Minneapolis Incarnation Church celebrates Easter as fire cleanup continues

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - Incarnation musicians readied for a busy Easter weekend of services in the building’s basement. Here, they actually call it the lower church.

While upstairs, the main sanctuary is now a jungle of scaffolding as crews continue the painstaking task of cleaning and restoring. You can see the brick that has been scrubbed already and the soot line from all the smoke during last month’s fire.

"The biggest job is to clean up the smoke damage. Frankly, that was a big surprise to me because I had never seen the effects of smoke damage with that soot all over covering every inch of space," Deacon Carl Valdez of Incarnation Catholic Church said.

Deacon Valdez reports the whole process may take upwards of six months.

In the interim, Incarnation has temporarily moved downstairs to an area that was reportedly actually the "original" church space in the historic building dating back to 1910.

There’s also a large outdoor tent set up along Pleasant Avenue for overflow parishioners.

 "Challenge is a good word," Valdez said.

Church officials said it was a candle left burning overnight in one of the side altars that ignited the blaze. Fortunately, a parishioner spotted smoke in the early morning hours, potentially saving the structure itself.

Now, the bilingual congregation is coming together once again, to celebrate Easter.

"This is still church no matter what," he said. "It's temporary space and the sense of worship, but it's still home."