Eastern Shore Acadian groups working to turn former church into community centre

Acadian community groups in West Chezzetcook are finalizing arrangements to turn the former St. Anselm’s Roman Catholic Church and its glebe house into a community centre and affordable housing.

Bernadette Robichaud, chair of the Acadian Heritage Committee, said the church has traditionally been at the centre of community life. She said she is looking forward to it serving that purpose once again. 

The church was closed because of mould in 2018 and was deconsecrated in August 2022.

Robichaud said she and all of her children were baptized in the church and she was married there.

“It was bringing everybody together,” she said. 

“Everybody would chat about what they’re doing for the evening, make their plans, catch up with each other, which we’ve lost. So, that’s what I want to bring back to the community.”

Robichaud said 10 community members and their families formed the heritage committee last February.

Working with partner L’Acadie de Chezzetcook, which runs the Acadian House Museum located beside the church, the group has completed arrangements for the purchase of the church building, and negotiations are underway for the purchase of the glebe house, Robichaud said.

She said the archdiocese offered the church for $1. The glebe house will be sold for market value.

Robichaud said the closing on both properties will be sometime next year.

Once everything is finalized, she said, the plan is to turn the church into an entertainment and community centre.

The second phase of the project, she said, is to convert the glebe house into affordable housing and office space.

“We’re a small community and there’s not much down here for housing … it gives us the opportunity to help people in the community,” Robichaud said.

Mélodie Jacquot-Paratte, the general manager of L’Acadie de Chezzetcook, says the museum already serves as a community centre and the church project will help expand the services her organization offers.

She said she finds it reassuring that the church will meet a need that is close to the community’s heart.

Jacquot-Paratte said it is important to have the history of the church accessible to the community because of how the church was built.

She said each family in the community contributed bricks to construct it.

“It was a really human moment that was lived there and we want to recapture that human moment,” Jacquot-Paratte said.