Both congregations were victims early Wednesday morning when an arsonist set fire to their churches, sitting in adjacent lots on Northeast Third Avenue in an unincorporated area near Pompano Beach. Saint Mary Coptic Orthodox Church was heavily damaged, worshipers and officials said. Next door, the Pompano Beach Seventh-day Adventist Church suffered damage to a new fellowship hall that is under construction. The old fellowship hall, which seats 200 people, was unaffected.
Now, as Christians around the world commemorate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ this weekend, the Seventh-day Adventists will be opening their doors to the Coptics, uniting in misfortune in a way they never did when everything was going well.
"Sometimes it takes something like this to bring neighbors together," said Charles Possenriede, the Seventh-day Adventist pastor.
A deacon at the Coptic (the word means Egyptian) church was the first to notice something was wrong as he entered the building at 6:15 a.m.
"I'm still shaking," said Wadid Barsoum, who lives in Coral Springs. "I'm the one who opened the door."
He said he shut the door behind him and took several steps inside before smelling smoke and realizing the church was on fire. Then he struggled to get back outside. <> Father Mikhail Aziz-Abdou was with Barsoum at the time, and they called 911. Pompano Beach Fire-Rescue was the first agency on the scene.
As firefighters worked to extinguish the blaze, Carl Barclay, an elder at the Seventh-day Adventist Church next door, arrived to let in the construction crew to work on the new fellowship hall. He said when he saw smoke coming out of the windows, he ran to the other side of the parking lot and hollered for firefighters already working on the Coptic church fire.
Broward Sheriff's Office officials, with help from other state and federal agencies, began an investigation of the two fires. The arsonist apparently did not target Redemption Baptist Church, which sits on the other side of the Seventh-day Adventists.
Deputies were called to both the Coptic and Seventh-day Adventist churches four times in the last two months. Windows were broken at the Coptic church in early March, said Sheriff's Office spokesman Hugh Graf. Those incidents are being reviewed in connection with the fire investigation.
The Coptic church suffered the heaviest damage in Wednesday's fires, officials said.
"One office was pretty well destroyed. I'm assuming it was an office because of the filing cabinets," said Pompano Beach Fire-Rescue Division Chief George Minnich. "The rest would be smoke damage. The sanctuary was pretty sooty."
State Fire Marshal Richard Schuler said "ordinary combustibles" including paper, wood and gasoline, were probably used to start the fires, which caused about $500,000 in damage.
But in the long run, the fire marshal said, the church can expect to reopen.
Possenriede, the Seventh-day Adventist pastor, said with the Easter holiday quickly approaching, he offered his building to Saint Mary for its Saturday night and Sunday services.
Coptic congregants were grateful.
"It was very kind of them," said Yohanna Salama, who was helping with cleaning duties Wednesday. "I myself have not talked to them much before. Now I heard they were doing this for us and I think it is very nice."
Staff Writer James Davis contributed to this report.
