Located on Vanderbilt Avenue in Fort Greene, Queen of All Saints is one of the most historic churches in the diocese.

Designed in a Gothic structure modeled after Sainte Chappelle in Paris, with a soaring interior space and towering stone columns, 14 great windows line the east and west walls. The church contains 260 subjects from the Old and New Testament, beginning with Creation and ending with the life of Christ and his Apostles. This unique church was dedicated in November, 1913. The parish recently celebrated the 100th anniversary of the dedication of the church with a Mass celebrated by Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio.

Today the neighborhoods of Fort Greene and Clinton Hill, which comprise the parish, make for one uniquely diverse and harmonious community. That diversity, richness and unity is also reflected and experienced in the Queen of All Saints congregation.

“The parish is blessed with many established, long-time parishioners as well as many newcomers seen in the large number of young singles, couples and young families, and it is continually growing,” said Father Joseph Ceriello, pastor.

As with many historic structures, the parish and church needed significant repairs and had deferred maintenance needs. The electrical system in the church needed to rewired, the roof warranted repairs and the rectory required repointing. Additionally, just three days before Christmas, parishioners were shocked when the historic “great organ” broke down and required emergency repairs to ensure it would be ready in time for Christmas Mass.

When Father Ceriello first learned of the Generations of Faith campaign, he saw it as an opportunity to address these needs and complete restorations to the historic worship site. The parish leadership decided to combine its own campaign with the Generations of Faith campaign, and launched its effort during the late spring. To date, Queen of All Saints has raised almost $1,000,000 from generous parishioners, almost tripling its goal of $330,000.

“The response from our parishioners to the campaign has been tremendous,” Father Ceriello said.

“Through one-on-one conversations with parishioners, the campaign committee and I were able to explain the great need to pass on the legacy of what we have received from previous generations and ensure that we are a strong faith-filled community for many years to come, as a diocese and also as a parish. This really has been a story of love for the Church and for the parish very much in the spirit of those who sacrificed so much to build the church over 100 years ago. The goodness and generosity of so many parishioners is a daily inspiration to me.”

With the funds raised, the parish plans to address roofing repairs; to install safer, more efficient and effective lighting in the church; to add a second restroom in the lower church; a confessional in the church and restore the church organ, in addition to putting the parish on more solid financial footing now and in the years to come.