FERNDALE, Mich. – After serving the community for more than a century, St. James Church held its last Mass on Sunday.
Built in 1919, generations of parishioners witnessed countless services for Mass, weddings and baptisms.
The Archdiocese of Detroit deliberated for months on what to do with the Our Mother of Perpetual Help Parish sharing two campuses: one in Ferndale with the other in Oak Park.
Recently, it announced plans to close the Ferndale Catholic church.
The church will be closing its doors, but the building will find new life. It will be available for secular use starting Monday. As for what that could be, no information has been shared yet.
“I’m abundantly sad but life goes on,” Rev. Paul Chateau said. “I deal with death a lot, and this is akin to that.”
The packed mass, which left many standing, felt bittersweet for parishioners.
“On a normal weekend, we average about 95 parishioners here at this Mass,” said Christopher Hickner, who’s also on the transition team. “So, it’s a beautiful thing to see the church full today but for all those who made comments on Facebook about being parishioners here -- in the past, if you were here all this time, this church would not be closing today.”
Other members on the transition team also tell Local 4 the deterioration of the building only compounded the financial stress.
Parishioners will now have to migrate to nearby churches.
“We had to try to figure out how to chart a best way forward,” Dominic Scappaticci said.
Even with the church shuttering its doors for good, there’s hope this community of worshippers will remain intact.
