Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy
On Friday evening, dozens of residents gathered outside Most Holy Redeemer-Church of the Nativity on Third Street for a prayer vigil.
The event, organized by the Facebook group Save Most Holy Redeemer Historical Church, included a call-and-response chant of "Hail Mary/Sancta Maria" by candlelight.
There were no speeches or flyers handed out — just steady prayer filling the block between Avenue A and Avenue B.
The candles lit up the front steps and drew curious passersby on this pleasant summer evening.
Several attendees quietly shared concerns about the church's future. Some spoke of rumors that the Archdiocese might sell or demolish the 19th-century building, like it did with Mary Help of Christians on 12th Street in 2013. That church and school yielded Steiner East Village, the block-long luxury condoplex with an indoor pool.
Others worried that priests had been silenced, or that settlement costs from abuse claims were driving the closure. Many expressed frustration — and devotion.
"I'm not even Catholic, and I come here to pray; it's such a beautiful space," one woman said. A handful of people pointed to the departure of Father Sean last summer as the moment the parish began to decline.
The vigil follows July's announcement that weekly masses at Most Holy Redeemer will end after Aug. 31. Going forward, the church will host only occasional ceremonies such as weddings and funerals.
Parishioners are being directed to St. Brigid's on Avenue B for regular services. Church leaders cited a shortage of priests and the building's deteriorating condition, including falling plaster, as reasons for the shift.
Meanwhile, Village Preservation, the Lower East Side Preservation Initiative, and the East Village Community Coalition are pushing for landmark status for the 1851 church, its rectory, and former school to protect them from redevelopment.
Supporters argue the complex is a vital part of the neighborhood's cultural and architectural heritage.
Find the petition here.
26 comments:
It figures they'd target a building of architectural and cultural heritage; the developers are trying to make the neighborhood ugly, bit by bit.
We can only hope that an angel steps in.
That is correct that the parish (which included the parishioners from the closed Nativity Church on Second Avenue) started to lose worshipers once Father Sean was transferred to a church in the Bronx. Too popular?
After that, the three local Catholic Churches (Immaculate Conception, St Brigid's and Most Holy Redeemer) were put under the auspices of Msgr Nelan of Immaculate Conception. What were he and Cardinal Dolan (Archbishop of New York) thinking, ignoring the history (founded 1844), the housing of the Chapel of Relics (with relics dating back to the catacombs of Rome), the copper-domed 250 foot bell tower, it's connection to Dorothy Day (being. considered for sainthood) and stunning beauty (equal to any cathedral in Europe) of Most Holy Redeemer and choosing to close, of the three, that church?
After all the money and effort and community donations to restore the clock and bells in this beautiful church tower not long ago, now the church decides to destroy it???
@TSP Neighbor: Follow the money.
Not religious but what a coincidence to send the last, popular priest to a richer neighborhood in Rivedale
Of course, the real estate developers are chomping at the bit to tear down that church and turn that location into more high rent apartments that very few people in the neighborhood can afford. Welcome more transplants to the LES/EV.
Fond memories of hearing the bells throughout the day from the Church.
Still dozens of churches in the neighborhood, and if there’s not enough people using them then more housing is always useful.
Sadly much of the Catholic Church is only about the money. If only there were more Dorothy Day types in the church. I spent several years in the seminary back in the 1970's. Three years there certainly opened my eyes to corruption of all sorts. Yet groups like The Catholic Worker, Pax Christi, Dignity New York give me a sliver of hope.
If a church is demolished, it will only be replaced by luxury housing, and its irreplaceable architecture will be lost forever; is that what you want?
Don't people who live in the neighborhood already have a place to live? What exactly is wrong with transplants? I have lived in this neighborhood for 6 decades and am being forced out not by transplants but by activists who want to landmark everything and to pay $1000 a month rent. All of the landmarking, rent control and stabilization is forcing mom and pop building owners (who usually owned all the cool businesses in their buildings that people in the hood loved) to sell to large corporations who can temporarily absorb losses and keep storefronts shuttered so they can get loans to buy other properties. The activism generally leads to more gentrification and the closing of most of the long time neighborhood staples. Sadly people don't realize this.
If the Church is to be saved... the parishioners have to come up with alternative uses for the space... like St. Marks.
As a Catholic since birth and I'm 64 and even was a parish coordinator for 6 years, I believe that God allows things to happen so that he can see what we do with it. And if it's in God's plan that the church no longer exist as a physical building, a church is so much more. The building is just a building. The people are the church. The mass and the sacraments are the church. The building should be protected as an architectural beautiful entity, but perhaps it could even be repurposed, not torn down and those monstrous box building multi-purpose with with the lower retail/housing, the middle apartments and the top condos and the underneath parking at least 20% deficient for the number of dwellings let alone occupants. They've been doing that here in my city and Ventura which used to be more of a suburban laid-back Beach Town and is now inundated with mostly '40s or '30s adults who work from home or are influencers or whatever. Have little interest in really building community and just mostly increase the rental rates and purchase rates for because they come from areas that were more costly. That's amazing too though because it's way costly here but the weather amazing
Please represent this Friday August 29th 7pm at Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church on
173 East 3rd Street between Avenue A and Avenue B
It will be an 11th Hour effort!!!
All Locals, Transplants and Tourists are welcome in the Fight to Save the Neighborhood Church!
Declaring the church a landmark won't save it; it will just bankrupt the people who own it.
They'll be buried under expensive regulations and the threat of fines, all without any financial help from the city. For a tax-exempt organization that's already struggling, it's a guaranteed way to force them to sell the property. And landmarking only saves the exterior. The building will just be sold, gutted, and turned into something else. Think Limelight. That was a landmarked church, and it ended up as a house of sin instead of a house of worship.
Personally, I’d be down for a Limelight 2.0 lol. Although I think that demolition would be much wiser as then, at the very least, the lot can be used to build more housing. Let’s focus on making sure it’s affordable housing.
John Mateer you are THE DEVIL!
Guilty as charged.
We aren’t voiceless. If we put as much effort into pushing for affordable housing to be built as people are putting into a pointless campaign to landmark a church.. then maybe that could be our reality. Landmarking the church saves the exterior. It’ll be sold, gutted and turned into something else. This has happened before, and it will happen again in this situation. *sigh*
I'll be there, Jesse! Bring your tuba!
This church, BTW, has been featured in many movie shoots, BTW.
Dear Scuba Diva this Candle Light Vigil is to Save the Church not for me to promote my music. But perhaps on another occasion I will play tuba for you!
St. Marks Church operates as a church and for lack of a better term, community center. It's a wonderful use of space and asset to the community. The alternative will be a high rise apartment building because the zoning will allow it and very few if any low rent apts. Or a dorm. Pick your poison. Neither choice good for the neighborhood.
What you’re failing to understand about what I said is that the owner will likely be pushed even further towards a sale if the building is landmarked. Landmarking a building doesn’t grant a building complimentary upkeep by the city. It just adds additional regulations that the owner needs to abide by otherwise they will be fined. If the owner already is struggling to maintain the building, how do you think that will turn out? And since landmarking only applies to the building exterior, it is very likely the next owner will gut the church & turn it into a for-profit business that just looks like a church from the outside. Hence why I brought up Limelight as an example. It’s happened before and this situation is almost certainly headed that way if the church is landmarked.
Good Morning my Good Friend John Mateer do you by any chance work for Mayor Adams or a Real Estate Developer? And what if any experience do you have in landmarking historic buildings? Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church was built in 1844 and has the most beautiful architecture of ANY building in the Lower East Side by far! So my question to you is why do you want to turn a Sacred Church into a Cocaine Den like Limelight was.
The Lower East Side already has more than enough Cocaine Dens! The neighborhood desperately needs to preserve it’s houses of Worship!
Post a Comment