MIDDLEBROOK, Va. (AP) – A small fire July 9 damaged a church in this Shenandoah Valley community, and anti-gay graffiti was found on the outside of the church.

The exterior of St. John’s Reformed United Church of Christ also included a message that United Church of Christ members were sinners.

The United Church of Christ endorsed a resolution July 4 endorsing same-sex marriage. The resolution was not binding on the denomination’s 1.3 million members, and St. John’s Pastor Darcus Lohr said her congregation has not taken a position on same-sex marriage.

“I don’t think we have any problems with gays and lesbians as individuals,” Lohr said. “[But] at this point, I don’t think the congregation would support this decision.”

Jerry Shultz, a member of the Middlebrook congregation, discovered the graffiti last Saturday morning when he stopped by to mow the grass. He found a small fire within the sanctuary.

The Middlebrook Volunteer Fire Company put out the fire in a few minutes, Lt. Tim McCray said.

Firefighters removed a stack of burned hymnals. A portion of the choir loft and a pew were also damaged, and the church sustained smoke damage. There were no injuries.

“It just breaks your heart,” said Shultz, 53.

“We, of course, are deeply saddened by the tragedy that has happened to one of our United Church of Christ congregations,” said the Rev. J. Bennett Guess, spokesperson for the denomination’s General Synod. “Regardless of the cause, a church fire is perhaps a congregation’s greatest challenge.”

When the damage is inspired by hate, “then grief is compounded with fear,” Guess said.

Despite the fire, Lohr delivered her sermon Sunday to about 90 people gathered beneath tents and the shade of two pin oak trees. The Shenandoah Valley congregation is celebrating its 225 anniversary.

Of the condemnations scrawled on the church, Lohr said, “I cannot accept that judgment. Nor do I think any member of this congregation can accept that judgment.”

Lohr reminded members of the congregation’s roots as a German reform church and its historic opposition to slavery and support of civil rights.

“Much more important than the structure of our building is the structure of our life together as God’s children,” she said.

On Monday, Bart McEntire, resident agent in charge at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms in southwest Virginia, said investigators were confident that the fire was deliberately set.

The FBI, ATF and Virginia State Police have been involved in the investigation.

“We are looking at it has a potential civil rights violation,” said Lawrence Barry, spokesperson for the Richmond office of the FBI.

The July 4 endorsement by the United Church of Christ’s rule-making body made it the largest Christian denomination to endorse same-sex marriage.

UCC churches are autonomous, meaning the General Synod does not create policy for its more than 5,700 congregations.