I’ve taken it upon myself (and my wife) to do some research on parishes in Queens (a borough of NYC–if you’ve been to NYC and flown into JFK or LaGuardia-you’ve been there) to see if we can find any that appeal to young adults. So far we have these two to report on:
St. Sebastian’s in Woodside: This is our neighborhood parish and it’s the biggest one in the greater Queens area. The pastor, Msgr Hardiman is very welcoming and is a good homilist. There seems to be a lot of activities but I’m not sure how many people are very active. The parishioners tend to keep to themselves but to be fair, I haven’t exactly put myself out there and said “hi” to too many people myself. Lots of Filipino young adults attend here and a large hispanic presence as well. The rest of the parish are mostly Irish-Americans in an area known for it’s Hibernian flair. A strong dedication to supporting the armed forces exist here and the pastor is very vocal on life issues. They do have a young adult discussion group on the tenets of the faith and their 6PM Sunday mass is well attended. Mediocre music but I’ve heard worse.
Our Lady Queen of Martyr’s in Forest Hills: For those of you who are fans of The Deacon’s Bench, this is Deacon Greg’s parish. Unfortunately, we didn’t pick the mass that he preaches at–but we were treated to a rather good homily by the priest who did preside. The congregation seems middle-aged which reflects the area but they also seem very involved. Lots of parents who send their kids to their school of which Everybody Loves Raymond star Ray Romano is an alumnus. Generally speaking, I liked the parish. It didn’t thrill me, but it was solid liturgy. Smells and bells galore and well-trained altar servers (which I thought was the best feature of the parish actually).
From now until Christmas I’ll post on a few new churches in the Queens and perhaps Brooklyn area each Sunday or so. Stay tuned.