St. William the Abbot, Seaford

The parish of St. William the Abbot is located at 2000 Jackson Avenue, Seaford, NY 11783, one block south of Sunrise Highway (NY 27) and the Seaford railroad station. The parish telephone number is 516-785-1266, and its website is linked here.  The parish was established in 1928. Twice, the church has been enlarged.

Above, the church interior early Pentecost morning, 2012, before Mass.

In the former baptistry on the north side of the foyer, there are shrines of three saints, St. Joseph in the center, St. William the Abbot to the left, and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton to the right. St. William wears the wrong habit, however, for a Benedictine of the 11th century.  The habit on the statue is Franciscan.  
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On Monday, May 20, 2024, Bishop Andrezj Zglejszewski confirmed 143 youths. 

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On Monday, May 22 2023, Bishop Luis M. Romero Fernandez, M. Id., confirmed 145 youths.

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On Monday, May 23, 2022, Bishop John Oliver Barres confirmed about 134 youths in three ceremonies. The two photos below are from the late afternoon confirmation.

On November 21, 2019, Bishop Andrzej  Zglejszewski confirmed 201 youths, mostly eighth graders.  The cathedral website gives the pronunciation of his name On-jay Sklay-shef-ski.   He pronounces his name at the beginning of this interview.

Most photos may be enlarged by clicking on them.

In December 2013, the parish purchased a new outdoor manger scene and placed a memorial list in the church lobby.  Any photo may be enlarged by clicking on it.

Across Jackson Avenue is the parish elementary school at 2001 Jackson Avenue.  The school telephone number is 516-785-6784, and its website is linked here.  At first, Dominican Sisters from Amityville provided religious education.  Later, when the school was opened Ursuline Sisters from Blue Point staffed the school for several decades.  Of the parish elementary schools on Long Island, St. William's is the third or fourth highest in enrollment. In June, 2016, fifty-eight students graduated from eighth grade. In this era, that is a healthy number.

In the autumn of 2017 Barbara and Anthony Fuima created this outdoor prayer space with a statue of Saint Padre Pio.

Deacon John Lynch asks the help of children in blessing the water for baptisms one Sunday afternoon in 2018.
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Edit of September 24, 2021: I realize that this post omits names of importance, such as Catherine and William Morgan, the couple who got Father Theodore J. King from Bellmore to offer Mass in a store on the south side of Merrick Road in 1913. William Garnett Payne lived in the house on Washington Avenue adjacent to and south of the school playground. In the late 1920's the church owned only west of Jackson Avenue, and Mr. Payne at some point transferred the property east of Jackson Avenue to the parish. It may have been a gift or close to a gift. For more about this extraordinary man, please see this link to Find A Grave.

AdvancedED accreditation network for elementary schools

Maria Regina elementary school of Seaford has posted an important letter from the diocesan superintendent of schools, explaining that the elementary schools of the diocese will drop Middle States accreditation in favor of a different organization, AdvancED.
Links: Announcement of switch to become effective July 1,2017. Please scroll down in the link.
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Background of AdvancED. It is a merger of three other regional accreditation organizations.
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Middle States Commission on Elementary Schools  Even sixty years ago when I was in high school, the three-day visit of a Middle States evaluation team was a big deal. Later, I learned that preparation for these visits involved many meetings, much paperwork, many questions. The important thing for Catholic schools was that the Middle States first asked the goals of the institution, then inspected it as meeting these goals, then offered suggestions for improvement. It was and is possible to have accreditation suspended. Please note that accreditation on the K-12 level is probably very different from the accreditation of colleges and universities.

Nassau K-8 enrollments in 2015

The 2016 edition of the Official Catholic Directory probably reports information from 2015 or earlier.  This new edition lists twenty-two parish or regional Catholic elementary schools in Nassau County.  The top ten in reported enrollment are:
St. Agnes Cathedral, 728.
St. Anne, Garden City, 540.
St. William the Abbot, Seaford, 538.
St. Aidan, Williston Park, 487.
St. Martin de Porres, Uniondale, 460.
Long Beach Catholic, 440.
St. Rose of Lima, Massapequa Park, 404.
Maria Regina, Seaford, 400.
Holy Family, Hicksville, 397.
Our Lady of Victory, Floral Park, 389.
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Eighteen schools have more than 300 enrolled.
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Only one school, All Saints Regional, Glen Cove, has fewer than 200.
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The total K-8 enrollment in Catholic schools is about 8,544.

Nassau CCD numbers from 2016 directory

Parish religious education programs for youngsters not attending Catholic schools are often called "Religious Ed" or "CCD" classes.  The establishment of the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine in each Catholic parish dates back more than four centuries, and these programs have strong numbers in many parishes of Nassau County.
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The recent publication of the 2016 Official Catholic Directory has allowed me to look at the reported enrollments in religious education programs in the approximately 66 parishes of Nassau County. The numbers are slipping, just as enrollment in public or non-public schools, but nothing at all like the steep drop in marriages.
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Parish life ought not be judged by numbers, as small numbers or low revenue may may be found in parishes with a loving worship community. With that caution, I present sample enrollment numbers in CCD classes in the parishes of Nassau County.
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The ten largest are:
St. Rose of Lima: 2,557. (Two years later, 2,439.)
St. Agnes Cathedral: 1,896. (Two years later, 1751.)
St. Martin of Tours, Bethpage: 1,519. (Two years later, 1151.)
St. Frances de Chantal: 1,501. (Two years later, the same number, therefore suspect.)
St. William the Abbot: 1,486. (Two years later, 1,362.)
Maria Regina, Seaford: 1,466. (Two year later, the same number, therefore suspect.)
St. Barnabas, Bellmore: 1,450. (Two years later, the same number, therefore suspect.)
St. Kilian: 1,400.
St. Joseph, Garden City: 1,400. (Two years later, the same number, therefore suspect.)
St. Catherine of Sienna: 1,388.
St. Lawrence, Sayville, in 2018 1,188.
Our Lady of Lourdes, Massapequa Park, in 2018, 458.
St. Raphael, East Meadow, in 2018, 1,382.
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Six of the above ten have a parish schools, which adds maybe 300 to 650 students receiving religious education. Some round numbers above are suspect because they were the same figure last year.
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The median number of religious ed students is at Our Holy Redeemer, Freeport: 493.
Eight parishes reported an enrollment under 200. Several reported no students or failed to submit data.
The total number of CCD students in Nassau County is more than 42,268.

DRVC numbers from 2016 directory

The 2016 Official Catholic Directory, published recently, includes statistics probably collected in 2015 or earlier. Below are some sample statistics for the diocese of Rockville Centre. For my earlier reports on this topic, click HERE.
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Sisters in the diocese: 980.
Brothers in the diocese: 67.
Permanent deacons in the diocese: 292.
Diocesan priests, active: 208. (Was 226 in 2010.)
Diocesan priests, retired, ill, or absent: 103.
Religious priests in diocese: 54.
Extern priests in diocese: 89. (Was 128 in 2010.)
Total priests in diocese: 365.
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Students in elementary religious education programs: 99,644.
Students in high school religious education programs: 2,709.
Elementary schools, diocesan, parish, and private: 47.
Elementary school students, diocesan, parish and private: 16,047.
High Schools, diocesan and parish: 5
Students in these: 4,013.
High Schools, private: 5.
Students in these: 7,405.
Lay teachers in diocese: 1,741. (Was 1,851 in 2010.)
Sisters teachers in diocese: 20 (Was 57 in 2010.)
Brothers teachers in diocese: 30.
Priests teachers in diocese: 9.
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Infant baptisms: 14,287.
Minor baptisms: 738.
Adult baptisms: 932.
Received into full communion: 512.
First Communion: 15,312.
Confirmations: 15,195.
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Catholic marriages: 2,710.
Interfaith marriages: 537.
Total marriages: 3,247. (Was 3,956 in 2010.)
Total Catholic population (two counties): 1,455,644.
Total population (two counties): 2,908,917.
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Comparing the above marriage numbers for the Diocese of Rockville Centre with numbers for the Diocese of Brooklyn:
Catholic marriages: 1,849.
Interfaith marriages: 357.
Total marriages: 2,206.
Total Catholic population in the diocese of Brooklyn: 1,506,000.
Both dioceses have two counties.  The diocese of Brooklyn has 50,000 more Catholics and 1,000 fewer weddings. Does DRVC have more people of marriageable age?

Nassau numbers from 2015 Directory

The 2015 Official Catholic Directory, recently available, includes statistics probably collected in 2014 or earlier.  My computations could be wrong, but it would seem that the 27 Catholic elementary schools in Nassau County had a total enrollment about 9,797, plus whatever the enrollment at Notre Dame, New Hyde Park, is.  Whether some schools included pre-kindergarten students in the count is unclear.    St. Agnes, Rockville Centre, reported the highest enrollment, 753 students.  St. William the Abbot, Seaford, reported 569, but that was the same number reported last year.  St. Anne 530, St. Aidan 518.
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The median group of the 27 Nassau County Catholic schools would seem to be Our Lady of Victory, Floral Park, 365, St. Elisabeth Ann Seton, Bellmore,  356, and St. Joseph, Garden City, 356.  With lower enrollments are Our Lady of Lourdes, Malverne, 263, and All Saints Regional, Glen Cove, 195.
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The site elementaryschools.org lists grade-by-grade enrollment without giving a date of the statistics.  However, an analysis of that site shows how Pre-Kindergarten enrollment at some parishes can skew the total.  
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The approximately 66 parishes in Nassau County have religious education programs which instructed about 43,208 youngsters, plus whatever the enrollments at Notre Dame and St. Anthony (Oceanside) are.  The highest enrollments seems to have been at St. Rose of Lima, 2,695 students, Maria Regina 1,800, and St. Frances de Chantal 1,633. The median group would seem to hover around the 570's, St. Ignatius Martyr, Long Beach, Our Lady of Mercy, Hicksville, and St. Boniface Martyr, Sea Cliff.

St. Agnes Cathedral, Rockville Centre

This view of St. Agnes Cathedral greets a person who arrives in Rockville Centre, Long Island, by train. To the left of the church is the rectory and the bishop's residence.

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The parish address is 29 Quealy Place, Rockville Centre, NY 11570, telephone 516-766-0205. The parish website is here.  Please check the parish website for photos of the renovation of the interior of the church.  

Any photo may be enlarged by clicking on it.

Would anyone comment on the saints depicted here on the new baldachin?  On the left, I can identify Thomas More and John Vianney.  On the right, the pope seems to be Pope Pius X. Sister Faustina Kowalska appears low on the right rear column.

At the left is St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, in the center Mother Seton.  Who's on the right? In dim light I could not read the pedestal.

The above photo was taken in 2012 or earlier.  

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The A.I.A. Architectural Guide to Nassau and Suffolk Counties (Dover Publ., Mineola, 1992) describes the cathedral as of Norman-Gothic style, of limestone-trimmed buff brick with a single cross-crowned tower.  In 1887, the first Mass was offered in Rockville Centre in a blacksmith's shop on Centre Avenue.  An anvil from that shop is said to be in the cathedral, but I have not found it.

Above is the bishop's residence. 

Within the same block, the elementary school is at 70 Clinton Avenue, Rockville Centre NY 11570, telephone 516-678-5550. Its website is linked here.  With about 845 students, it is the largest elementary school in the diocese.

This large hall between the church and school has similar porticoes, east and west. The cornerstone reads 2004.  One of its purposes is to provide space for catered events, for example, a reception after a Mass celebrating the jubilees of religious, which we attended here in 2012.

The diocesan office building is a few blocks away, at 50 North Park Avenue, between Sunrise Highway (NY 27) and the railroad station.  The above view of  its west side shows how it began with an older building (maybe a former bank), where the flag is, at the corner of Sunrise Highway and North Park Avenue.  The addition, with a tall cross facing the railroad, is sheathed in a green similar to that of The Long Island Catholic website.  This page might explain some of the diocesan offices.  I was about to use the word Chancery to describe the above building, but it appears that the Chancery is only part of the organizational structure.

Nassau numbers from 2013

The 2014 Official Catholic Directory, recently available, includes statistics probably collected in 2013 or earlier.  My computations could be wrong, but it would seem that the 27 Catholic elementary schools in Nassau County had a total enrollment about 10,126, plus whatever the enrollment at Notre Dame, New Hyde Park, is.  Whether some schools included pre-kindergarten students in the count is unclear.    St. Agnes, Rockville Centre, reported the highest enrollment, 827 students, but that same number has been reported for a few years in a row, an unlikely event.  St. William reported 569, St. Anne 540, St. Aidan 529.
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The site elementaryschools.org lists grade-by-grade enrollment without giving a date of the statistics.  However, an analysis of that site shows how Pre-Kindergarten enrollment at some parishes can skew the total.  
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The approximately 66 parishes in Nassau County have religious education programs which instructed about 43,295 youngsters, plus whatever the enrollments at Notre Dame and St. Anthony (Oceanside) are.  The highest enrollments seems to have been at St. Rose of Lima, 2,650 students, Maria Regina 2,010.

St. Christopher, Baldwin

The Mass schedule on the sign is for July and August, 2014. Please check the parish website linked here for changes in the Mass schedule. The convent chapel is on the west side of Pershing Blvd.  Any photo may be enlarged by clicking on it.

The postal address of St. Christopher parish, Baldwin, is 11 Gale Avenue, Baldwin NY 11510, telephone 516-223-0723. 

The postal address of St. Christopher School is 15 Pershing Blvd, Baldwin NY 11510, telephone 516-223-4404.  The school's website is linked here.
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The photos above show the school and the church next to each other on the north side of Merrick Road in Baldwin.  Pershing Boulevard is west of the school, and Gale Place is east of the church. In front of the church, the N4 bus provides frequent service between Jamaica and Freeport.
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The bishop of Brooklyn established St. Christopher's parish in 1915, after the foundation of St. Agnes, Rockville Centre, and Holy Redeemer, Freeport.  The south portion of the school has a cornerstone dated 1924.  The present church was built in 1959.  A few years later, twelve more classrooms were added to the school.

Recall that Merrick Road was the principal route along the south shore before the construction of Sunrise Highway in the 1920's.  A history page on the school website (linked here) recounts that Bishop Charles McDonnell was already an avid motorist in 1912-1915 and therefore selected the name the Shrine Church of St. Christopher. Because of the famous legend, St. Christopher was already the Patron of Travelers.  

LI Catholic Elementary Schools Guide

The Sunday home delivery of Newsday on January 19, 2014, included a twelve-page Long Island Catholic Elementary Schools Guide.  A pdf of this guide may be found as a link at  http://licatholicelementaryschools.org/
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It's an excellent presentation, though without a chart of class enrollment per school or the myriad tuition scales in the various schools.A centerfold map distinguishes between parish schools, regional schools, and private schools.  In this context, "private" means neither parochial nor diocesan, but managed by other Catholic organizations, as the De La Salle Christian Brothers, the Sisters of the Holy Child, or one province of the Society of Mary.
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Catholic elementary schools in Nassau County

About twenty-eight Catholic elementary schools teach approximately 10,360 students in Nassau County, according to the 2013 Official Catholic Directory. Most of these schools are parish-based.  Five are regional, that is, nearby parishes support a school together or are listed as sending their students to that school.  Each of the three "private" schools is unique.  The De La Salle School, Freeport, teaches only boys and only grades 5-8.  Holy Child Academy is an independent school with higher tuition.  The St. Martin de Porres school in Uniondale is somehow linked with neighboring parishes but controlled by the Marianist Province of Meribah.
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As reported to the Directory, these elementary schools have the largest enrollment in Nassau County:  St. Agnes Cathedral, with 827 students; St. William the Abbot, 585; St. Aidan, 540; St. Anne, 540.  The approximate median enrollments are: Maria Regina, 400; Holy Family, 365; St. Joseph, 356. One parish school and one regional school reported enrollments under 230 when the OCD figures were collected.

St. Brigid, Westbury

St. Brigid's parish in Westbury, Long Island, has a church on Post Avenue, immediately south of the Westbury railroad station, and an extensive school building a mile northwest on Maple Avenue. St. Brigid - Our Lady of Hope Regional School includes a parish chapel, used for four Sunday Masses.  Clicking on any photo will enlarge it.
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The parish address is 75 Post Avenue, Westbury, NY 11590, telephone 516-334-0024. The parish website is here, and it includes photos. The Mass schedule is here. Daily Mass is in the church. On weekends, seven Masses are scheduled in the church, four in Our Lady's Chapel in the Maple school, as pictured above.

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Fortunately, there is a traffic signal with a pedestrian button at Post Avenue and Fifth Avenue, allowing people to cross safely from the east side of Post Avenue (church, rectory, park-like grounds, and Holy Rood Cemetery) to the west side of Post Avenue (parking lot, parish center, parish hall).

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Below are photos of the parish school on Maple Avenue.

Any photo may be enlarged by clicking on it.

The address of St. Brigid - Our Lady of Hope Regional School is 101 Maple Avenue, Westbury, NY 11590, telephone 718-333-0580. Its website is linked here.

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The bishop of Brooklyn, John Loughlin, established a church, but not a parish, in Westbury in 1852.  In 1892, his successor, Charles McDonnell, St. Brigid's as a parish.  The parish boundaries include a greater area than most Nassau parishes.  In 1987, the Carle Place chapel was established as its own parish of Our Lady of Hope.

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An excellent photo of St. Brigid's church is here on Flickr.

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Please see a parish bulletin for an explanation (atop page 3) of St. Brigid's cross, seen several places in the parish and on the website.

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Below, one can see the influence of St. Brigid's parish on its neighborhood.

Our Lady of Victory, Floral Park

In the village of Floral Park, Long Island, the church of Our Lady of Victory faces a small park at the intersection of Tulip Avenue, Plainfield Avenue, and Floral Parkway. The rectory address is 2 Floral Parkway, Floral Park NY 11001, telephone 516-354-0482. The parish website is linked here.

The church was renovated in 2012 at a cost between four and five million dollars.  The photograph with the red truck was taken at that time.  The other photos were taken in March of 2013.
Any photo may be enlarged by clicking on it.
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The parish school is adjacent, with the address of 2 Bellmore Street, Floral Park NY 11001, telephone 516-352-4466.  The school's website is linked here.


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