Stonington — After a difficult and unpredictable seven-plus years, The Church of Saint Michael the Archangel in Pawcatuck finally is reopening with a new church building.

The church's Mass of Dedication is planned for Jan. 18 at 10 a.m. Clergy will consecrate the church during an outdoor ceremony, then parishioners will enter.

The Rev. Dennis Perkins, pastor of St. Michael, said the dedication of a church is a bit more involved than regular Mass. Parishioners and clergy start the ceremony outside. When everyone makes it inside, the lights are off. Diocese of Norwich Bishop Michael Cote sprinkles the people and the walls of the church with holy water. Then there's a more customary Mass and readings that deal specifically with the church building and church in general.

Following that are more rituals — for example, the altar is anointed with sacred Chrism, a mixture of oil and water typically used during baptisms, and the walls of the church will be anointed with Chrism in 12 spots, as well.

After Mass, the church will stay open until 8 p.m. to allow people to tour the new space during its first official day of business.

In the spring of 2012, the church had to close because a structural inspection found it to be unsafe. The closing precipitated efforts to reopen, consisting of rebuilding the roof, walls and a portion of the basement while restoring and replacing the stained-glass windows.

Phase two saw finish work including painting, installing a center steeple, pews, new floors, new lighting fixtures and a new elevator. The total cost, according to Perkins, was $8.1 million.

Churchgoers attended St. Mary Church in the borough during the St. Michael rebuild.

The dedication of a new church building comes at a time when many Catholic Churches are closing. According to Georgetown University's Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, since 1965, the number of Northeast parishes has decreased by nearly 19 percent.

So how did Perkins and his parish save their church?

"It is quite an accomplishment on the part of the people of the parish and the tremendous sense of faith that they have," Perkins said. "For four years, nothing happened on the site. The old church just sat there, it was empty. We couldn't go in it, we couldn't use it. And we had a series of capital campaigns and people continued to give to it. There was that desire on their part to see something happen, and they believed it would, and they were committed to it."

"I would say, too, God worked a few miracles for us along the way," he added.

Perkins said the church started a challenge for Christmas last weekend that runs through the end of February: Any new pledges or donations until the end of February will be matched up to a grand total of $250,000. This is for the mortgage on the church, which Perkins said he anticipates being about $1.7 million.

Parishioners and anonymous donors, some a part of the church and others who used to be, supplied the lion's share of funding for the new structure.

"The majority of the donations and the fundraising came from the parish," Perkins said. "What's interesting is we would get things from people who've had a connection to the parish and they have since moved away when they heard about what was going on. We had people who drive by here every day, they saw the church being torn down and being rebuilt and contributed to the capital campaign. So the bulk of it is from the parish community, but also from friends and neighbors, as well."

For his part, Perkins is looking forward to retiring from his contractor duties and getting to focus on his work. It's also an opportunity for people to feel connected to the church.

"We used to reflect on how we were the beneficiaries of the hard work of generations before us who built the church and who came here with very little, and they left a legacy," Perkins said. "This is a chance for this generation to leave a legacy of their own."

s.spinella@theday.com