Earlier today a group from Cleansing Fire had an opportunity to tour the old Sts. Peter and Paul Church in the Bull’s Head area of West Main St.
The building is now owned by a Coptic Christian community and, as is evident from the photos below, they are taking good care of it.
%CODE1%
Rich Leonardi has some more information on this church. See here.
|
The pictures are beautiful, Mike. How can I embed the code so that I can display your Flickr show similarly on my site?
incredible photos, Mike! well done.
any likelihood our next bishop will buy it back and turn it into the cathedral?
Ben,
One may always hope, but I think parking – or lack thereof- might be a real issue.
A side note of interest is that one of the Roman Catholic friends of the Coptic bought the image of St. Mark from the former St. Francis Xavier Church (now a mosque). The image will be put in the chapel at SSPP. St. Mark was probably the most significant person to bring Christianity to Egypt. The Coptics hold him in extremely high esteem. So to have an image of him that came from what now is a mosque is very moving and emotional to them.
BTW – St Francis Xavier church has had the “mosque” sign up for quite awhile now. The last time I was on Bay Street the cross was still on the steeple. I should go by again and give you an update.
I’m surprised I haven’t heard more about the diocese selling a church to Moslems for the purpose of turning it into a mosque, given how scandalous it is. It only proves that the fears SSPP supporters had of a similar action in their case were well founded.
Wow! Nice job, Mike. Beautiful photographs.
I hope the new owners have a tenure as good as the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary had there. Whenever you went there, you could see all the ghosts of former neighborhood parishioners in their pews, ladies with thier doilies on their heads, K of C parading up the aisles and Pietro maintaining the place with a smile, Fr. Czerwein at the kitchen when he founded it for the neighborhood “guests” (as he called them). It was a great place even after its hayday. The regulars (’bout 70) made it every week for mass; most from the suburbs. Truly was a great place right up to the end.
Oh. My. Goodness. Just beautiful.
It’s difficult to see these pictures and know that our diocese no longer owns this church. I’m thankful that the church is under the stewardship of a Christians who value beauty and aesthetics.