Lindsey Murray had tears in her eyes as she stood up from her pew at the end of the Mass. She is buying the former church and turning it into the Li’l Tykes Daycare and Enrichment Center.

She said it was an “emotional, definitely bittersweet” day. She is not Catholic but has been to funerals at the building. She said she understood what it means to local parishioners.

“It has broken my heart that it is closed,” Nancy Heath said after the service.

Some of her most important life events have taken place within its walls: her baptism, her first communion, her confirmation, her wedding, her parents’ funerals and her grandchildrens’ baptisms.

The pews are mostly full for a final Mass at the former St. Paul’s Catholic Church in Bloomingdale in late April. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

She said Cline did a good job of addressing everyone’s feelings and helping them through the grieving process. She was glad to see the pews filled with worshipers one more time.

Cline said, to him, these final liturgies are essential for healing for congregations who feel a loss when a church is closed or sold. They are a last chance for thanksgiving, for celebration and for remembering the times in the church.

The current building was built in 1931 in a style similar to the Church of the Assumption in Gabriels and St. John’s in the Wilderness in Lake Clear. A prior St. Paul’s Church in Bloomingdale was dedicated in 1895, according to newspaper reports that year.

It had a sizeable congregation for a while, Heath said, but that shrunk with the population of Bloomingdale. The last Mass at St. Paul’s was held in early 2016, before it became an oratory. An oratory is a church building that can be used for events such as weddings, funerals, fest days and baptisms, but not regular Masses.

Cline said he has done some events here, but not many.

Michele Tucker plays the organ as the Rev. Martin Cline hands communion to worshipers one last time at a final Mass at the former St. Paul’s Catholic Church in Bloomingdale on Sunday afternoon. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

He said most parishioners went to the Church of the Assumption in Gabriels and some to St. Bernard’s in Saranac Lake.

On Sunday, they returned to share communion, sing songs about finding protection and abundance in Christ, and hear messages of being saved from inherent sin by his sacrifice.

Cline said they gather at Sunday Mass to give thanks. This time, they were giving extra thanks for this building. He said he was choosing thanks over a heavy heart.

He said everyone there had made a big choice at some point in their lives — to choose a new path. Using the analogy of sheep and their shepherd, he said they chose to follow a new shepherd on a new path, a path to heaven, through which Jesus is the gate. Cline said the shepherd does not abandon his flock, no matter where they gather. The area is still in his parish, and if someone needs a priest, he’ll be there.

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The Rev. Martin Cline hugs Nancy Heath after leading a final Mass at the former St. Paul’s Catholic Church in Bloomingdale on Sunday afternoon. The oratory is being sold to a local woman turning it into a day care center, and Sunday was an emotional day for former parishioners at the church. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

The right buyer

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Cline said this is the third desanctification service he has done, and it hurts just as much as the others, in Lake Clear and Hogansburg. It actually gets harder each time, he said — he doesn’t want the reputation of being a church closer.

But he said this one was a bit different because he was filled with a “great sense of hope and joy because of what it will become.”

“The church is always the best when it’s full of children’s crying and laughter,” he said.

The Rev. Martin Cline speaks with parishioners after leading a final liturgy at the former St. Paul’s Catholic Church in Bloomingdale Sunday. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

It will be difficult to see the building and know it is no longer their church, but he said seeing children playing and shouting around the building will make it feel like home again.

Nevertheless, selling a church building is a tough decision. He said he kept thinking, “Are there other ways for the church to keep it?” But he didn’t see any.

“We know there’s a shortage of priests. There’s nothing more we can do,” Heath said.

Cline said this shortage has gone on for around 20 years now, as long as he’s been a priest. He said the diocese spends around $9,000 a year on upkeep for the building.

The church held a town hall meeting at which different uses for the church were pitched, he said. There were multiple interested buyers, but Cline said they backed out after hearing Murray’s plan, recognizing the need for child care in town.

Cline said Murray came prepared. Not only does she have a vision, he said she has a plan. This reassured him it was the right decision to sell to her.

Murray said there isn’t a day care center in Bloomingdale and there’s a “huge need” here. She had been looking for a place for a while and the church seemed like the perfect location.

The diocese had to agree. The church will only sell its buildings to certain people. The sale also needed the permission of the regional bishop and New York state, since the church is a nonprofit organization.

In the sale contract Murray signed, Cline said there is a clause saying the building can be used for “sordid but not profane” purposes — basically secular, but nothing contrary to the church’s teaching can take place there.

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Care for all ages

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Murray taught at St. Bernard’s School for seven years. When she had her daughter, Makayla, now 5, it was hard for her to find day care. That’s when she learned that this area is in a “child care desert.” Her grandmother looked after Makayla, but when Murray had her second child, Carson, now 2, she knew she needed to do something different.

She left the school to work at the Li’l School, a day care center that rented space in the St. Bernard’s School building, because it allowed her to care for her own kids while working. She worked there for two years before it closed. Out of a job and out of a day care, she decided to start her own.

She has a mission statement: “To provide the best possible care to each child. Overall, the mission is to provide a safe, happy place for children of all ages. Learning will naturally happen when a child feels safe, happy, and cared for.” Lessons will be based on student need, she said, and caregivers will provide support to parents and guardians.

Looking around the sanctuary on Sunday, she envisioned infants learning to sit up, crawl and walk. She saw toddlers forming friendships, learning to share while their brains develop a foundation of learning for kindergarten.

She is creating a developmental curriculum to get them ready for school: learning about shapes, colors, handwriting, fine motor skills, sign language and tying their shoes.

Murray also plans to have before- and after-school programs at which school age children can have a safe place to eat, have free time to unwind from the school day and get some homework help from staff.

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Staffing priorities

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Murray said converting the church into a day care center is a “community project.” She has family and friends doing contracting work, is getting donated material, is seeking grants and is holding fundraisers to offset renovation costs.

She will need to build more exits, add bathrooms, remove steps and level the room out for safety and for having as much open space as possible. She said her center will also set up a playground in the backyard.

Murray wants to keep construction costs down to make sure her staff get the pay and benefits they deserve when she opens.

“That’s my number-one priority,” she said. “From my experience, it has been that early child care givers receive the lease amount of pay during the most crucial time in early childhood development.”

Murray said she has seen the conditions these caregivers are working in right now and it makes her sad.

“It’s mentally and physically exhausting, and people need to get paid properly,” Murray said.

Most day care centers don’t offer health insurance, she said, but she wants to.

She said she also wants to offer free professional development for staff and for employees to have four weeks a year of paid vacation and holidays off.

Doing the work as a “community project” makes for an unclear schedule on when she will open. Murray said she’ll begin rehabilitating the building next week and hopes to open by the time school begins in the fall.

To learn more about the day care, go to her Facebook page at “Lil’Tykes Day care and Enrichment Center, LLC” or email liltykesbloomingdale@gmail.com.

Murray said she will be holding a murder mystery play fundraising event at the building on June 3 at 7 p.m. Tickets will cost $25 a person.

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Memorabilia

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Cline said he is in charge of removing all the religious items from the building.

On Monday, Dean Montroy was there with a lift removing the church bell and a statue of the 10 Commandments. On Sunday, parishioners were looking for pieces of the church to remember it by.

Cline said some of the pews are going to parishioners. They wanted the seats their families lined up in each week. Others were given plates from the kitchen with “St. Paul’s” written on them.

The stations of the cross are going to a church in Albany, the altar is going to St. Bernard’s, and other items going to other churches in the diocese. Cline said parishioners may recognize them if they visit these other churches.

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CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article incorrectly referred to Nancy Heath by her maiden name. The Enterprise regrets the error.