WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES JANUARY 23, 2020 27
Sunnyside church to close in February
BY MAX PARROTT
MPARROTT@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@QNS
Aft er the congregation of Sunnyside’s All Saints’
Church dwindled to about 20 members, the
Episcopal Diocese of Long Island announced
that it will close the church as a parish congregation
on Feb. 23.
The ministries in Sunnyside and Long Island City
have been running since 1928. The diocese said that
it would examine how to continue to serving western
Queens, but given the size of All Saints’ current
congregation, which shrunk from 100 members in
1998, it can no longer aff ord to maintain the property
or support staff salaries.
The diocese has no plans to sell the property, located
at 43-12 46th St., and it will continue to use the
church building for at least a year.
“Our diocesan director of real estate, Haiko
Cornelissen, will be handling rental and lease arrangements.
The head of our Congregational Support
Offi ce, Canon Claire Woodley, will continue to
provide consultation as she has regarding All Saints’
during the last 18 months. The priest-in-charge, the
Rev. Gabe Lamazares, will be moving to North Carolina,”
said Rev. Lawrence Provenzano, the bishop of
the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island.
One of the church’s tenants is the Amazing Magic
Beans, a pre-school, which will remain open until the
end of summer, at least. It also functions as a space
for music lessons, an annual strawberry festival and
meetings for community groups.
Architecturally the church’s brick facade and Aframe
pops out among the surrounding tenement
buildings. Inside wooden raft er crisscross along
sanctuary lined with stained glass.
All Saints’ Church in Sunnyside. Photo courtesy of Google Maps
“It’s a beautiful structure. It’s a beautiful place
to attend service and they’ve done a lot for the
community,” said Rob MacKay, director of tourism
at the Queens EDC. “I’ve been through church
closings in Queens neighborhood before, and it’s
kind of like a death in the family. But it’s also like
what does it say about a community that a church
is going away?”
Congregation Tifereth Israel receives a $10K grant
BY BILL PARRY
BPARRY@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@QNS
The oldest surviving synagogue
in Queens was selected for a
Sacred SiteGrant by The New
York Landmarks Conservancy.
Congregation Tifereth Israel in
Corona was one of 22 grants awarded
to historic religious properties
throughout New York state.
The synagogue was founded by
Ashkenazi Jews who had moved to
Queens from the Lower East Side
in 1911.
The building was modeled after
the narrow tenement temples with
eclectic decoration of the tripartite
front facade that incorporates typical
elements of synagogue architecture
in the late 19th and early 20th
century: Gothic arched windows, a
stained glass window with a Star of
David motif and a central roof pediment
on corbel brackets.
Congregation Tifereth Israel will
receive a $10,000 grant to help fund
perimeter waterproofing.
The Sacred Sites Program
provides congregations with
matching grants for planning and
implementing exterior restoration
projects, technical assistance, and
workshops.
Since 1986, the program has
pledged nearly 1,500 grants totaling
more than $11.1 million to 805
religious institutions statewide.
“We are very pleased to be able to
assist another diverse group of religious
institutions,” The New York
Landmarks Conservancy President
Peg Breen said. “Aside from
architectural merit, each one is an
important community anchor.”
As Corona began to change in the
1960s and the Ashkenazi began to
move away Bukharan Jewish immigrants
from the former Soviet Union
replaced them in the congregation.
Currently, Congregation Tifereth
Israel reaches about 500 people a
year through life-cycle events and
other programming.
The building, located at 109-20
54th Ave., received city landmark
status in 2008.
Congregation Tifereth Israel was selected for a sacred sites grant.
Courtesy The New York Landmarks Conservancy
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