Born again
Sydney church devastated by October flood reopens for Easter weekend
As a man of the cloth, Rev. Bill Burke believes in signs.
So when he discovered some tiny purple and yellow crocuses blooming in front of St. Marguerite Bourgeoys Catholic Church earlier this week, he knew the house of worship would open as scheduled for the Easter weekend.
The south end Sydney church has been closed since it was heavily damaged in last October’s devastating Thanksgiving Day flood that also destroyed a number of neighbourhood houses, forced a five-month closure of Brookland Elementary School and resulted in the demolition of the Southend Community Centre (the former Woodill school).
“When I saw the flowers I knew we’d be good to go,” said Burke, who poked his head into the Cabot Street church on Wednesday to check on the progress of the renovations and repairs.
And, while a host of contractors are still working on the finishing touches, the padre said the church’s displaced parishioners will be back in the familiar and cozy confines of St. Marguerite Bourgeoys for today’s Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord’s Supper. For the past six months, the parishioners of the former St. Joseph’s Catholic church (that was located on George Street across from Cromarty Street) have been guests of Ashby’s St. Theresa’s church.
“The word is out and everybody is delighted to be coming back home — not everything is finished, there is still work to do, but we will be celebrating the entire Easter weekend here,” said Burke.
“The pews are in, but people will have to sit and stand because the kneelers have not been reattached yet, and the sanctuary will be ready — there’s still lots to do, I suppose you could say the devil is in the details.”
The church, constructed in 1996, was swamped with more than a metre of sewage-contaminated water when a nearby brook flooded in the torrential rainstorm that also rendered about 20 nearby houses uninhabitable.
Many of those homeowners are still struggling to put their lives back together following the loss of their homes and subsequent dealings with insurance companies and the province’s disaster relief program.
Fortunately for St. Marguerite Bourgeoys, its solid oak pews were deemed salvageable
and have already been restored. On the other side of the coin, the church lost some hard copies of its parish files due to contamination. However, 90 per cent of the documents were saved and are now stored
electronically.
The reopening of the Sydney church is the second congregational homecoming in Sydney over the past couple of years. The parish of Whitney Pier’s St. Mary’s Polish Church returned to
its own building last summer after the church was rebuilt following a November 2015 fire that completely destroyed the historic house of prayer.