TE HAUKE, New Zealand — Two meetinghouses of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in New Zealand and New Caledonia sustained damages after fires broke out in both buildings on Sunday.
Church officials said a fire sparked at a chapel in the town of Te Hauke, in the Hawke’s Bay region of New Zealand, early Sunday morning.
Firefighters were able to knock the fire down, and no one was injured — but it left the meetinghouse with significant damages, according to the release.
“Local congregation leaders and members are devastated that their meetinghouse has been damaged but are making alternative arrangements for worship services,” the release reads.
Later, on Sunday evening, flames sparked at another church meetinghouse — this time in Mont-Dore, New Caledonia.
Again, no injuries were reported, but that chapel was also significantly damaged.
Fire officials are said to be investigating what caused the fires.
Local church leaders in New Caledonia are not only supporting authorities in their investigations but also in comforting the church members, the release stated.
Elder Peter F. Meurs, Pacific area president of the church, offered words of hope by saying, “Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints joyfully worship in meetinghouses across the Pacific and the world, deepening faith in Jesus Christ, fellowshipping with others, and organizing service to communities in which they live. These sacred spaces are places of gathering, singing, praying, and inspiration for over 600,000 members of the church in the Pacific Area.”
The most recent incidents mark the third and fourth meetinghouses to be hit with a fire in recent weeks.
A Latter-day Saints meetinghouse was destroyed last Monday Oct. 6 in Australia, local outlet 9 News reported. A cause of that fire has not been reported.
The week prior, on Sept. 28, a gunman drove his truck into a Latter-day Saint meetinghouse in Grand Blanc, Michigan, where he shot and killed four people, then set the building on fire, before he was shot and killed by police.
Congregation leaders in New Zealand and New Caledonia are working to ensure church services continue in their communities, the church said in its release.
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
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