The community is aiming to preserve its social justice work in its Lower East Side neighborhood. In the 1980s, it welcomed members of the LGBTQ+ community during the AIDS crisis, hosting funerals and offering meals. It also organized a number of #BlackLivesMatter rallies in 2020, in the wake of George Floyd’s death. Now, timed to its reopening, it has launched a new nonprofit dedicated to social justice and the arts, called Freedom Rising Inc.
“The fire made us fearless. … We feel a kind of fierce urgency of now,” said Lewis.
“It’s both spiritual and secular. It’s about our faith, but it’s also just about building a more just society,” said Lewis.
Four days before the grand reopening, the church welcomed back its bell, which survived the fire. The “New York’s Liberty Bell,” cast in 1729 in Amsterdam, rang on Independence Day in 1776, the inauguration and death of every American president and in memory of the 9/11 terrorist attack victims. Since the fire, the bell has been housed at the New York Historical Society.
The bell is now enthroned in a glass case in the church’s lobby. Its presence speaks of the congregation’s resilience throughout the past five years, said Lewis.
“We don’t have a cross in the building right now. We have that bell in the building, and the bell reminds us, God takes care of us.”
This story was updated in paragraph 9 to reflect that the church welcomed over 600 people during its Easter Sunday services.
This article originally appeared here.
