Blackburn Hamlet chapel to find new home — unless parishioners can find way to save it

Mariette Lavigne, a longtime parishioner at St-Claude chapel adjoining the Sainte-Marie school in Blackburn Hamlet, has attended since age five. Photo by Ashley Fraser /Postmedia

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It’s been a couple of sleepless nights for Mariette Lavigne, who has been reading and re-reading the lease agreement for her local Blackburn Hamlet chapel in the east end of Ottawa.

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The St-Claude chapel, which is part of the Sainte-Marie church in Orléans, is directly connected to its landlord — the Saint-Marie Catholic elementary school. Lavigne said there has been a great landlord-tenant relationship over the 40 years they have been co-existing.

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“We can go from the (school) gym to the chapel if we slide the doors,” Lavigne said.

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Now, the francophone chapel is being forced to close or move after the lease ends on April 30, with no chance of renewal.

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“We’re trying to save it,” said Lavigne, who has been attending the chapel since she was five years old.

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Since the early 1970s, the St-Claude chapel has been a place of gathering for the local Catholic francophone community. While mass before the 1990s was held in the gymnasium of the elementary school every Sunday, a formal lease was drafted in 1994 and gave the church a space to gather.

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Mariette Lavigne and her father, Wilbrod Leclerc, are seen outside the St-Claude chapel. Leclerc was a member of the committee that negotiated a lease in 1994. Photo by Ashley Fraser /Postmedia

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Lavigne’s father, Wilbrod Leclerc, 95, said he never thought he would be alive to see the lease ending. Leclerc is the only member of the committee that negotiated the 1994 lease who is still alive.

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“That’s why I’m 95,” he quipped from outside the chapel on the morning of Sunday, April 26.

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Lavigne said the CECCE, the French Catholic school board, decided not renew the chapel’s lease because of the latest Ontario Ministry of Education regulation that asks all schools to use all available floor space for classrooms before any funds are provided for portable classrooms to address the projected rise in student numbers.

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“They say they have to close down the chapel and make class room inside,” she said. “We don’t really want that because the chapel is built with a really nice wooden ceiling that is very good for recitals, and it’s a beautiful sound in that chapel.”

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Though the school has agreed to give the chapel an extra two months to put together a plan of action, the days leading up to April 30 have been a source of anxiety and uncertainty for many at the chapel.

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Mariette Lavigne says the wooden ceiling in the St-Claude chapel helps produce beautiful sounds during recitals. Photo by Ashley Fraser /Postmedia

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Jean-Claude Baril, who has been looking after the church for 20 years, said he sets up the room for mass every week.

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“It’s a bit of a challenge for us because we’ve been here for many years, but everything comes to an end,” he said. “In 1994, we were all happy, but everything comes to an end.”

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Though numbers have fluctuated over the years, Baril said there is, on average, 70 to 80 people attending mass every Sunday. He added that pandemic Sundays had the lowest attendance rate, with only about 30 people showing up. But the chapel has come a long way since. On April 26, there were between 80 to 90 people who attended mass.

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The news of the lease ending came as a surprise to Lavigne and the rest of the parish. She said she only found out about it in March, by accident at that.