The 80-foot-tall steeple at St. Mary the Virgin Episcopal Church in Pocomoke City, Maryland, was damaged by lightning in July 2025. Photo: Stephanie Clayville
[Episcopal News Service] “Act of God,” as a commonplace insurance term, may never have been more dramatically applied than to the scarred steeple that, for now, still sits atop St. Mary the Virgin Episcopal Church in Pocomoke City, Maryland.
That scar, which slashes diagonally from the middle of the steeple down to the roofline of the church’s street-facing bell tower, was inflicted July 8 by a lightning bolt hurled from above. St. Mary’s was one of at least two churches in the region hit by lightning from a severe storm system that swept across the large peninsula of land on the Chesapeake Bay that makes up Maryland’s Eastern Shore, between Delaware and Virginia.
The lightning didn’t just put a gash in St. Mary’s steeple. It also rattled the church’s foundation and cracked the ancient pipes that connected the church to the city’s water main, forcing prompt action by church leaders to address the water seepage.
“At the time, it just seemed catastrophic,” Kathi DeSouter, the congregation’s senior warden, told Episcopal News Service. In the ensuing months, as she and other parishioners worshipped in their parish hall, the congregation has been able to put the damage into perspective. “It could have been a whole lot worse, and no one got hurt.”
Now, the Diocese of Easton congregation eagerly awaits the day it can resume worship in its 180-year-old church building. Crews soon will remove the damaged steeple, and a replacement steeple will be built on the ground nearby, then hoisted for installation — with a new design that the congregation hopes will minimize future threats from lightning strikes.
“We have a lot of blessings this Christmas, lots of things to be grateful for,” the Rev. Stephanie Clayville, St. Mary’s rector, told ENS. If all plans align perfectly, worship services could resume in the church by Christmas, though early next year is more likely. At a cost of more than $500,000, the restoration project wouldn’t have been possible without the church’s insurance coverage and donations from the congregation and some of Pocomoke City’s 4,300 residents.
“It’s truly a resurrection story for us,” Clayville said. “We have such deep roots in our community, and it was lovely to see all these folks come together to help us, even people who are not members of the church.”
DeSouter remembers the day of the lightning strike vividly, and not only because it happened on her birthday. She recalled receiving a text with pictures of the damage and rushed over to the church to examine it up close. The steeple’s wooden structure was mangled at the edges of the gash. The storm had given the church a natural skylight no one had asked for.
“It was crazy,” she said.
On the other hand, lightning strikes sometimes bring the risk of greater damage from structure fires. “We were so blessed,” Clayville said. “It was raining so heavily that the church didn’t burn down.”
Church leaders met with building experts to conduct full inspections of the structure. They weather-sealed the opening above the bell tower, replaced the broken water pipe and ensured that the steeple was not at risk of toppling over. And the congregation immediately moved its worship services into the parish hall, without missing a Sunday.
“We prayed, we planned, we hoped, we picked up the pieces,” Clayville said.
She means that literally. Although inspectors have ensured the damaged steeple isn’t a public hazard, scraps from the ragged roof sometimes blow down to the ground. Clayville said the congregation has been collecting the shingles and debris, possibly to incorporate some of it into future projects.
And the parish hall, though not ideal, has been an accommodating space for worship in the interim. “Even though our building was struck, our faith never wavered, not for a second,” Clayville said.
DeSouter also preferred to accentuate the positives. “We’re a lot closer together” in the parish hall, she said, so parishioners can’t hide in the back pews. The Sunday services typically draw about 50 worshipers.
“We’re making it work,” DeSouter said.
Before building a new steeple, the congregation had to pour a new concrete slab near the church, as a temporary staging ground for construction. A crew will assemble it there so it can be installed in place of the damaged steeple.
The original steeple was part of the wooden structure of the church, which somewhat complicated the restoration project. Under the new design, the bell tower will be capped and the replacement steeple placed on top, slightly shorter than the old 80-foot-tall steeple, Clayville said. Instead of wood, the new structure will be made of metal with proper grounding, to help prevent future lightning damage.
The congregation will be relieved to have the building repaired but even more relieved to resume worship inside the historic church.
“A lot of things in life can shake your foundations, but it can’t shake your spirit,” Clayville said. “I’m so proud of my church and how resilient they’ve been.”
– David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service based in Wisconsin. He can be reached at dpaulsen@episcopalchurch.org.