City offers gutted church support
No foul play is suspected in the devastating fire that gutted the Jesus Dome on Tuesday night.
ETHEKWINI acting mayor, Nomvuzo Shabalala led a city delegation to meet senior pastors at the Durban Christian Centre (Jesus Dome) on Wednesday to offer support after a fire gutted the church building.
The visit was welcomed by senior pastor John Torrens who thanked Shabalala and the committee for making the time to come to the church site and offer their support in person.
Scores of church congregants stood outside the gutted building, in Buro Crescent, Mayville staring at the remains in disbelief.
Shabalala said they had come to offer support and also the use of the City Hall auditorium or the Durban Exhibition Centre to the church to host their Sunday service.
“This would be a once-off opportunity, to allow your congregation to meet on Sunday. It would also give you time to regroup and plan ahead. This would not set a precedent to allow anyone to use these venues to hold a service as this is a unique situation. This is the first time a church of this size has been destroyed by fire in Durban and our sympathies are with you during this time,” she said.
Torrens, welcomed the offer but said plans had already been made to host the Sunday service at the GrowthPoint Kings Park Stadium. He thanked Shabalala and other officials for their offer and support.
“Thank you for coming and taking time out of your busy schedule to meet with us. We really appreciate it. We are here to serve the City of Durban just as you are,” said Torrens.
He said the last staff members left at 4.30pm on Tuesday afternoon before the fire started. “We thank God that no one was hurt. We also have to thank the authorities, including the Fire Department and the Police who were on the scene and worked tirelessly. We are devastated and shocked at what has happened. But church is not about a building, it is about people and we will come back from this bigger and stronger,” he told the delegation.
Torrens said foul play was not suspected. “We have no reason to believe this. The site is a crime scene at the moment with a forensic team on site investigating.”
Watch video of the fire from inside the building here.
