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Due to the consolidation of local television stations WXXA-Fox 23 and WTEN-Channel 10, the Albany Diocese's weekly "Table of the Lord" televised Masses are now being filmed at Immaculate Heart of Mary parish in Watervliet.

The production had been recorded at Fox 23's Albany studio in recent years, but the stations are now using WTEN's studio in Albany, which cannot accommodate "Table of the Lord."

The televised Mass has been broadcast on various local channels since 1967. It was previously produced by the diocesan Media Office, which closed in 2002, then by WTEN and Fox 23.

Time Warner, the largest cable TV provider in the Capital Region, has rebroadcast the show since 2004.

With the changes at Fox and WTEN, the current diocesan Communications Office decided to switch to an independent production company and find a parish to host the biweekly recording sessions, as it had done in the past.

Rev. L. Edward Deimeke, pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary, eagerly volunteered his parish's sanctuary. Immaculate Heart of Mary is the result of a 2005 merger of six Watervliet and Green Island parishes into one; the former Immaculate Conception Church was renovated to become the parish's current worship site.

"We were very happy to have [the Mass tapings] here," Father Deimeke said. "We thought it would give us some good publicity. Everybody's excited about it."

The Watervliet parish has supported the sale of one of its former worship sites, the closed St. Patrick's Church, to the Nigro Companies, which is now demolishing the church to build a supermarket and commercial buildings, despite strong opposition by some community members and former parishioners.

Being chosen for "Table of the Lord" is confirmation that the newly-renovated Immaculate Heart of Mary site is "clean, modern [and] conducive to full participation," Father Deimeke said.

"They wouldn't have chosen us had they not thought quite highly of our worship site," he explained. "The exposure that it's going to give us is going to do nothing but help us."

Two Masses are taped back-to-back at each taping. Kenneth Goldfarb, diocesan communications director, noted that the Watervliet parish staff "have been just incredibly welcoming to us [and] unbelievably cooperative in helping us make it work."

Hosting a television production involves a lot of behind-the-scenes accommodations, like reorienting the usual configuration of the organ and ambos and prematurely switching seasonal décor, but Father Deimeke called this "minimal work."

"Table of the Lord" airs Sundays on Fox 23 at 6:30 a.m. and Time Warner Cable Ch. 18 at 9 a.m. in the greater Capital Region and at noon for the City of Albany. For a complete listing, see the calendar on page 21. The diocesan Office of Prayer and Worship plans the liturgies and finds celebrants, congregants and lay ministers.[[In-content Ad]]

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