A two-alarm May 19 fire burned St. David’s Church, Pepperell, Mass., damaging the converted farmhouse that has been home to the congregation for 15 years.

The Rev. Katherine Hancock Ragsdale, vicar of St David’s, told The Living Church the “building isn’t totaled, but isn’t usable.” Founded as a mission of the Diocese of Massachusetts in 1985, the congregation moved to its present location, a 19th-century farmhouse, in 1990.

The fire started, Ms. Ragsdale said, after a mouse chewed through an electrical wire that lay along the top of a wooden beam. “The fire started between a ceiling and the floor above and then erupted into my office which was totally destroyed. Apart from my office, a bathroom, and the room below my office most of the damage is from smoke and water. It remains to be seen how much is salvageable.

“More good than bad will come out of this,” Ms. Ragsdale said, adding the neighboring Groton School had offered the use of its chapel through the summer while the church is rebuilt.

St. David’s vicar is a noted activist and speaker on public policy issues affecting women, professional ethics, and lesbian/gay rights. A member of the board of NARAL Pro-Choice America, The White House Project, the Progressive Religious Partnership, as well as the bi-national advisory board of The Center for the Prevention of Sexual and Domestic Violence, Ms. Ragsdale served for eight years as chair of Religious Coalition for Reproductive Rights.

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