Online Archives

BY LINDA WORTHINGTON
UMCONNECTION STAFF

On Jan. 23, Glen Burnie UMC?s associate pastor, the Rev. EunJoung Joo, left the church to go home for lunch at the brick parsonage next door. As she began to enter the house she saw smoke pouring out the windows and spreading rapidly throughout the house.

The Rev. Kelly Steven Sparks, the church?s senior pastor, in his office in the large church, was alerted that smoke was streaming from the parsonage. He and others ran outside but soon realized the house was unsafe to enter.

Very little was able to be salvaged, and the house is unlivable. 'The only things that won?t need to be replaced are the bricks,' Sparks said. If furniture, clothing, appliances, books and personal effects weren?t burned beyond use, they were damaged by water from the fire trucks attempting to save part of the house.

'It was overwhelming,' said Sally Taylor, chairperson of the board of trustees.

A church member has offered a temporary home for the couple, and the members are already mobilizing to get them supplies, since they lost virtually everything. 'They will need help,' Taylor said.

'It will likely be many months before the house is habitable again,' said Sparks.

Joo can be reached at the church at (410) 761-4381 or