Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints opens new stake center after 2021 fire

FOX23 News at 9 p.m.

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo., (KBSI) — More than five years after a fire destroyed its former meetinghouse, the local Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints community is opening the doors to a new permanent home.

The new Cape Girardeau Stake Center is located at 4450 LaSalle Ave. The project took nearly two and a half years to complete.

One piece of the former meetinghouse now hangs inside the new building. A firefighter rescued the artwork during the April 2021 fire at the church’s former location on West Cape Rock Drive.

In the years that followed, church members gathered at temporary locations, including the Osage Centre, Southeast Missouri State University and Metro Business College.

Despite not having a permanent meetinghouse, the church continued hosting mobile food pantries and other community outreach efforts. Its local membership also grew to more than 500 people, and the Cape Girardeau and Jackson area went from one congregation to two.

Earl DeWaal, president of the Cape Girardeau Missouri Stake, said other faith groups, local governments and community members supported the church during those years.

“We came to learn, I think, a little more deeply that church isn’t a building,” DeWaal said. “It’s a people, and we grew closer together.”

The new building serves as a regional center for six congregations across Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois. A stake is a geographic group made up of multiple local congregations.

Communication Director JoAnna Watts said the community’s support provided comfort to church members after the fire.

“It’s been beautiful to see,” Watts said. “It’s been something that has provided a lot of comfort to our members here in Cape Girardeau, knowing that we have neighbors, knowing that we have friends who love us and who want to make sure that we’re OK.”

The new facility includes a gym, classrooms, offices, musical spaces and a genealogy research room. An outdoor pavilion is surrounded by picnic tables.

Open-house tours introduce visitors to the church’s beliefs, volunteer leadership and programs for children, teenagers and adults. The tours end in the chapel, where members hold Sunday worship services.

Watts said local members volunteer their time to lead the church and its programs.

“It really takes a community to get through something like we did,” Watts said. “We’ve been able to give back to the community and serve in a lot of ways.”

DeWaal said he hopes visitors see more than the new building.

“My hope is that they’ll see the beautiful building, but most importantly, see the love and the light of the members of our church,” DeWaal said.

Public open-house hours are:

• Thursday, Sept. 17, from 5 to 8 p.m.
• Friday, Sept. 18, from 3 to 6 p.m.
• Saturday, Sept. 19, from 9 a.m. to noon

Church officials will dedicate the building at 2 p.m. Saturday. Local congregations will hold their first worship services inside the new meetinghouse Sunday, Sept. 20.