Northern Points Parishes
of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany
Blessed Sacrament, Bolton Landing, St. Isaac Jogues, Chestertown
Cinco de Mayo: Is May 2nd next year. It was decided at the meeting that we will charge $20 a ticket per person if purchased ahead of time, and $25 a person if purchased on the day. We raised $2,619 between the raffle & tickets. Many thanks to the Bravo, Hernandez, Garcia, and Marron Families for hosting this beautiful event that brought the community together! The food, drink, music, games, and fellowship were tremendous. In addition, it takes a village to bring such a magnificent celebration together! Thanks go out to Rosemary Rounds for making the deposits, to all who sold tickets in advance, to those who helped park the cars, to those who sold raffle tickets, etc. |
EVENTS/ANNOUNCEMENTS
- St. Isaac Jogues 1st Communion: Please pray for our children, Nico Hernandez, Tim & Owen Hanaburgh as they prepare for their First Eucharist at the 4:00 pm Mass on Saturday, May 17th. - Brunch: Blessed Sacrament, after the 11:00 am Mass on May 18th. Please see Anne Marie Bell for more information. - Help: St. Isaac Jogues needs a couple of people to help put chair feet protectors on the chairs in the parish center. Please let Barb know if you are willing and able. We also need the extra chairs to go on the new dolly. - Stations of the Cross: St. James Church, North Creek, Tuesday, May 20, 2025 at 3:30 pm - Mass Time changes beginning May 24: 5:30 pm, Saturday, St. Isaac Jogues, Chestertown 9:00 am, Sunday, St. Isaac Jogues, Chestertown 10:30 am, Sunday, Blessed Sacrament, Bolton Landing - Flocknote: Please send us your email or mobile number, so that we may keep you updated in case of emergency. It is so important! - Please leave a message: Messages left on the parish office answering machine are seen via email even if we are not in the office! - Outreach Ministries: Please see below for the many outreach ministries taking place in our community to help those in need. |
St. Isaac Jogues, Chestertown
- Please see below for outreach ministries talking place in our community. - Diocesan Assessment: We have met our assessment. Thank you! - Mass Cards & Intentions: Please call Kathy DeBartolo 518-257-0816 (new number) |
Blessed Sacrament, Bolton Landing
- Please see below for outreach ministries talking place in our community. - Diocesan Appeal: Wow! We have met our assessment! That is fantastic news. - Brunch: After the 11:00 am Mass on May 18th. Please see Anne Marie Bell for more information. - Rosary: Tuesday’s at 9:30 am. - Mass Cards and Intentions: Please call Rita Whitney 518-338-6858. - Prayer Intentions: Please call Pat Nugent 518-668-2765 |
St. Patty's Day Parade
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Article on the St. James "window"
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Link to NCM Facebook page with more information and pictures:
www.facebook.com/share/p/1F1hFwYwGC/?mibextid=wwXIfr "It is with great sadness that our beloved Sr. Fran Husselbeck has passed this world through the Heavenly Gates of Heaven. We don't have all the circumstances, but she has been struggling with her health for a very long time and appeared to pass peacefully and in her own way! What we do know is that Sr. Fran always knew what was important in ministry. She was our shepherd who loved all of her sheep! She never stopped feeding the sheep. It was out of this love she helped open the doors of North Country Ministry and Adirondack Outreach. In addition, kept the Northern Points Cluster on its feet to serve the spiritual needs our Roman Catholic faith in this part of the Adirondacks and much more! Sr. Fran's passion was helping the poor, teaching our parishioners and the youth the Gospels and making those who were struggling to stay on the narrow path. She started with us as Parish Life Director for the Northern Points Cluster on August 1, 1999, and before retiring at St. James, North Creek in 2012. Sr. Fran personally taught me how to be a priest pastor and for this I am grateful and blessed as for many of you are by her love and guidance. She will be greatly missed! When we hear about her arrangements, we will let you know. Please pray for her, her family, the Sisters of Mercy, the Northern Points Cluster and all of her family in ministry that she served so diligently." God Bless! Calling hours are 4-7 pm Thursday, January 23rd and Funeral Mass 9:30 am, Friday, January 24th. Sisters of Mercy, Address is 634 New Scotland Ave., Albany, NY 12208 Sr. Fran Obituary: https://www.wjlyonsfuneralhome.com/obituaries/sr-francesca-husselbeck We are hoping to have a Memorial Service at St. James in North Creek shortly. More to come! |
OUTREACH MINISTRIES
Food Pantry: There is a bin at the entrance of the church. The need at the pantries has grown exponentially this year. Please consider giving weekly to those in need. This will be brought to the North Country Ministry. They are especially looking for items that have pull tabs (no can opener to use), shelf stable food, also, personal hygiene products, cleaning products & kid friendly foods.
North Country Ministry: is thrilled to be hosting their Spring Fundraiser, "Black, White, & Green All Over" at Fort William Henry's Carriage House again this year on Friday, May 16th from 6 pm - 10 pm. Join them for an evening of fun, dancing, chef-inspired cuisine, cocktails, and a live auction. Tickets are $150 for non-reserved seating or $175 for a reserved seat. For more information or to purchase tickets, please visit www.northcountryministry.org/blackwhitegreen
North Country Ministry is also hosting a Raffle for a Hornbeck Custom 10'6" Ultralight Pack Canoe. Raffle tickets are 1 for $20 or 3 for $50. All proceeds will benefit NCM and the work we do for rural Warren County. There will only be 500 tickets sold, and the winner will be chosen on the night of our Spring Fundraiser.
To purchase tickets, please visit bit.ly/ncmcanoeraffle
Catholic Charities: “Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.” If you would like to donate to Catholic Charities for the southern states that were hit by the hurricane, please go to https: www.catholiccharitiesusa.org Remember 100% goes to help those in need.
St. Anne Society: Thank you to all who participated in sending out care packages to our young adults last week. A special thank you to all who baked and or purchased to make this possible. If you know of someone who would like a care package, please let the office know. This ministry is a combined effort of Blessed Sacrament and St. Isaac Jogues to let our young adults know that we care for them and are praying for them. This is a wonderful way to evangelize and bring forth God’s Grace.
North Country Ministry: is thrilled to be hosting their Spring Fundraiser, "Black, White, & Green All Over" at Fort William Henry's Carriage House again this year on Friday, May 16th from 6 pm - 10 pm. Join them for an evening of fun, dancing, chef-inspired cuisine, cocktails, and a live auction. Tickets are $150 for non-reserved seating or $175 for a reserved seat. For more information or to purchase tickets, please visit www.northcountryministry.org/blackwhitegreen
North Country Ministry is also hosting a Raffle for a Hornbeck Custom 10'6" Ultralight Pack Canoe. Raffle tickets are 1 for $20 or 3 for $50. All proceeds will benefit NCM and the work we do for rural Warren County. There will only be 500 tickets sold, and the winner will be chosen on the night of our Spring Fundraiser.
To purchase tickets, please visit bit.ly/ncmcanoeraffle
Catholic Charities: “Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.” If you would like to donate to Catholic Charities for the southern states that were hit by the hurricane, please go to https: www.catholiccharitiesusa.org Remember 100% goes to help those in need.
St. Anne Society: Thank you to all who participated in sending out care packages to our young adults last week. A special thank you to all who baked and or purchased to make this possible. If you know of someone who would like a care package, please let the office know. This ministry is a combined effort of Blessed Sacrament and St. Isaac Jogues to let our young adults know that we care for them and are praying for them. This is a wonderful way to evangelize and bring forth God’s Grace.
(click on photo for more photos)
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Final Mass at St. James
I was asked by someone to have St. Isaac Jogues parishioners reach out to St. James parishioners, inviting them to the parish and Weekend Masses. “I don’t have to because they are already doing it” was my response! Our churches have been networking for going on 30 years. I am proud of St. Isaac Jogues and Blessed Sacrament parishioners who attended and supported St. James’ final Mass last Sunday. Your presence helped ease their sadness. I want to thank you for your friendship and caring support to them, which is true testimony and a visible sign to our diocese and the world that parish networking can be successful! Please continue to pray and support the people of St. James. We are truly blessed here in the North Country!
God Bless, Fr. John |
St Isaac Jogues Fall Frolic
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(click on photo for more photos)
St. James Festival of Paise
(Click on photo for more photos)
(Click on photo for more photos)
Father John's Vocation Story
The Vocation office asked the priests of our diocese to share their vocation story for the weekends of September. In October all will have a chance to participate in the Call by Name. We will have cards during this time, and we would write the name of men who we feel to have a vocation to the priesthood. We will have an estimate of only 54 active priests, in our diocese under the age of 69. We currently have 126 parishes. We have gone through a process of merging, closing and consolidating parishes to survive in the present. In our cluster alone we have closed St. Theresa in Brant Lake in 2008 and last year we closed St. Isaac Jogues-Blessed Sacrament in Hague which acted as a mission, seasonable church. And sadly, we will be closing St. James, North Creek in the end of October that has been a parish for 140 years opening its doors in 1884 having missions in Pottersville, Wevertown and Chestertown. Chestertown being the only church that remained open throughout the years.
We must do it because we just don’t have the priests. As of other churches in diocese that will be closing. We are currently bringing back the Called By Name Program. We did something similar 10 years ago and 30 years ago my name was chosen from that process 30 years ago. For those of you who don’t know that I am from Long Island, Uniondale in Southern Nassau County. This explains why I am a Mets, Jets, Islanders, Nets fan. My parish was St. Martha in Uniondale New York where I was baptized and received Holy Communion. The church was always an important part of my family life. My parents were born and raised in NYC children of Irish immigrants. My father was a New York City Police Detective and my mother a housewife. I was the youngest of three children. I had two older sisters. I had two cousins from Ireland who were priests who came to live in our country. One left the priesthood to get married and the other was a priest and worked many years at St. John University in Jamaica Queens before he passed.
I became an altar server at St. Martha’s and always remember the young associate pastor who trained me who had long hair to his ears. This was the 70’s when we went from crew cuts to long hair. My two sisters were members of the parish folk group which helped found and I would later join this group five years later. I remember at an early age that my father would ask to me if I wanted to be a priest. And responded are you nuts! No way! I did not know at that time a seed was planted by that question. My mother was a great example for prayers to my sisters and me. They both recognized that I had a calling to the priesthood. Which might have been hard for him because I was his only son who could keep his namesake going. This didn’t matter especially to my father.
When I was younger I did not like going to church. My father did a lot of overtime as a detective with NYPD. At times I would not see him in days. He always try to ge home on Sunday morning for Mass. It would be 15 minutes before Mass time, and it did not look like we were going to Mass. I would get excited about this and miraculously my father would come through the front door saying, “Get in the car!”
I did not see any growth from that seed until about the six grade. My little league coach was a seminarian for the Diocese of Rockville Centre. He would later be an associate for the diocese and later be a Maryknoll priest in Guatemala. He would leave the priesthood and get married and raise a family. But as my little league coach he would have us pray before and after each game. Another thing he would have us do, that I thought was so cool, our baseball fields were on the property of a nursing home called Holly Patterson and he would have us wheel some residents over to watch our games. One day I and a couple of my other friends helped him move him to his seminary in Huntington. When I met him when he was going to Cathedral College in Douglaston Queens and he would start at their main seminary in Huntington LI. From those years I wanted to be a priest. But I also wanted to be a kid and fun too!
My father put his 20 years in and retire from the NYPD. He became a professor with Adirondack Community College and started their Criminal Justice program. So we moved to Glen Falls area, Queensbury when I was in the eighth grade. At this time, I would enjoy visiting churches and taking pictures and collecting bulletins of church I visited for the first time. I still collect bulletins. Moving here was hard in a sense. We went to Our Lady of the Annunciation in Queensbury and my new parish was not as active as my Long Island parish. I attended St. Mary’s Academy in Glens Falls and had four great years made a lot of friends and I expressed to them that I wanted to be a priest. Not one of them made fun of me for this. They made fun of me for other things but never for my vocation! I remember that I would be sitting in the study hall in school, up to no good. I did not want to study or do homework. The principal would come in and say “O’Kane since your not doing anything productive help move in the new priest.” “Sure,” it got me out of the school! I would help move in the new associates by taking boxes from Father’s car up the long staircase to the third floor where the new Associates. I would move in and move out the associate priests of St. Mary’s into the rectory on Warren Street in Glens Falls.
Although I had a vocation, I also wanted to be a kid too and struggle with being worthy of being a priest. The things that my friends and I would do would not be the things future priests would do. I would graduate from high school and go to Adirondack Community College and later graduate from SUNY Plattsburgh. But never felt I was holy enough to be a priest. After college I tried to find work in NYC where my two sisters were living in Brooklyn. I spoke to a priest about priesthood, but they felt I was immature. So, I lack the confidence necessary to be a priest.
Although I was not ready, I had the desire for service. So, I moved back home and worked 11 years with Warren Washington ARC. I first worked in a group home called Wing House in Ft. Edward. I first worked in the Supportive Living Program helping higher functioning folks to learn the skills they needed to live in an apartment in the community. I was active in church, but I did not have the confidence for priesthood. Finally, I had to address these feelings for priesthood that would never go away so I discerned and joined a diocesan discernment support group for men who felt they had a calling. The group was facilitated by the Associate Pastor in Blessed Sacrament in Albany and our first meeting was held in his suite which ironically would be my suite ten years later when I was ordained to priesthood.
After four years of discernment, I finally got off the fence or the pot as my home pastor would say and applied to the priesthood. I was accepted and I would study one year at Becket Hall in Rochester and would be part of the history of our great friendship with Rochester. I did four years at Sacred Heat School of Theology in Hales Corners, Wisconsin, ten miles south from Milwaukee. I loved SHST but living in Milwaukee was interesting. I loved going to Bucks, Brewers and Marquette games but they call soda a pop and they were big on bratwurst. Being originally from the NYC area I always thought there here was a hot dog and a sausage and there was no in between. As seminarian I had summer assignments at Our Lady Victory Troy, Holy Trinity in Johnstown, Blessed Sacrament in Albany. I did my summer hospital chaplaincy at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester living at Becket Hall. I did my pastoral year, working a full year at St. James in Albany. This is one during 9/11 so I glad I was home during this time.
I was ordained by Bishop Hubbard in 2004 and was associate pastor at Blessed Sacrament in Albany before being assigned up here in Chestertown, North Creek and Hague and later Bolton Landing. I have been a priest for over 20 years and never regretted my decision.
I have done many things that I think I couldn’t do in my early days. I have been blessed and privileged to be able to help folks during the most important part of their lives. I must admit it has not been easy many obstacles, but the spirit has helped shepherding all you during your pains and joys of your lives. I do not regret any day that I am a priest. I am honored to be a priest during this time.
It is an interesting time to be a priest. When I was ordained, our church had stability and now we are going back to early apostles as we are creating that new identity and please think and pray for others who could join me and our priests as we create that brand new identity. In the weeks to come I’ll talk about my joys and challenges.
(click below for a downloadable copy)
The Vocation office asked the priests of our diocese to share their vocation story for the weekends of September. In October all will have a chance to participate in the Call by Name. We will have cards during this time, and we would write the name of men who we feel to have a vocation to the priesthood. We will have an estimate of only 54 active priests, in our diocese under the age of 69. We currently have 126 parishes. We have gone through a process of merging, closing and consolidating parishes to survive in the present. In our cluster alone we have closed St. Theresa in Brant Lake in 2008 and last year we closed St. Isaac Jogues-Blessed Sacrament in Hague which acted as a mission, seasonable church. And sadly, we will be closing St. James, North Creek in the end of October that has been a parish for 140 years opening its doors in 1884 having missions in Pottersville, Wevertown and Chestertown. Chestertown being the only church that remained open throughout the years.
We must do it because we just don’t have the priests. As of other churches in diocese that will be closing. We are currently bringing back the Called By Name Program. We did something similar 10 years ago and 30 years ago my name was chosen from that process 30 years ago. For those of you who don’t know that I am from Long Island, Uniondale in Southern Nassau County. This explains why I am a Mets, Jets, Islanders, Nets fan. My parish was St. Martha in Uniondale New York where I was baptized and received Holy Communion. The church was always an important part of my family life. My parents were born and raised in NYC children of Irish immigrants. My father was a New York City Police Detective and my mother a housewife. I was the youngest of three children. I had two older sisters. I had two cousins from Ireland who were priests who came to live in our country. One left the priesthood to get married and the other was a priest and worked many years at St. John University in Jamaica Queens before he passed.
I became an altar server at St. Martha’s and always remember the young associate pastor who trained me who had long hair to his ears. This was the 70’s when we went from crew cuts to long hair. My two sisters were members of the parish folk group which helped found and I would later join this group five years later. I remember at an early age that my father would ask to me if I wanted to be a priest. And responded are you nuts! No way! I did not know at that time a seed was planted by that question. My mother was a great example for prayers to my sisters and me. They both recognized that I had a calling to the priesthood. Which might have been hard for him because I was his only son who could keep his namesake going. This didn’t matter especially to my father.
When I was younger I did not like going to church. My father did a lot of overtime as a detective with NYPD. At times I would not see him in days. He always try to ge home on Sunday morning for Mass. It would be 15 minutes before Mass time, and it did not look like we were going to Mass. I would get excited about this and miraculously my father would come through the front door saying, “Get in the car!”
I did not see any growth from that seed until about the six grade. My little league coach was a seminarian for the Diocese of Rockville Centre. He would later be an associate for the diocese and later be a Maryknoll priest in Guatemala. He would leave the priesthood and get married and raise a family. But as my little league coach he would have us pray before and after each game. Another thing he would have us do, that I thought was so cool, our baseball fields were on the property of a nursing home called Holly Patterson and he would have us wheel some residents over to watch our games. One day I and a couple of my other friends helped him move him to his seminary in Huntington. When I met him when he was going to Cathedral College in Douglaston Queens and he would start at their main seminary in Huntington LI. From those years I wanted to be a priest. But I also wanted to be a kid and fun too!
My father put his 20 years in and retire from the NYPD. He became a professor with Adirondack Community College and started their Criminal Justice program. So we moved to Glen Falls area, Queensbury when I was in the eighth grade. At this time, I would enjoy visiting churches and taking pictures and collecting bulletins of church I visited for the first time. I still collect bulletins. Moving here was hard in a sense. We went to Our Lady of the Annunciation in Queensbury and my new parish was not as active as my Long Island parish. I attended St. Mary’s Academy in Glens Falls and had four great years made a lot of friends and I expressed to them that I wanted to be a priest. Not one of them made fun of me for this. They made fun of me for other things but never for my vocation! I remember that I would be sitting in the study hall in school, up to no good. I did not want to study or do homework. The principal would come in and say “O’Kane since your not doing anything productive help move in the new priest.” “Sure,” it got me out of the school! I would help move in the new associates by taking boxes from Father’s car up the long staircase to the third floor where the new Associates. I would move in and move out the associate priests of St. Mary’s into the rectory on Warren Street in Glens Falls.
Although I had a vocation, I also wanted to be a kid too and struggle with being worthy of being a priest. The things that my friends and I would do would not be the things future priests would do. I would graduate from high school and go to Adirondack Community College and later graduate from SUNY Plattsburgh. But never felt I was holy enough to be a priest. After college I tried to find work in NYC where my two sisters were living in Brooklyn. I spoke to a priest about priesthood, but they felt I was immature. So, I lack the confidence necessary to be a priest.
Although I was not ready, I had the desire for service. So, I moved back home and worked 11 years with Warren Washington ARC. I first worked in a group home called Wing House in Ft. Edward. I first worked in the Supportive Living Program helping higher functioning folks to learn the skills they needed to live in an apartment in the community. I was active in church, but I did not have the confidence for priesthood. Finally, I had to address these feelings for priesthood that would never go away so I discerned and joined a diocesan discernment support group for men who felt they had a calling. The group was facilitated by the Associate Pastor in Blessed Sacrament in Albany and our first meeting was held in his suite which ironically would be my suite ten years later when I was ordained to priesthood.
After four years of discernment, I finally got off the fence or the pot as my home pastor would say and applied to the priesthood. I was accepted and I would study one year at Becket Hall in Rochester and would be part of the history of our great friendship with Rochester. I did four years at Sacred Heat School of Theology in Hales Corners, Wisconsin, ten miles south from Milwaukee. I loved SHST but living in Milwaukee was interesting. I loved going to Bucks, Brewers and Marquette games but they call soda a pop and they were big on bratwurst. Being originally from the NYC area I always thought there here was a hot dog and a sausage and there was no in between. As seminarian I had summer assignments at Our Lady Victory Troy, Holy Trinity in Johnstown, Blessed Sacrament in Albany. I did my summer hospital chaplaincy at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester living at Becket Hall. I did my pastoral year, working a full year at St. James in Albany. This is one during 9/11 so I glad I was home during this time.
I was ordained by Bishop Hubbard in 2004 and was associate pastor at Blessed Sacrament in Albany before being assigned up here in Chestertown, North Creek and Hague and later Bolton Landing. I have been a priest for over 20 years and never regretted my decision.
I have done many things that I think I couldn’t do in my early days. I have been blessed and privileged to be able to help folks during the most important part of their lives. I must admit it has not been easy many obstacles, but the spirit has helped shepherding all you during your pains and joys of your lives. I do not regret any day that I am a priest. I am honored to be a priest during this time.
It is an interesting time to be a priest. When I was ordained, our church had stability and now we are going back to early apostles as we are creating that new identity and please think and pray for others who could join me and our priests as we create that brand new identity. In the weeks to come I’ll talk about my joys and challenges.
(click below for a downloadable copy)
| vocation_story.pdf |
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St. Isaac Jogues First Holy Communion God Bless Vaughn Swartz, Joey Raymond, Adrian Garcia and Scarlette Smith who received First Holy Communion on May 19th at the 9:00 am Mass (click on photo for more photos) |
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St. James 3 Baptisms and 1 First Holy Communion Savannah Utley, Colton & Cooper Jordan received the Sacrament of Baptism and Connor Briggs received his 1st Communion on Saturday, April 6th at the 5:30 pm Mass. (click on photo for more photos) |
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Re-Igniting our Faith Update
Blessed Sacrament: To date, we have updated our Sound System which cost $7,616. Currently we are replacing our aged Air Conditioners which will cost $51,000. We look forward to replacing the lighting in the Community room, shortly. Thanks to all who have made this happen. St. Isaac Joques: To date, we have updated our Sound System which cost $15,064. We have spent to date $109,460 on our stain glass windows Lastly, we replaced the steps to the entrance of the church for $14,850. Thanks to all who have made this happen. St. James: We replaced the furnace in the Church for $10,245. |
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CELEBRATING THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY
OF OUR SISTER CHURCH ST. ISAAC JOGUES, HAGUE What a magnificent milestone celebrating Hague’s 100th Anniversary. It is a beautiful testimony to our community to have so many clergy return for this celebration. I want to thank the Music Ministry from all 3 churches for the outstanding music. Thank you to the committee who helped pull it all together. Thank you to Hague’s sister churches for their support and prayers. And thank you to Fr. Joe Busch, our Episcopal Vicar, Fr. Tom Babiuch, Fr. Tom Curry, Fr. Matt Duclos, Fr. George Fleming, Fr. Steve Moore, Fr. Joe O’Brien, & Deacon Bob Wubbenhorst for joining us today. Shout out to Fr. Chris DeGiovine for joining us also. The Glory of God was felt by the congregation and parishioners from our sister churches who also participated in this amazing 100th Anniversary Mass. The fellowship following was absolutely amazing. |
(click photo for more pictures)
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Ministry
How can you be a Missionary of Christ?
We need volunteers!
Greeters, Eucharistic Ministers, Lectors...
For more information for St. James contact Ellen Schaefer 518-251-5451 or [email protected]
For St. Isaac Jogues contact Judi Gross 518-573-7616 or [email protected]
For Blessed Sacrament contact Anne Marie Bell 518-644-3051 or [email protected]
Or Anne Marie Sensese 518-240-6047 or [email protected]
How can you be a Missionary of Christ?
We need volunteers!
Greeters, Eucharistic Ministers, Lectors...
For more information for St. James contact Ellen Schaefer 518-251-5451 or [email protected]
For St. Isaac Jogues contact Judi Gross 518-573-7616 or [email protected]
For Blessed Sacrament contact Anne Marie Bell 518-644-3051 or [email protected]
Or Anne Marie Sensese 518-240-6047 or [email protected]
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