Langford’s Our Lady of the Rosary Parish Church is set to be demolished on Oct. 23, as the worshippers get ready to move to their new building.
The church will hold its deconsecration service – removing the religious blessing from the building – on Sept. 17, ahead of the church group moving out and clearing the way for construction to continue on the new post-secondary campus which is being developed on the property. The campus had its first concrete pouring on Wednesday (Feb. 1) as construction work gets going properly on the campus.
READ MORE: Concrete pour starts construction for Langford post-secondary campus
That Sept. 17 service will likely be the last time the church holds worship in the building that the group has occupied since 1950, said Father Dean Henderson, pastor at the Langford church. The group has to be out of the building by Sept. 30 but their new location on Irwin Road won’t be ready in time. In the interim, they’ll be attending mass at Chapel of Our Lady Star of the Sea, a church on the Department of Defence property in Colwood.
“It’s a huge gift from them, we get hundreds of people on the weekend and they have around 35, so it’s not like we won’t be noticed,” said Henderson.
Long-term, Our Lady of the Rosary Parish is moving to a seven-acre property on Irwin Road. Ground has been broken on the project.
The new building offers far more space for worshippers and includes a community hall. Other elements include office space and a daycare for 30 children.
Henderson said previously that the design of the building looks to accommodate a future Catholic school for children aged Kindergarten to Grade 4.
“The old church has served the people well. It’s sort of bittersweet, sweet in that we’ll have a new building, but quite sad we’re leaving this church, with a lot of happy memories and sad ones too.”
READ MORE: Ground breaking for a new Catholic church in Langford
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