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HomeMy WebLinkAboutHuron Expositor, 2005-03-09, Page 7News THE HURON EXPOSITOR, March 9, 2005-7 Church closure like a 'death in the family' Locals still asking London diocese why St. Columban church has to close its doors in June Although the closing of St. Columban church in June will be like a "death in the family" to Ken Coyne, he is glad his prayers were answered when he found out his daughter could have her wedding there. "That's my prayer being answered," Coyne, a member of the St. Columban Cemetery board, said. Although the church was originally supposed to close in May, Father Peter Keller, a member of a deanery implementation team and priest at St. Patrick's in Kinkora, said that St. Columban is now expected to close in June to coincide with the end of the school year. For eight years, the viability of St. Columban Church has been in question but additional questions arose a few years ago when church members were looking to fix the brickwork on the front of the building. "If they're (the Diocese of London) going to approve fixing up a building, they want to know how long you see this being used in that capacity," said Keller. When the deanery implementation team looked at the recommendation to do the brickwork on the church, Keller said, they had to look at the viability of the parish. For eight years, St. Columban church has been involved in an ongoing fight to keep the parish alive. Since September of 1997, St. Columban Church has been undergoing an annual review when the parish was shocked by an architect's report that said the church building was in danger of collapsing because of unstable and warped roof trusses. The church building was closed for close to two years as the parish struggled with the knowledge the repairs would cost between $650,000 to $800,000. By September, 1998, the London Diocese was trying to convince the St. Columban parish that the costs of repairing the church were too high, even at a lower estimate of $398,000. In December of 1998, the parish learned it had been removed from the Dublin and Mitchell cluster of churches after receiving permission by the diocese to proceed with repairs to the church building. St. Columban was left without a priest for about a year. Until the St. Columban Church reopened in the spring of 1999 after $52,000 in repairs, masses were held in the gym at St. Columban School and at the Knights of Columbus Hall. Mary Ryan, a volunteer parish worker for St. Columban, said that members of the church are still reeling from the 2004 decision to close the Ryan said St. Columban's future looks bleak after the church closes. Before St. Columban gets its official closing date from the bishop, Keller said the diocese wanted to begin assessing the viability of other churches in the diocese. "What about the other parishes around it? Are they going to be there to take in the `There's a real hopelessness because we've tried so hard to keep our parish community alive and at this moment it doesn't look like it's going to come about,'— volunteer pariah worker Mary Ryan church. "I think people are still very devastated. 1 think there are a number of emotions. There is definitely anger," said Ryan. "There's a real hopelessness because we've tried so hard to keep our parish community alive and at this moment it doesn't look like it's going to come about." Keller said that St. Columban Church is only four kilometres from Dublin's St. Patrick's Church and seven kilometres away from Seaforth's St. Janes Church. He said that in the London diocese the average distance between parishes is close to 20 kilometres. "To us it has absolutely nothing to do with geography. It has to do with our community and how we live out our faith," Ryan said. "And we do that in our own community." need of people that are there?" Keller asked of St. Columban parishioners looking for a new church. The diocese is hoping to obtain information about the long-term viability of the parishes by studying their demographics, growth, occupancy and the conditions of the church buildings. "What we're trying to do is make sure that our parishes that remain are strong," said Larry Brennan, director of administration for the Diocese of London. Brennan said the decision to close St. Columban was a hard choice. "This process is full of pain. It is particularity painful for our smaller urban parishes and our rural parishes," Brennan said. "No one wants to see a church close." The formation of a transition committee is what Keller hopes will happen soon in St. Columban. "There are a lot of questions that revolve around closing a parish. Some of them need to be answered by the people in the parish," Keller said. "There's nobody from the parish who's really putting themselves forward to be part of the transition St. Columban Church team," he said. In Blyth, where the diocese recently closed their church, the deanery implementation team has been working with the former parishioners to manage the sale of the property and leftover assets, Keller said. He hopes that a similar group organizes in St. Columban. "There's some very real questions on the table and as much as possible we'd like them to be answered locally," said Keller. Ryan explained that some people do not want to help by being a part of the transition team because it is viewed as helping to close the parish. "No one wants to be a part of that," said Ryan. While there are some who are working behind the scenes on some transitional issues, Ryan said, many of the parishioners have said that they would like to be part of a committee to build the parish back up. NEW 1 !R! 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