In November, the Archdiocese announced a "temporary closure" of our church, stating the reason being a "serious health risk caused by mold". Since then, our parish has discovered only a light, non-toxic amount of mold is in there, and our communication with the archdiocese has been limited to statements from the communications team, or people writing on behalf of the Archbishop. No response has been given to us about when our church will be reopened, and when we will hear from the Archdiocese. The parishioners of St. Anselm’s have been denied the opportunity to present viable solutions concerning our parish faith development. This clearly was not intended to be a temporary closure.  We understand the We are prepared to publicly voice our concern for the injustice done to our parishioners with regard to the aggressive actions taken by the diocesan leadership in their abrupt closure of St. Anselm’s church. 

The large, vibrant membership of St. Anselm’s parish is passionate about having our church reopened as our place of worship. We have the leadership, enthusiasm and resources that make this a realistic, viable option for our church. We envision a strong faith community “nested” in St. Anselm’s church which is situated within the rapidly growing economic area Porters Lake.  As we build upon the strengths of our historical beginnings, the Friends of St. Anselm’s church are moving forward with public awareness of our determination to keep St. Anselm’s church as our functioning sacred place of worship in the community of West Chezzetcook. We are advocating a faith transition based upon TRUTH, TRANSPARENCY and TRUST. It is our hope that these values which are reflected in the teachings of Jesus, will guide the archdiocesan leadership to re-examine the temporary closure of St. Anselm’s church with reasons based solely on community faith development and not on diocesan financial gain or self-interest and then, rescind this decision. We act with trust that God is calling us to “stand up” for our church and the strengthening of St. Anselm’s parish congregation.  

We ask that Father Mancini and the Archdiocese open a dialog with our parishioners, and allow us to be part of the discussion that will hopefully lead to the  reopening of our church.