The FDNY has now confirmed what many suspected from the start: the massive fire that gutted the historic South Bushwick Reform Church in Brooklyn was intentionally set. The 1863 landmark, a Greek Revival structure that served generations of worshippers as both a house of faith and a community hub, is a total loss, and it will be completely torn down.
CBS New York reported the determination this week. Pastor James E. Steward II made clear the congregation never saw it coming.
“It was more than just a building. It’s lives and generations of lives that have been touched,” Steward said. “We have no known enemies.”
CBS New York says the New York City Fire Department have come to the conclusion the historic Christian church recently set on fire was “intentionally set”
— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) July 16, 2026
The South Bushwick Reform Church was built in 1863 and served generations of worshippers. It will be completely torn down… pic.twitter.com/npo7KfWQjV
He added: “Now we understand it is intentional, which brings another layer of grief to myself, as well as the congregation and the community.” And: “Whoever is responsible for this ultimately has to answer to God.”
No arrests have been made. Investigators previously noted a person of interest seen fleeing the scene on video shortly before the June 19 blaze erupted. The three-alarm fire brought down the steeple and left the wooden structure irreparable in the eyes of city officials.
Yet the congregation and local supporters pushed to preserve what remained. An independent structural engineer assessed the site as sound enough for restoration efforts focused on the attached fellowship hall and surviving elements. The city’s Department of Buildings rejected the plan. Demolition is set to begin in August. The agency is led by Commissioner Ahmed Tigani.
!!! NYC Department of Buildings rejects plan to save a 174-year-old church in Bushwick that burned via arson
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) July 14, 2026
Demolition is set to begin in August
Ahmed Tigani leads the agency pic.twitter.com/KbIwgu1vux
This is not an isolated loss. Just weeks earlier, a 138-year-old church in Astoria, Queens, suffered a devastating “mystery” fire in April. The city rejected proposals to rebuild. The structure was demolished two weeks later.
> 138 year old church in Astoria, NY
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) July 14, 2026
> is damaged by mystery fire in April
> the city rejects proposal to rebuild
> church is demolished 2 weeks later pic.twitter.com/JsXaNpemhw
The losses mirror those in Europe, where a spate of church attacks have occurred.
In France, nearly 50 fires or arson attempts hit churches and Christian sites in a single recent year — a sharp rise — with authorities recording a Christian religious building vanishing every two weeks through fire, collapse, or deliberate damage.
Recent examples include the June blaze that destroyed most of the roof at the 17th-century Chapelle Sainte-Anne-des-Rochers in Brittany and the gutting of the Église Saint-Cyriaque in Montenach.
Canada has seen the same. Historic churches have been reduced to ashes with causes left unresolved and little urgency from authorities.
In the UK, churches face routine attacks while official outrage is selectively applied. A historic London church burned to the ground amid government silence, even as leaders scrambled to respond to incidents involving other faith sites.
In New York the physical symbols of the city’s Christian heritage are vanishing under official processes that prioritize teardown over preservation. The South Bushwick congregation is left raising what funds it can while the city bills the church for its own demolition and prepares the site for whatever comes next. The Astoria church is already gone.
These buildings stood for more than a century as anchors of community and continuity. Their rapid destruction, followed by bureaucratic refusal to allow rebuilding, fits a larger pattern playing out from Brooklyn to Quebec to provincial France. The foundations that built Western cities are being burned and demolished.
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