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- Category: Past Issues
Sacred Heart
church lives
again as church
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
THOMPSON --- The tiny church near the Quinebaug River served the faithful from 1881 and will now continue to serve, just not as a Roman Catholic Church.
Sacred Heart, a mission church of St. Joseph's parish in N. Grosvenordale, laid dormant for about two years, closed by the Norwich Diocese. But two weeks ago the church property, which includes the church, the former rectory, a carriage shed and the 3.14 acres it sits on, was sold to Creation Church Inc., according to Very Rev. Charles R. LeBlanc, pastor of St. Joseph's and St. Stephen in Quinebaug. Rev. LeBlanc said he believed the Creation church is an Evangelical Christian church.
The sale price was not disclosed.
"I am elated that it will continue to be used as a church," Rev. LeBlanc said. He called the sale of the closed church a radical change that has a "finality" to it. "It's almost like a death," he said, but the fact that it will still serve the faithful is heartening.
The Roman Catholic items were removed and have found new homes in other local Catholic churches, Rev. LeBlanc said. That, plus the former church being used again for a church, will help the emotional and spiritual healing begin for the former parishioners of the picturesque little church by West Thompson Dam.
"Sacred Heart continues to live in spirit," he added.
The diocese closed the church about two years ago and "yoked" St. Stephen Church with St. Joseph Church, LeBlanc said. Rev. LeBlanc said he came to St. Joseph last October and Pastor Chris, the spiritual leader of the Creation Church, came to him within his first week inquiring whether the Sacred Heart mission church might be for sale. The Creation congregation had been meeting in a dance studio in N. Grosvenordale.
While there were other serious offers, Rev. LeBlanc said, this was the only offer from a church. The other offers were for commercial use and the land is zoned residential (churches are included in residential zones). Rev. LeBlanc had high praise for Rachael Johnston of Johnston & Associates Real Estate for her "wonderful work" on the sale. The septic system was upgraded before the transfer took place, he added.
Sacred Heart was started as a "parish mission" of St. Joseph Church around 1881. For five years in the early 1900s it was a "stand alone church" and in 1906 it was "suppressed," Rev. LeBlanc said. It once again became a mission church of St. Joseph parish.
Rev. LeBlanc said he looks forward "with great joy and anticipation" in perhaps taking part in a service with the new congregation already settled into their new home at Sacred Heart.