By Mark Squibb / August 4, 2023
After a year of fundraising, the Cape Broyle Church Commmitee is proud to say the Immaculate Conception church now belongs to the community.
“It’s a relief that we’ve managed to keep that church a part of the community,” said committee member Andrea O’Brien. “We certainly didn’t want to see that building become a warehouse or a vacant building. So, we were very, very relieved when the deal went through. We were a full year fundraising, and so we were very, very appreciative of the people who supported us along the way. We wanted to save the church for the entire community, and so now that building is available for community use, and we’re delighted.”
The church was one of dozens of properties put on the market last year to as part of a court-ordered settlement in which the Roman Catholic Church had to raise money for sexual and physical abuse victims of Mount Cashel Orphanage.
O’Brien would not divulge the exact price the committee paid for the building but said that they did get it below the asking price, which hovered somewhere around $140,000 to $150,000.
This past weekend the committee hosted the ‘Come All Ye’ weekend both as a celebration of the purchase and a commemoration of a year’s worth of fundraising efforts.
“We were approaching on the first-year anniversary of trying to buy back our church in Cape Broyle, and as a committee we decided we would like to host a weekend of events to commemorate the anniversary,” said O’Brien. “And also, at that point, we were just waiting for the legal documents saying that the community owned the church. So, it was planned as a celebration weekend.”
Events included a cornhole competition, dance, quilt display at the church, and cold plate supper.
“We had a great turn out for the events we had planned, and received lots of positive comments,” said O’Brien. “Lots of people said, ‘We hope you do this again next year, only bigger and better.’ Everything was put together pretty quickly — it was only a matter of a couple of weeks that we decided to do it and began advertising. So, given the very short time period, we were delighted with the number of people who attended the events.”
Everyone and anyone are welcome to participate in the festivities — as the name suggested.
“Growing up, I often heard my grandparents, and my parents say that if someone had a party that was not by invitation, they had a ‘come all ye’ party,” explained O’Brien. “So, a ‘come all ye,’ was an open house, a party that everyone was invited to.”
Although the committee hasn’t made any commitments yet to host events again next summer, there is some interest in reviving the old-fashioned community garden parties of yesteryear.
“We had one for Come Home Year, but there hasn’t been an annual one here in Cape Broyle for some time,” said O’Brien. “We have been talking about having something once a year in the summertime and having that community celebration. And some people who came to events this weekend said that same thing, that it would be great to have the old-style garden party back.”
