Oblate-founded mission comes to an end in Sechelt

A Sunshine Coast mission church whose history dates back to 1868 has celebrated its last Mass.

Our Lady of Lourdes, a mission of Holy Family Parish in Sechelt, has been canonically closed and can no longer be used for divine worship as of a decree issued by Archbishop J. Michael Miller April 25.

In the decree, Archbishop said the shíshálh (Sechelt) Nation Council requested the closing of the church and that “an overwhelming majority” of members of the shíshálh Nation support the closure.

He said the church and the land on which it was built are the property of the shíshálh Nation, maintained and financially supported by them, and that the church was never canonically consecrated.

The church “may no longer be utilized in any way for divine worship” and will be “relegated permanently to some secular but not unbecoming purpose,” said the archbishop.

There has been a Catholic presence in the area since the Oblates of Mary Immaculate built Sechelt Mission in 1868. Soon after, the mission church was found to be too small for the community and a second was built in 1872.

A third Catholic church in Sechelt entered the scene in 1890, named Our Lady of the Rosary. Our Lady of the Rosary was destroyed in a fire in 1906 and was replaced by a new church, Our Lady of Lourdes, in 1907. A fire in 1970 destroyed that structure.

In 1973 a new church that had previously served as a Protestant chapel at the Royal Canadian Air Force base in Ladner (present-day Boundary Bay Airport) was moved by barge to the Sechelt waterfront to become the present Our Lady of Lourdes Church. It was dedicated on Dec. 2, 1973, by Archbishop James Carney.

Catholics in the area must now travel to Holy Family Parish in Sechelt, established in 1944, or St. Mary’s in Gibsons for Sunday Mass.

Father Joaquim Dias, pastor of St. Mary’s, said the closing of the nearby Sechelt church came as a surprise to him. He guessed about 30-40 people would regularly attend Sunday Mass at Our Lady of Lourdes, but the congregation would swell significantly for major events.

“When there’s a funeral the whole church, around 200-300 people gather. They would come for Christmastime, Eastertime, for Masses.”

Since the closure, he has recognized a few new faces at St. Mary’s, but he guessed other former members of Our Lady of Lourdes might not make the extra 30-minute trip to Gibsons for Mass. Holy Family Parish is only a few minutes away.

The sacred objects from the closed church, including the altar, statues, vestments, and liturgical books, were to be moved to Holy Family.