Lord

The heart of the Christian community is our Triune Lord: Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Geography, history, and numbers are not the heart, but probably I will type mostly on these topics. As the internet already provides many encouraging spiritual guides and discouraging contentious forums, I intend to offer neither.
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To find a parish, enter a keyword in the search box at the top left, or look through the labels and links down the right-hand column. The posts themselves follow the Blogger format of newest items on top.
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Friday, January 16, 2015

St. Ladislaus, Hempstead



The mailing address of the parish of St. Ladislaus is 18 Richardson Place, Hempstead NY 11550, telephone 516-489-0368.  The church faces the busy intersection of Front Street, Peninsula Boulevard, and Richardson Place, about a quarter-mile east of Main Street.  The parish website is linked here.
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About forty years after the establishment of the parish of Our Lady of Loretto in Hempstead, a mission to Polish Catholics was begun, first in Uniondale (where St. Martha's now is) and later in Hempstead.  This led to the formation of the parish of St. Ladislaus, which welcomes Catholics of all backgrounds.



The above photo was taken on 1.16.2015.  Any photo may be enlarged by clicking on it.  The parish website and other sources show also a Mass in Latin at 9 a.m. on Sundays.




Looking west along Front Street on a Sunday morning, one sees the white steeple of the United Methodist Church (1822), and beyond it the cupola of St. George's Episcopal Church (chartered by George II in 1735).  The Presbyterian congregation a few blocks north dates from the 1720's. Previously, the church organization was apparently Congregational.  Robert Fordham, one of the 1643 founders of Hempstead, seems to have been a Quaker minister.  Although these older churches are "downtown," the Catholic churches are in easy walking distance: Our Lady of Loretto to the south (with a wise purchase of larger grounds), and the St. Ladislaus and St. Vladimir to the east, maybe in the direction of the parishioners' farms.  Any photo may be enlarged by clicking on it.








The Internet Polish Genealogical Source includes a lengthy history of the parish.  The architect of this 1926 church was Gustave Steinback.






Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Facebook, parishes, and schools

Some parishes and Catholic organizations have active Facebook pages that can be viewed by people, as I, who have not joined Facebook.  In addition to the links on this blog, it might be good to search for the parish, school, or organization on Facebook. When I happen upon such active pages, I will link them to the parish listing on this blog. It appears that the Facebook corporation itself might establish a parish page without any local initiative. Those pages tend to be inactive, with merely a header.