Local cathedral welcomes displaced members of Elijah Missionary Church after fire

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) - For the first time since the Elijah Missionary Church caught fire in the south end of Albany Thursday night, church members along with Bishop Avery Comithier and Father David Mickiewicz gathered at the Cathedral of Immaculate Conception in Downtown Albany.

Bishop Avery Comithier and Father David Mickiewicz held mass at 1:30 p.m. in hopes of bringing everyone still grieving the loss of the Elijah Missionary Church together and feeling optimistic for the future.

"Sometimes within your own community you bring people together, and I think this is, what it's doing, bringing people together," Bishop Comithier said. "We have more in common than disagreeable."

Fidelia Rodriguez, formally the worshipper and praise leader at the Elijah Missionary Church, said she was with Bishop Comithier the night of the fire and that now she will continue to stick with him no matter where they ends up.

"I am going to be with my pastor no matter where he goes," Rodriguez said. "I just think that Albany, especially the South End in particular, if I could say anything, just love on him because he deserves it."

Rodriguez is hoping others in the community feel the same way.

"He is a very supportive man; he just is," Rodriguez said. "It's in his DNA to be that, and people know that. So I think they are going to rally around him until we get another church home. Anything he needs, I am sure the legislatures will probably help him. I am praying that they will put back into him what he does for others."

Bishop Comithier said that he is hopeful that sometime in the near future he will be able to move to a church permanently close by the Elijah Missionary Church.