Friends Of Our Lady Of Peace

Programs: Prayer for peaceparishioners and members of folp have continued to gather at the steps to faithfully pray the miraculous 54-day rosary novena each night at 6pm, now for more than 800 nights, since our beloved church was closed on july 31st, 2015. We are currently nearing the completion of our 14th consecutive novena! Advocacy for our lady of peacefolp has continued its canonic appeal for our church to be reopened. As part of this process, we hired a lawyer with special standing in the apostolic signatura, rome's highest court, to advocate on our behalf. Our appeal is still pending, but we are hopeful that the merits of our submission will be favorably and mercifully received. In addition, we submitted recourse to the archdiocese of new york and to the congregation for the clergy requesting that the building of our lady of peace not be sold before our appeal process has concluded. Care of soulsin the first year of our organization, our lady of peace was not opened for any masses other than three funerals and a wedding that had been scheduled prior to the announcement of our church's date of closure. I am happy to report that, in our second year, we received permission for two special masses, the 98th anniversary mass celebrating the dedication of our church and the feast of the nativity of the blessed virgin mary. We were also able to secure permission to host the funeral of steven moy inside the church. Special services on the streetlocked doors have not prevented our "church on the street" from remaining open for prayer every night at 6pm and special services, including the st. Francis of assisi blessing of the animals ceremony in october, a september 11th service of prayer and remembrance, an outdoor service including the way of the cross with mary on the solemnity of the assumption, and a veterans day service, during which we collected donations for hospitalized and homeless vets at the va harbor ny healthcare hospital. Maintenance and care of the churchfolp has continued to do much to support the upkeep of the church of our lady of peace. These efforts include the submission of a 28-page appearance of damage report to the archdiocese in august, numerous letters to the pastor of the merged parish and continual monitoring and electronic correspondence with the archdiocese and city representatives informing them of specific maintenance requests, as well as some good old-fashioned diy approaches. As a result of these efforts, the interior of the church has been repaired of flood damage and numerous other issues, the sidewalk in front of the steps has been replaced and levelled so that water cannot seep into the foundation, the cement holding the guardrail in front of the rectory has been restored, exterior lights have been illuminated, flowers and candles have been maintained on the steps, and the entire area in front of the church and rectory was power washed. Community outreach and fundraisingfolp has continued its efforts to unite our scattered church through community and media outreach. Two town hall meetings were hosted to provide parishioners with updates on the status of the appeal process and to brainstorm ideas on what we can do to preserve and strengthen our community of faith, we raised an additional $6,000 to support folp's ongoing legal and operating expenditures, and, as of october 12th, our online petition to save our lady of peace is only five signatures away from our goal of 4,000 - roughly 9 times our lady of peace's 443 registered parishioners!