Since 1884, the Saint-Dominique Catholic church has stood in Luskville’s core, its walls made of stones pulled from the very Gatineau hills that tower over it.

Over the years, the church has become a bastion of hope for many of its parishioners, a place of worship that has doubled as a community gathering space for church dinners, concerts, and theatre performances put on by the church’s board of volunteers.

But now, after a period of financial decline, those volunteers are entrusting the municipality with giving the heritage building new life.

“Due to the deceased priests and the low turnout of our parishioners we were facing a major battle for finances,” said Geoffrey Garceau, president of La Fabrique, the church’s board of volunteers. “We came to realize that we could no longer support the church.”

The church stopped holding regular masses during the pandemic, and since the parish’s dedicated priest passed away last year, the space has only been home to the occasional service, mostly funerals and burials.

“We only make money when there’s funerals now,” said Garceau on Saturday after the latest of those funerals.

After posting deficits in each of the last two years, board members were afraid they would no longer be able to afford to use the church, and that they may have to abandon it.

But about two years ago, members began talks with officials from the Municipality of Pontiac about the future of the heritage site.

The municipality expressed interest in using the church and adjoining presbytery building as a community space, and for the past few years have been working on an agreement to acquire the space free of charge from the parish.

Board members said they were excited the municipality wanted to get on board, but made sure to emphasize they wanted it to continue being used as a community space.

“The municipality has the same responsibility as we have had [ . . . ] in terms of offering to the community a place where they can still get together and have different options of activities,” said Hélène Bélisle, a board member and longtime church-goer.

Members say a study ordered by the municipality gave the building a clean bill of health, impressive for a building of its age.

“From day one it’s always been kept up to that kind of standard, so to bring it up to that standard that is required, [the municipality has] very little to invest in the church,” Bélisle said.

Pontiac mayor Roger Larose said the municipality plans to use the church and adjoining presbytery building as community space for concerts, or as a library. In the future the municipality plans to move its outdoor rink into the back yard of the church, where it is closer to the school across the road where kids can enjoy it.

“Right now our goal is to close things up for the winter and have a little [space] inside the church for people if they go skate, to have a little warm building for them,” he said, adding that the municipality will look for cultural funding down the road to improve the space and do what few repairs are needed, mostly filling cracks in the walls.

“All we want to do now, we want to save the building, to take it over. Then next year, we’ll be able to go look for grant money,” he said.

Church volunteer Nicole Lavigne said while seeing the space continue to be used is a positive development, for many people it’s a still bittersweet decision.

“For certain people who have been in the community [ . . . ] there’s a positive aspect of seeing that it’s not going to be abandoned, that the rest of the community will be able to take advantage of it, but at the same time it’s this loss of what used to be, and also a bit of a lonely feeling about past times,” she said.

The municipal council passed a draft at its last council meeting of the memorandum of understanding that the municipality and the parish will sign before making the changeover official. The official change will not happen until later this fall after a notary has had a chance to look at the official agreement.

While the two major buildings on the property are changing hands, Garceau emphasized that the cemetery will remain in the capable hands of the board.

“We did not want to get rid of the cemetery, because our costs are one of the lowest in the area, and we wanted to keep that for our community members,” he said.

Garceau added that while some people may feel bittersweet seeing their church change hands, the board felt it was the right decision.

“We know the church is going to be staying in good hands through the municipality,” he said.

The church’s likely final service while still owned by the Fabrique group will be an annual ceremony for the deceased, which will be held Aug. 24 at 2 p.m. and will feature a picnic. Everyone is encouraged to attend.