RESEDA : Church to Rebuild on the Same Site

The congregation of Grace Hungarian Reformed Church in Reseda has voted to rebuild on the same spot where the church was set on fire three times, church officials said Wednesday.

Church members debated whether to buy property somewhere else to rebuild after three mysterious attacks decimated first the office, then the pastor’s house, and finally, the sanctuary of the church last year. Fire investigators are still baffled as to who might have set the early morning fires.

Since the last fire in December, members have been renting another church. Pastor Balint Nagy lives on the grounds in a rebuilt house behind security fences with a guard dog.

Charles Bene, a church elder, said 39 of the 41 members of the congregation voted Sunday to stay at the Reseda location. Members have said they did not want to be frightened away from the area, and Bene said the Hungarian-Americans who attend the church still feel that Reseda is a safer area than many other Los Angeles neighborhoods where the group could afford to buy property.

This time, said Bene, “we would like to make the church a little bigger and a little better.” To do that, he said, the congregation needs more than the about $300,000 it received from its insurance company. A fund-raising festival featuring Hungarian food is planned for 1 p.m., May 23, on the church property at 18858 Erwin St., he said.