On Friday, it will be eight years – or 252,460,800 seconds – that parishioners at St. Frances X. Cabrini in Scituate have remained in vigil in the church that the Archdiocese of Boston has been trying to close since Oct. 26, 2004. The building has been occupied 24/7 since then by parishioners who say they built it, paid for it, and it belongs to them.

“Can you believe it’s eight years?” asks Maryellen Rogers, who along with her husband, Jon, manages the vigil. “It’s like serving two presidential terms.” Maryellen grew up in the church, her father and brother were buried out of it, and it is where she and Jon were married.