After the flood
Sydney church reopens for Easter celebrations
Parishioners of a Sydney church marked the resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday with the renewal of their own place of worship.
And there wasn’t an empty pew when St. Marguerite Bourgeoys Catholic Church continued its Easter weekend celebrations after being closed for six months due to extensive damages sustained in the October Thanksgiving Day flood.
Easter Sunday’s Mass of the Resurrection attracted more than 700 people, including the weekly faithful, former parishioners home for Easter and others interested in taking in mass at the newly repaired and renovated church.
“We are here,” Rev. Bill Burke declared to thunderous applause from those in attendance. “On the afternoon
of Holy Thursday this was still a construction zone, now we are here, we’ve made it back home.”
He then opened the service with words of thanks for
all those who helped get the church ready for Easter and to the parishioners who returned to St. Marguerite Bourgeoys with smiles on their faces.
“Everybody’s happy, we’re all just really glad to be back home — a whole crate of lemons couldn’t wipe the smile off my face now,” said Burke as he chatted with members of his flock following the packed and lengthy service.
Beatrice Poirier and Mike MacNeil arrived about 10 minutes before the service and found the only available spot in the entire parking lot, albeit in the mud. But that didn’t dampen their spirits as they made their way to the front doors.
“We’re happy, we’re very happy to be back,” said Poirier, who said they have been attending Sunday services at Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church in Sydney River while their church was out of commission.
Lorna and Sam MacDougall weren’t late, but by the time they arrived just before 10 a.m. the only remaining seats were on folding chairs along the back wall.
“Oh yes, we’re very pleased to be back here — we’ve been at St. Theresa’s and they were very gracious there, but we’re pleased to be back here again,” she said.
Further along the wall, former Sydney resident Cathy Gallaway and her eight-yearold daughter Brooke Haider opted to attend the service while they were home visiting family.
“It’s hard to believe it had so much water — it looks really good now, you can’t even tell it was damaged,” she said.
Parts of the church were under about a metre of water when torrential rains resulted in a nearby brook spreading flood waters across the entire low-lying area of Sydney’s south end. The flood 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.
But while St. Marguerite Bourgeoys is once again a functioning church, there is still work to be done before the building is completely repaired. The kneelers still have to be attached to the pews that were restored following the flood and several offices are in the final stages of renovation.
The lower Cabot Street church was constructed in 1996 to replace the old St. Jospeh’s Catholic Parish that was located on George Street, not far from the Cottage Road intersection. It kept the name until two and a half years ago when it merged with St. Anthony Daniel (Alexandra Street), Sacred Heart (north end Sydney) and Mira Road’s Immaculate Heart and became known as St. Marguerite Bourgeoys.