CENTURY OF FAITH

East Greenbush parish celebrates 100-year milestone

Bishop Edward B. Scharfenberger (c.) stands between Father Quy Vo, pastor of the Church of the Holy Spirit, (l.) and Father John Bradley at Holy Spirit’s Pentecost Mass this May. The day concluded a yearlong celebration of the parish’s 100-year anniversary. (Provided photo)

The Church of the Holy Spirit in East Greenbush celebrated its centennial anniversary on May 28, 2023. The history of the parish began in 1922 when local Catholics Anna Mae Reehl and John Doran took a petition with 50 signatures to Bishop Edmund F. Gibbons requesting the formation of a parish in the town of East Greenbush. Thanks to the blessing of Bishop Gibbons, the parish was established and work began on a church building shortly after. The groundbreaking ceremony for the original church began on May 1, 1923, and the newly built church was ready for Easter Mass in 1924. 

By the 1950s, the parish had grown so much that they wished to have a school. By 1961, they were able to set the cornerstone for Holy Spirit School to get the mission underway. The following year the school opened with 140 students and five sisters from the Franciscan Missionaries of the Divine Motherhood in Surrey, England. Through the 1970s and ’80s, the parish outgrew its church and Masses had to be held in the school’s gym due to the sheer number of families in attendance. By this time, it had become apparent to everyone at the parish that major renovations would be needed to accommodate the growth. In 1987, the parishioners formed a committee and set up a building fund with the goal of raising $1 million for a new addition to the church. By the spring of 1992, the new addition to the church was complete and Masses were once again celebrated in the church.

Since 1992, many things have changed at Holy Spirit Church. In 2000, a major addition at the school added a middle-school wing and library. In 2004, Deacon Bill Dringus brought intergenerational, lifelong faith formation to the parish, and parishioners were invited to “Live in Faith Together.” More recently, COVID brought many changes to the parish, including livestreaming Masses and other efforts to leverage technology to keep people together while circumstances would not allow them otherwise. Finally, emerging from the pandemic, the centennial celebration became a fixture in the life of the parish. The yearlong celebration began in 2022 and concluded with a special Pentecost Mass concelebrated by Bishop Edward B. Scharfenberger and Father Quy Vo followed by a luncheon after Mass. 

As we look forward to the next 100 years, we are working to fund­raise for an organ for our parish. This organ will set a new standard of beauty in our worship as well as dramatically enhance the spiritual nature of our liturgy. For more information on our organ fundraising project, please visit our site at www.hsceg.org. 

Justin Hollingshead is communications coordinator for the Church of the Holy Spirit.