Congregants of Holy Trinity Polish National Catholic Church liked their temporary home on Route 5 in Woodlawn so much, they decided to buy it.

Burned out of their longtime church in Lackawanna, the group had been worshipping for more than a year in the former Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church, which the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo closed in 2008.

Friday, the congregation finalized the purchase of the space for $170,000.

“The parishioners liked the location so much, they said, ‘Let’s stay here,’” said Bishop Thaddeus S. Peplowski of the Buffalo Pittsburgh Diocese of the Polish National Catholic Church.

Peplowski said he has assured Buffalo Bishop Edward U. Kmiec that the church won’t actively seek to recruit former members of Our Lady of Grace.

“We told them right off the bat, if you’re going to leave the Roman Catholic Church, you’re going to be excommunicated,” Peplowski said.

Holy Trinity has about 60 to 70 families, a handful of which were part of Our Lady of Grace.

Use of the empty space was extended to the people of Holy Trinity by the former Our Lady of Grace pastor, the Rev. John F. Kasprzak, now pastor of Queen of Angels Church, a merged parish in Lackawanna.

Holy Trinity’s former church on Pulaski Place, about three miles from the Woodlawn site, incurred heavy water damage after a lightning strike sparked a fire in the summer of 2008.

Repairs on the 80-year-old church would have been too expensive for the small congregation, which has put the property on the market for $165,000, said the Rev. Gary J. Spencer, pastor of Holy Trinity.

“We were a little underinsured. It would have broke us to repair that church,” he said.

Most parishioners, he added, saw the benefits of moving.

The Woodlawn church has parking and greater visibility — allowing the potential for growth, Spencer said. “It’s a nice bright church,” he said. “It’s not a big church. You feel a warmth and very welcome when you come in there. You feel a closeness to God.”

A blessing of the new Holy Trinity Church will be held at 1 p. m. Nov. 7.

The Polish National Catholic Church was formed in 1897 as a result of splits of Catholic communities of Polish-Americans from the Roman Catholic Church in disputes over property and lay governance.

The denomination also is working on a deal to buy another former Catholic church in Brant, where a new Polish National Catholic parish will be formed. That sale is expected to be completed sometime in November, Peplowski said.

Members of the new parish probably will include past members of the former Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church who objected to the church being shut down by Kmiec in 2008.