By Hub City Times staff

MARSHFIELD – Just over a year after fire destroyed their building at Third and Maple in downtown Marshfield, the congregation of Wesley United Methodist Church will celebrate the groundbreaking for a new facility this weekend.

Pastor Lourdes Magalhaes says the program will start at 3 p.m. on Sept. 8, with a remembrance service for the one-year anniversary of the loss of their former church.

The pastor stated:

Pastor Lourdes says that service was held to celebrate her one-year anniversary with the church.

A groundbreaking for the new Wesley church will follow the remembrance service. Longtime church member Terry Frankland is on the congregation’s building committee, and says they decided almost immediately after the fire to rebuild on the same location.

Frankland said:

The congregation completed the purchase of a small home just north of the Wesley property, so the new church can be a single-story structure without having to build a basement.

Frankland says the new facility totals 13,300 square feet, and will include office and meeting space, a nursery, a sanctuary, a multi-purpose room, classrooms for Sunday School and activity, and office space for the Marshfield Area Respite Care Center, which had been housed at the old church.

Frankland added:

The remembrance and groundbreaking program will be held at the site of the future church at 205 East Third Street. Those who attend are encouraged to bring an outdoor folding chair.

Since the 2018 fire, the Wesley congregation has been worshipping at the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, 714 W. 14th St., Marshfield.