FINAL MASS OFFERED

                                               AT ST. ANN-ST. GEORGE

            Mass was offered for the last time at St. Ann-St. George Church, in the Farragut neighborhood near the Brooklyn Navy Yard, last Sunday (June 1), with the priest celebrant encouraging the congregation to carry to their new parish communities on Pentecost Sunday the same Spirit that energized the apostles at the first Pentecost.

            Bishop Thomas V. Daily announced the parish’s closing in an April letter to parishioners which expressed his “regret that I have to take the . . .step.”  The small number of registered households---about 100---was among the factors leading to the decision to close.

            Father Richard J. Bretone, who celebrated the final Mass, said the sadness and disappointment in the parish’s closing would lead to the promise of new life as at Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit gave the apostles the mandate to carry the Gospel to the ends of the Earth.

For about a year, Father Bretone, the director of campus ministry at Pratt Institute, had periodically offered the Sunday liturgy at St. Ann-St. George.

            Before the conclusion of the Mass, close to a dozen parishioners from among the more than 100 in the congregation gave personal testimonies on their life in the parish. Msgr. Michael J. Brennan, the Episcopal Vicar, who concelebrated the Mass, said their words were “warm and uplifting messages of faith---forward looking and positive.”  

            As part of the Fort Greene-Clinton Hill “cluster” of parishes, St. Ann-St. George is near St. Michael-St. Edward’s, Sacred Heart, Adelphi St., and Queen of All Saints Churches. Also close by is St. James Cathedral Basilica.

            In his letter to parishioners, Bishop Daily asked them to become part of the faith community of one of the four neighboring parishes, where he said “you will find welcome.”

            With a combined long history in the community, St. Ann-St. George resulted from the merger of two adjacent parishes that took effect Jan. 1, 1987, at the direction of Bishop Francis J. Mugavero. The churches stood around the corner from each other.

Prior to the merger, St. Ann’s, established in l860, was a territorial parish, while St. George was a Lithuanian national parish, founded in l909. When they became one parish entity, St. George Church became the site for liturgies and the center of parish life.

            Several years ago St. Ann’s Church was razed, said Msgr. Brennan, who added that “the Bishop and his advisers are considering the future of the present church building.”

            Since 2000, Father James A. Hughes, the pastor of St. Michael-St. Edward’s, served as the administrator of St. Ann-St. George.

            Msgr. Brennan said that evangelization programs instituted by the parish at various times in the past 15 years occasionally yielded hopeful results, but the total number of parishioners remained relatively unchanged.

            Bishop Daily’s April letter announcing the closing to parishioners was preceded by one he wrote to them in March saying that he would limit parish activities to Sunday worship.

            Stating that he recognized that the decision to close was “difficult” for parishioners to bear, the Bishop commended them for striving “over many years in the Farragut neighborhood to celebrate Christ in your midst and bring His Good News to your neighbors.”