PHOENIX — A cross surrounded by flames was one of the only things left stander after a church burned down to the ground.
That was the scene nearly two years ago at St. Joseph Catholic Church in north Phoenix.
“You saw this place you love engulfed," Patrick Edwards said.
Edwards has attended St. Joseph for 25 of the nearly 50 years the church has been open.
Edwards said some products from a renovation combusted starting the blaze that burned the building to the ground.
“When destruction happens, you lose your roots, you lose your foundation,” Edwards said.
Initially, the congregation used converted classrooms and tents to hold mass outside. When the pandemic struck, it took even that away.
"You have no place to worship, you have aging parishioners, what do you do? Where do you go? There is no book written for this," Edwards said. “But we had faith.”
Thanks to a combination of donations and other help steel beams have replaced scorched walls. The new church will be taller than its predecessor.
However, there is still more work to be done.
Edwards hopes to see construction end by the fall with the church opening up for mass by October.
However, the church still needs to raise around $700,000 to fully fund the project.
Despite this, after what the church has already survived, Edwards has faith in the future.
“You look in the rearview mirror and you can see how far you have come and how far you can go,” Edwards said. “It gives you hope, it gives you hope, it gives you a lot of hope.”