Nearly two years after being burnt down by an arsonist, the Murray United Church near Merritt will be rebuilt.

The church along Highway 5A was levelled by fire in January of 2019, when an arsonist targeted that church and three others.

But a community group has now raised $165,000 to rebuild it.

“Well it’s just nice that the community got behind us and said ‘let’s rebuild.’ Because it’s a community effort that wanted to do it. The historic Murray Church deserves to be there, and we’re going to build it on the footprint of the old one with all the same specs as it was before,” Murray Church board member Jack Polmans says.

“The beauty of this too is we have so many local suppliers that are discounting or completely giving us their time and or labor. So this makes it very possible to rebuild with a much lower budget than what the normal budget would be.”

Built in 1867, the church was the oldest building in the Nicola Valley before it burnt down.

Polmans says there will be a groundbreaking ceremony on Sunday at 1 p.m. to celebrate the new building.

He says construction will start sometime this fall, and the new church should be open by next summer.

“When it’s all finished, when you drive by, you shouldn’t notice it was ever removed. Although we’re using modern materials, and there’s a few upgrades we have to do because of building codes. But other than that, it will be the same.”