In a "wonderful ecumenical blessing," Dr. Matthews said, a Roman Catholic priest, the Rev. Peter K. Meehan, offered the congregation space to worship nearby on Sunday afternoons.
As 133 firefighters joined in the battle, the roof and other pieces of the building fell into the chapel's main congregation space, like a "log into a fireplace," LAFD spokesman Brian Humphrey said.
The developers want to replace it with an apartment building that will give the congregation worship space.
Their merged congregation rents space out of Grace Congregational Church on West 139th Street, where Mr. Tolton's former church worshiped for four years.
The congregation shared space in Gates of Prayer's building from 2010 until August 2012, when a new building was dedicated at 4004 West Esplanade Avenue in Metairie.
The Washington Hebrew Congregation provided space in its synagogue for the event, which featured as its keynote speaker Archbishop Barney Auza, the Papal Nuncio (the equivalent of a Vatican ambassador) of Haiti.
But because of a court battle its 90 or so members face having nowhere to pray.About 60 churches, mostly Christian but also Buddhist, Jewish and Hindu congregations, rent space from New York City's Department of Education.
Although the number of Korean-American churches, most of them Presbyterian, Methodist and Baptist, has grown sharply, most congregations rent space in other churches for Sunday services, weekday Bible studies and fellowship meetings.
Across the country, congregations make space available for 12-step programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, Sexaholics Anonymous and other groups for people who want to stay sober and help others achieve sobriety.
Just trying to keep an accurate tally is hard, she said, because the vast majority of schismatics start and end as single congregations, renting space from another church or meeting in homes.
When the congregation outgrew the space, he did his preaching in the banquet room at a Best Western.
