Saint Agnes R.C. Church in Greenport has scheduled an interfaith prayer service for the victims of Sunday’s mass shooting in Las Vegas.
Tag: St. Agnes R.C. Church
The parish hall kitchen at St. Agnes R.C. Church in Greenport buzzed last Wednesday afternoon as half a dozen volunteers prepared a weekly meal for guests of the North Fork Community Supper program. READ
The following is The Suffolk Times’ annual listing of Christmas services and special events hosted by local churches.
Guadelupe, 19, and her younger sister, Giselle, 13, hold flowers to place on their father’s grave last week following the death of German Mendoza Galicia. (Credit: Barbaraellen Koch)
I’m sitting at my kitchen table. It’s Friday, Feb. 20. The temperature outside is in the teens, as it has been for the past several weeks. The sun is coming in through the window and the heat is on in the house. So I’m nice and warm.
Nonetheless, I am grieving. Let me backtrack a bit. (more…)
Shortly before last month’s vote on a resolution to accept a $150,000 bequest from the estate of Helen Chalmers, Greenport School District Superintendent Michael Comanda asked the Board of Education if anyone knew of the recently deceased Orient resident.
No hands were raised.
Ms. Chalmers, who died last fall at 82, didn’t have children who attended school in the district. In fact, she never had any children. No close family, either. (more…)
Father Thomas Murray is leaving St. Agnes Church in Greenport after a dozen years. Next stop: St. Therese of Lisieux Church in Montauk. (Credit: Paul Squire)
In a room at the St. Agnes rectory on Front Street in Greenport, past the lighthouse knocker on the door and nestled in a chair among the lighthouse pillows and sculptures, Father Thomas Murray motions to the art covering the walls.
PAUL SQUIRE PHOTO | More than 40 worshippers ran from Greenport to Riverhead Thursday afternoon to deliver a holy flame honoring Our Lady of Guadalupe, a popular religious symbol.
A small crowd was gathered around a blue pickup truck parked outside St. Agnes Church in Greenport just after noon on Thursday for the big unveiling.
As one of the men began pulled off the wrapping protecting a statue strapped to the bed of the truck, the worshippers circled the truck to take pictures.
A small statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe — a beloved religious icon for Latin American Christians — was perched on a cherry-colored wooden pedestal called an anda, which was decorated with flowers laid on fake grass.
An arch framing the idol was interwoven with roses. The display took almost a month to prepare, organizers said.
As four men carefully carried the platform into the church, another group was rushing back to the East End from New York City by van, bearing a sacred flame to commemorate the day.
For these devout Hispanic men and women, the hours of preparation were worth it.
“It’s to say thank you,” said Riverhead resident Tarciso Cerafico — who helped build the tribute — through a translator. “For my health, for my family’s health, for what I’ve received here in the United States.”
More than 40 runners — men, women, and children from across the North Fork — helped carry the sacred flame from Greenport to a special mass in Riverhead Thursday evening to honor the religious symbol on her feast day.
Our Lady of Guadalupe, also known as the Virgin of Guadalupe, is a title for the Virgin Mary connected to a specific image of the holy figure that is believed to have been revealed to a devout Catholic in Mexico on the man’s cloak in the 1500s.
Though Our Lady of Guadalupe was originally a Mexican icon, she has since spread to areas across Latin America as a symbol of peace and protection.
“They dedicate everything they do to be under the protection of Our Lady of Guadalupe,” said Sister Margaret Smyth, founder of the North Fork Spanish Apostolate.
The Virgin of Guadalupe is celebrated each Dec. 12, the day the image was originally revealed, according to the church. While Latin American Christians on the North Fork have celebrated her feast day in the past, organizers decided to try something special this year.
A group of worshippers drove into New York City to retrieve a holy flame that had been run from the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City to New York City over the past 80 days.
The flame was part of the ceremony held at St. Patricks Cathedral. As residents gathered in Riverhead for an early morning mass Thursday morning, the volunteers lit a lantern with the flame in the city and drove it back out to Greenport.
Organizer Jose Galvan said the flame had been a tradition in celebrations in New York City for years, but the ceremonies were too far for most North Fork residents.
“It seemed like it was impossible for us to go in and do it,” Mr. Galvan said. Someone came up with the idea to bring the flame out East, and the community rallied around the plan.
“We got a lot of people for our first time,” he said.
The flame was transferred to a hand-made torch and carried into St. Agnes Church on Front Street.
Worshippers sang hymns in Spanish and prayed as the display Mr. Cerafico helped build was laid at the head of the altar in the church.
After blessing the statue and the flame, the group of runners loaded up the statue into the back of a pickup truck. They then took turns running with the flame along Route 25 into Riverhead, with the truck carrying the statue driving close behind.
Local police in Southold and Riverhead approved the parade in advance and helped keep the runners safe, Sister Margaret said.
The group ran for hours, finishing the roughly 20-mile journey later that evening at St. John’s the Evangelist Church in time for the second mass at 7 p.m.
“We put ourselves in her hands,” said Oscar Cruz, a Greenport man who helped carry the flame. “It means everything for us. So we’re glad and we’re happy to do something for her.”
KATHARINE SCHROEDER PHOTO | Terrence Joyce works on the mural in his Greenport studio last week.
Greenport’s mural man, Terrence Joyce, likes to listen to Indian music in his home studio and use dance-like movements to achieve broad paint strokes.
This method, says the 68-year-old artist, is the best way to channel his inner spirit out onto a towering canvas.
Unveiled at Greenport’s St. Agnes R.C. Church last Sunday, his latest 42-by-78-inch mural, “My Kingdom Is Not of This World,” depicts three phases of Jesus Christ’s life.
The main focal point and centerpiece of the triptych shows Christ at his trial, standing before the Roman judge Pontius Pilate. In addition to angels and Jesus’ mother, Mary, Mr. Joyce has included the disciples and Mary Magdalene.
“I’ve never seen a picture with Christ before Pilate with Mary Magdalene and the mother,” said Mr. Joyce as he touched up the mural last week. “Mary Magdalene has a bad rap in Western culture, but she was with Christ throughout his whole mission and was the only one noted that was under the cross the whole time … The mother was staying only a couple of miles from Jerusalem, so she would be there. That’s my feeling.”
Over the course of eight months, Mr. Joyce has painted studies, or smaller versions, of the mural, to help him move the project along, and he has also drawn from live models.
KATHARINE SCHROEDER PHOTO | The center panel of of Terrence Joyce’s mural titled ‘My Kingdom Is Not of This World.’ The panel depicts Christ at his trial before Pontius Pilate, surrounded by angels, his disciples, Mary Magdalene and his mother, Mary. The tryptich was installed over the weekend in the chapel at St. Agnes R.C. Church in Greenport.
Mr. Joyce went to a seminary high school in Cincinnati, Ohio, run by a monastery and later studied at the monastery’s novitiate in Verona, Italy. His most recent project is close to his heart because of his religious background, he said, noting that he enjoys painting spiritual imagery, such as angels.
“I believe there are many planes of existence that we all live on simultaneously,” he said.
The New York City-born artist first rented a summer home on the North Fork about 28 years ago in exchange for two paintings. In September 2012, he closed his downtown Greenport gallery after five seasons and has since helped organize the Greenport Maritime Festival’s first “Little Merfolk” contest this past September.
Mr. Joyce has freelanced as a muralist for nearly three decades. Some of his most notable works are displayed at Lincoln Center and in Central Park’s Wollman Rink. Locally, his murals are in Eastern Long Island Hospital’s chapel, Claudio’s restaurant in Greenport and Jedediah Hawkins Inn in Jamesport. In all, he says he has painted more than 200 murals.
He is also writing a book about his latest project to share tips on mural work.
Commenting on why he enjoys creating such large-scale paintings, Mr. Joyce said he believes the size of the artwork is uplifting — it forces your eyes to look up.
“My instinct is to paint big,” he said. “[Murals are] a way that people can surround themselves with something that’s of interest to them.”
JEFF J MITCHELL/GETTY IMAGES PHOTO | Newly elected Pope Francis I appears on the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City.
Catholic priests across the North Fork greeted Wednesday’s announcement of a new pope with shock and hope, saying they were impressed by the new pontiff’s humility and concern for the poor.
A conclave of cardinals elected 76-year-old Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina as the newest pope after a two-day summit at the Vatican.
A Jesuit priest, Cardinal Bergoglio served over the Beunos Aires dioceses, the largest in South America, and became the first non-European pope to be elected in more than a millennium.
Cardinal Bergoglio, who is of Italian descent, adopted the name Francis I, a move that local priests say represents the humility of revered saint Francis of Assisi.
“My breath is taken aback,” said Father Ken Hand of St. Patrick Church in Southold. “There’s so much power behind St. Francis.”
Father Hand was shocked that Cardinal Bergoglio, who was not among the front-runners for pope, would be selected. But he said Francis I made a good first impression by asking for the prayers of those gathered in St. Peter’s Square before blessing the crowd.
“Before he spoke he listened, that says a million words,” Father Hand said. “I’m very moved. That came out of left field for me.”
Father Larry Duncklee of St. John the Evangelist in Riverhead said members of the church were all watching as the new pope was announced.
“The whole staff is sitting around the TV watching this,” he said Wednesday afternoon.
Father Duncklee said Francis I’s talents made it clear “why the spirit guided him.”
“He seems to be the right person at the time,” Father Duncklee said. He also was glad to hear the new pope was from South America, saying the fact that he is fluent in Spanish and Italian bodes well for the church’s changing demographics.
“I think it’s a great thing to have,” Father Duncklee said.
What stood out to Father Thomas Murray of St. Agnes Roman Catholic Church in Greenport was the “universal enthusiasm” he saw in St. Peter’s Square when the new pope was announced.
“It’s just exciting that it’s somebody so different,” he said.
Father Murray agreed that Cardinal Bergoglio’s election reflects the church’s vitality in the Americas.
“The church is so much alive in South America and growing,” he said. Father Murray also hoped the new pope would travel often to visit members of his congregation, as well as emphasize the church’s mission to assist the needy.
“I think we’re in for a surprise maybe,” he said. “It’ll be exciting.”
KATHARINE SCHROEDER PHOTO | William Sockey, Our Lady of Fatima’s official custodian, brought the statue to St. Agnes R.C. Church in Greenport on Sunday.
The Our Lady of Fatima staue, hand carved from wood and blessed in 1952, made its way to churches across the region last weekend.
William Sockey, the statue’s official custodian, brought it to St. John the Evangelist R.C. Church in Riverhead last Friday and St. Agnes R.C. Church in Greenport on Sunday. Mr. Sockey, who lives in Venus, Pa., visited a total of 23 Long Island churches last week.
Worshipers brought rosaries and other religious items to be placed under the robes of the statue.
[nggallery id=401 template=galleryview]