This is a big, old school church with an active parish community and a variety of ministries. The parish center is way up on a hill behind the church, with a cool little shrine in between them.
The pews have the traditional railing that cuts them in half, and there's a beautiful red carpet in the altar area. There were a lot of people at the morning daily Mass, with a rosary beforehand. The priest was extremely animated and gave a good homily.
I had a great talk with the priest after Mass. He's trying to rebeautify the church after the damage the 70s inflicted on its interior. There are three beautiful newly restored stained glass windows above the altar, and he has plans for more improvements. It's kind of hard, but you can see them in the second picture from the top. I also learned that the organ is an extremely old, rare type, and that it needs/needed (I forget which) someone to crank it by hand to operate.
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| The crank |
The organ in that church (I used to play the 5:00 Sunday Mass back in the 1980's - Fr. Keefe was pastor then) is an 1889 W.K. Adams and Son instrument from Providence. Not many working Adams' left. The crank on the side of the case is the manual bellows, which is now electrified, so you no longer need to crank it. I don't know when it was electrified, but it did happen - probably well before my time (lol).
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