A group working to preserve the former St. Katharine Drexel church building in Lansford has been given the first opportunity to purchase the structure from the Diocese of Allentown.

“I hope to hear from you in the near future so that we might work out a sales agreement that would be beneficial to your desire to preserve the building and the need to help the parish and the community move forward,” wrote Monsignor David L. James, diocesan vicar general, in a letter sent to members of the group.

Recognizing that the building needs cosmetic and structural repairs, the diocese offered the group the building and land for $50,000.

“As we have said in the past,” James wrote, “our desire is to sell the church, so that it may be repurposed and maintained.”

Proceeds of the sale would go to St. Joseph Parish in Summit Hill into which the former St. Katharine Drexel was consolidated in 2016.

No money from the sale of church buildings, or from the sale of their stained glass windows or other contents, is ever used to fund the cost of the clergy sexual abuse crisis.

St. Katharine Drexel, which was the former St. Michael the Archangel Church, has sat shuttered since the consolidation.

Area residents appealed the closure but, last month, were told that the Vatican denied the appeal.

The people hoping to save the church have made it clear that the church has historical and artistic value, which would be lost if it is demolished.

The church’s history is part of the coal mining heritage of the region. It was built in the early 1900s on land sold by the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Co.

Miners from Lansford were forced to deduct part of their pay to pay for construction — $2.50 per week for single men, and $10 per week for men with families.

The church was designed by A.W. Leh, who also designed St. Joseph’s and Dreisbach House in Jim Thorpe and the Tamaqua flatiron building. The tower’s clock, and its bells named for saints, has been ubiquitous in the town for nearly a century. In the 1970s, parishioners and nonparishioners worked together to replace parts of the clock after someone shot it with a rifle.

In addition to the tower, the church has numerous architectural features that parishioners feel are worth saving. The stained glass was imported from Germany and includes a rose window and a window depicting miners.

The remains of one of the church’s past priests, the Rev. Paul Lisicky, are interred beneath the church.

“We all have history there. All of us were descendants of miners. That has a significant impact on how we feel about the church,” Rita Klekamp said last month after the appeal was denied.

In 2008, St. Michael’s was merged with two other parishes and became the home of the new St. Katharine Drexel Parish.

In 2016, the diocese merged St. Katharine’s into St. Joseph’s of Summit Hill, citing declining attendance, a lack of funds and needed repairs.