figure out and animate collapses, he said, he bounces ideas off structural engineer friends and draws on a wealth of experience from his career.

When youre working for really, really long, you dont even need to think, he said. If somebody asks you a question, it just sort of rolls off because youve done it so many times. Its an amazing place to get to.

Solving New Londons church collapse, which happened Jan. 25, was right up his alley. When he heard about it online, I immediately just went into every nook and cranny I could find, got everything I could, and within a day and a half I published the first video.

Eight minutes long, it includes the widely seen security camera footage that gives a partial view of the collapse. He followed that up with a 16-minute video, released a week ago, that goes into more detail.

Though Bell worked on the second video for weeks, by the time the first one came out, he said, he had already figured out what brought the building down.

* * *

Officials in New London are still investigating the collapse and have not announced the cause. They have the advantage of being here, while Bell is an ocean away.

But in the internet age, distance has almost ceased to matter.

If I could drive there and come and have a look for myself and take footage, that would be better, Bell said, but the distance actually is immaterial to me.

A cutaway view of the front of the church and the center spire. If Bells theory is correct, the seeds of the churchs demise were planted at its birth.

The information he consulted is much of what would be available if he were here: the footage from the ISAAC School, which caught the spires fall; the most recent report on the buildings condition; drone video; photographs; and news stories, including those in The Day, to which he bought a subscription.

Most of what he needed was at his fingertips, and he found more by connecting with people via email and social media.

The internet is absolutely phenomenal, Bell said. There was a plane crash in Nepal a year ago, and within no time at all I had spoken to the guy who happened to be filming the crash from his balcony, which was key to my video. He found the man by messaging him on TikTok.

Getting a video online promptly is important, he said, because YouTubes algorithm sends more viewers his way when a story is fresh. His second video about the church was delayed while he hurried to complete an animation of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore.

Still, of over 90,000 people who viewed his quick response church video in January, only about 100 were in the New London area. For some reason, his effort didnt catch on here, even though he explained in detail how and why the building failed.

* * *

So what happened?

It was pretty obvious from the clues, Bell said. There was a bad pocket of masonry, which he called a ticking time bomb.

He said he pinpointed the location to the steeples north wall behind the balcony. There were reports of a serious water leak and buckling door frames at the spot, which is where the pipe organ was.

Thats part of my theory, he said, that the organ might have covered up the damage.

The organ was replaced with a digital one around 2011 because of the leak, said Alan McNeely, whose Waterford company maintained the instrument. But the larger pipes and oak casework were there until the end.

The organ, shown in photo above, is outlined in magenta.

Bell believes a pocket of bad masonry was the cause of the spires tilt and its eventual collapse. He says it was in the steeples north wall, shown in white, and may have been hidden by the churchs pipe organ.

The pipe organ, shown in photo above, is outlined in magenta in Bells graphic.

If true, Bells theory would be part of a remarkable story. Because, he said, the masonrys poor condition wasnt anything recent. It dated all the way back to the churchs construction in 1850-51.

As The Day has reported, Leopold Eidlitz, the churchs architect, wrote a letter of warning to the congregation as soon as the building was occupied. He said the tower walls were parting in consequence of defective masonry and unequal settling.

Eidlitz decided to secure the tower with iron anchors as a temporary solution, and the church arranged for permanent repairs in 1857, though Eidlitz had recommended the tower be demolished and rebuilt.

Steel rods called anchor ties were installed in the spire shortly after the church was completed to hold it together because the walls were already parting.

The churchs architect said the tower walls were unstable because of defective masonry and uneven settling. He wanted the tower demolished and rebuilt.

Steel rods called anchor ties were installed in the spire shortly after the church was completed to hold it together because the walls were already parting.

The churchs architect said the tower walls were unstable because of defective masonry and uneven settling. He wanted the tower demolished and rebuilt.

The unequal settling produced a problem that was hiding in plain sight. The churchs granite spire, 150 feet high, was left with a slight but significant tilt, Bell said. The tilt, which was toward the rest of the building, began around the apex of the roof, below the bell room, and was probably there from the beginning, he said.

Bell noted that the church survived the 1938 hurricane, a Category 3 storm, which suggests the masonry pocket degraded considerably after that. The rest of the building was solidly built, he said.

The spires tilt was stable until around 2019, when photos show it started to worsen. By Jan. 25, it had increased to 2 degrees, shifting the weight of the spire to the damaged north wall. When the walls bearing capacity was exceeded, he said, the whole thing collapsed.

New London Fire Marshal Vernon Skau, who is coordinating the official investigation, declined to provide any details about its focus and did not indicate when it would be finished.

* * *

Bells main evidence was the ISAAC footage: not just the five seconds everyone has seen, but 24 minutes of high-resolution video that allowed him to track the tilt frame-by-frame. The school, which supplied the video, also gave him still images for the prior 10 days.

Video is super, super valuable to me, or photographs as well, but video is the best, he said.

In the ISAAC footage, only the spire is visible over the parking garage on Governor Winthrop Boulevard. But Bell used Blender, open-source 3D computer graphics software, to model the entire event. Blender helped Bell document the tilt, as did a 2014 photo and 3D views of downtown New London from 2019 on Google Maps.

As the tilt worsens in the footage, the spire pivots on a point near the roof line, suggesting that the damage is just below that, around the balcony.

In his second video, Bell tracked the gilded ball atop the spire, where the tilts increase was most evident. The balls movement grew exponentially: 15 inches in the last four years, another 17 inches in the 10 days before the collapse, 7 more inches in the final 24 minutes, and 19 inches in the 1.7 seconds before the spire reached its tipping point.

Using video and photo evidence, Bell tracked the movement of the gilded ball atop the spire. The tilt worsened dramatically in the days before the collapse.

As the spire began to fall, it built up momentum that increased its weight, creating a hammer blow effect that overwhelmed solid stonework at the steeples base, he said. Then, the rest landed on the rubble, slowing the fall and causing the top of the spire to break off, a key moment in the ISAAC footage.

The spire fell through the roof while the lower steeple spilled onto the churchs lawn.

Photos of the church at different periods were also available, some of them supplied by The Day. They showed a sag in the roof where it met the steeple on the east side, but the steeple fell asymmetrically on the west side, he said.

A photo from the 1860s shows the buildings facade studded with anchor plates, where steel rods, or ties," stabilizing the tower from within are bolted to the outer walls. This was a common corrective measure in older buildings, Bell said, and its possible one rusted through, contributing to the collapse.

The anchor plates, apparently from Eidlitzs repairs and the churchs slightly later ones, look the same in recent photos.

Nobodys added any more, he said, which means if they added those anchor ties as the building was being completed, that masonry was indeed trouble.

The steel tie rods were bolted to the outer walls with anchor plates, which were visible on the facade of the building.

* * *

If Bells theory is correct, the seeds of the churchs demise were planted at its birth. Then it somehow survived until a random January day more than a century and a half later. He said for a flawed structure to last that long is rare.

The architect would have been incredibly surprised that it took 175 years for it to fall down, he said.

In his letter to the church, Eidlitz said the steeple had been built in a hurry by a contractor of questionable competence.

To write a strong letter like that is professionally very brave, Bell said, noting that Eidlitz was young at the time. You can potentially lose future work if you get a name for being an alarmist. But at the same time, youve got to be professionally responsible and call out stuff that should be called out.

Bell criticized what he said was a failure to call something out more recently. In 2011 the buildings condition was analyzed by Silver/Petrucelli + Associates, an architectural and engineering firm in Hamden. The firms report said that by all visible accounts, the tower is structurally sound.

The report included a photo of granite steps from the balcony to the tower that had fractured down the center. There was no recommendation that the fracture be examined more closely. But Bell believes it was significant and said it suggested some quite severe movement on the masonry."

Having this photograph and then calling this tower structurally sound is just, beats me, he said. I wouldnt have done it, but you know were all clever in hindsight. But this really worries me. I think this was irresponsible.

Silver/Petrucelli did not return messages seeking comment.

A photo included in a 2011 report by a Hamden architectural and engineering firm shows fractured granite steps between the balcony and the tower.

The firm concluded that the tower was structurally sound.

A photo included in a 2011 report by a Hamden architectural and engineering firm shows fractured granite steps between the balcony and the tower.

The firm concluded that the tower was structurally sound.

Bell noted that the report also mentioned damage in the area where he believes the crumbling masonry was but did not include a photo, which suggests there were no visible signs of structural cracks.

The absence of those photographs probably means there was nothing glaring, he said.

Except for the fractured steps, Bell said, he doesnt know of much visible damage in the days before the collapse, making it hard to say whether there was any sign of imminent catastrophe.

Thats whats so terrifying about this, he said. You would like to know that the building was really shouting and screaming, giving everybody a warning, and they were ignoring it or whatever.

I think the lesson is that the warning signs are minimal. So the responsibility is to actually monitor buildings in different ways, pick up minor movements, and thats the alarm bell to come and check it out and keep the building safe.

j.ruddy@theday.com

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Why did the church collapse? South African architect says he knows - theday.com

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Craven Corp. sues Louisville Baptist Temple over development project - Canton Repository

A debate over the fate of Catholic Church offices and an accusation of religious bias Idaho Statesman

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A debate over the fate of Catholic Church offices and an accusation of religious bias - Idaho Statesman