It fell seven years short of reaching it's centennial. After 93 years the doors of Blessed Sacrament Church in Uptown has opened for the last time.

"Hearing them say this was last mass, it hardly seemed like it is. It's just hard to believe," said blessed sacrament parishioner Alfred Peters.

A final mass for a predominantly African American catholic church, one parishioners say holds a rich history in serving a community that at the beginning of the 20th century  was not always welcome into other catholic churches.

Now, another catholic church, St. Joan of Arc, will be their new house of worship. It’s a move the Archdiocese of New Orleans feels is necessary.

"We really need to be responsible with how we assign priests and how we are able to form our ministries for the future," said Archdiocese of New Orleans spokeswoman Sarah Comiskey.

"At this point, I'm angry, I'm disgusted and I'm upset with the catholic faith under the archdiocese as we are now. I'm very frustrated with this entire process," said Blessed Sacrament parishioner Rhonda Bonds.

There are high emotions during a final mass in the church building, but with parishioners vowing not to go to their new parish at St. Joan of Arc, another church which is also facing its own closure is opening its doors to them.

St. Henry’s Church in Uptown plans to welcome parishioners from Blessed Sacrament next weekend.

"This is the right thing to do,” St. Henry's Pastoral Council President Alden Hagardorn said. “They want these people to merge with a church that's almost three miles away and a lot of their parishioners walk to church. We're six blocks away."

However, the archdiocese says the cultural fabric that was the hallmark of blessed sacrament would remain in place, even as the parish merges with St. Joan of Arc.

“There's a number of services throughout the archdiocese that are very similar to this morning's service, with gospel music and clapping of the hands -- very spiritual. And actually, the parish that blessed sacrament is being merged with, St. Joan of Arc, also has a similar style again run by the Josephite order," Comiskey said.

But at Blessed Sacrament hope remains that their church can still be saved. They have appealed their closure to the Vatican.

“We're just going to remain confident and faithful that we can elicit a change at some point within the archdiocese," Bonds said.