Easter celebrations were tinged with sadness at one church in Notre Dame de Grace Sunday, as it prepares to close its doors.
St. Matthew's Anglican Church on MacDonald Ave. will hold its final sermon next Sunday after it made the difficult decision to sell a few months ago.
"They realized financially they could not keep going and the congregation was aging and diminishing," said priest Joan Shanks.
Built in 1937, parishioners said they are filled with memories from worshipping in the building.
"I met my husband here in the young people's group we used to have dances downstairs in the basement," said church secretary Mary Blunt.
Catherine Gregory's family is very attached to the building. Her newborn child will be the last to be baptized in the church.
"Our two other children were also baptized here and we were married here so it's a very special place for us," she said.
On this Easter weekend, the congregation tried to see the positives of the new life the building will take on, as an elementary school.
"It will be a happy place, children's voices, kids running through the hallways," said Shanks. "So it's the best possible outcome for a sad situation."
It's a new beginning, she said.
"We speak of death and resurrection and we're kind of doing it ourselves," said Shanks.
