St. Cecilia Church (St. Charles Lwanga Parish)

St. Cecilia Parish was established in 1921 and a parish school opened four years later. Enrollment at the grade school neared 1,000 by the end of the 1920s. The current church is dated to 1929.

 

The high school closed in 1967 and the building was converted into a neighborhood recreation center called "Ceciliaville." Professional basketball players such as Magic Johnson, Chris Webber, and others played at Ceciliaville as teenagers.

In 1968, then-pastor Fr. Raymond Ellis commissioned a new fresco in the apse to reflect the parish's demographics. Devon Cunningham, parishioner and artist, painted the apse in one summer and continues to worship at St. Cecilia. Portraits of former pastors and other influential figures appear at the feet of Jesus.


As you may imagine, many people took notice of the change for better or worse. The mural received national attention and was featured on the cover of Ebony Magazine in 1969.

The Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Blessed Mother to the right of the main altar.

 

 
A portrait of the parish's sixth pastor, Msgr. Thomas Finnigan, hangs in the vestibule near the baptismal font.

 

Much of the communion rail is still intact.

The parish elementary school eventually closed in 2010.

St. Cecilia Church is located on Livernois Ave., a few blocks north of I-96, in northwest Detroit. Last year, St. Cecilia merged with St. Leo to form St. Charles Lwanga Parish. Both locations continue to celebrate weekly Mass. 

Fr. Theodore Parker is the current pastor while Douglas Jackson serves as permanent deacon.
 
Confessions are heard Saturdays, 4:00pm-6:00pm (please call ahead). The parish does morning prayer on Sundays, in the rectory, at 6:00am. Sunday Mass is at 8:30am and 10:00am. The parish celebrates daily Mass as announced.

For more about the parish, call the rectory at 313-933-678
For more about the school: IHM Sisters

History of the Ceciliaville rec center: USA Today

News articles about the church: Detroit Free Press, Washington Post

St. Peter Claver (formerly Precious Blood)

Precious Blood Parish was established in 1929, near McNichols and Schaefer, in northwest Detroit. The current church was designed by the firm of Maguolo & Quick and built in the early 1950s. The exterior columns are made of granite while walls are composed of sandstone.

An inscription outside the main entrance quotes Genesis 28:17b "this is nothing else but the house of God, the gateway to heaven."


Excerpts from the gospel are found on the walls of the nave.

The tabernacle is located in a chapel on the west side of the church.

Above one doorway is an inscription that translates as "this place is holy" and also shows Cardinal Mooney's coat of arms.

A mural depicting the Holy Trinity adorns the apse.

Bishop Moses Anderson, the first and only African-American bishop in the AOD, was consecrated as bishop in 1983. In addition to his duties of auxiliary bishop, overseeing parishes in the Central Region, he also served as pastor of Precious Blood 1992-2001. He later retired in 2003 when he reached the age of 75 and died January 1, 2013.

In 2005, Precious Blood merged with St. Francis de Sales to form St. Peter Claver Parish. The Precious Blood location is the primary location though the "annex" location at St. Francis de Sales is often used.


Sunday Mass is at 10:00am, Easter-Advent, at the former Precious Blood. During the winter, Mass is held at the much smaller St. Francis de Sales to lower utility expenses.


A prayer group frequently gathers in the church at 11:00am on Saturdays.

Fr. James O'Reilly, SJ, is the current pastor of St. Peter Claver as well as counselor at Loyola High School.

For more photos: Flickr
For more about the parish: parish website & bulletin archive

For more about Bishop Anderson: Detroit Free Press

St. Mary's of Redford

St. Mary's of Redford was established in 1843 as a mission parish to serve what was, at the time, a rural area. For the first decade, the parish was led by visiting priests and it was not until 1857 that the parish had a full-time pastor. The original church and rectory were destroyed by fire, on separate occasions, in 1857 and both cases were believed to be arson. A second church was built in 1860.

The second church. source

A parish school was finished in 1920 and staffed by IHM Sisters. The parish grew rapidly during the 1920s and they sought to build a larger church. The pastor reached out to architect Albert Kahn but Kahn declined and referred the pastor to Ralph Adams Cram. Cram accepted the offer and he later went on to design St. Florian Church.

Groundbreaking took place on May 1, 1925 with construction done by the firm of Talbot-Meier. The granite church was dedicated by Bishops Plagens on October 12, 1927.

St. Mary's continued to grow to the point that the parish started additional chapels in the 1950s. These two chapels eventually became separate parishes and later closed in 1989: Mother of Our Savior (1959 - 1989) and Our Lady Queen of Hope (1965 - 1989), respectively.

Madonna with Child stands in the ambulatory. The altar table appears to be repurposed from the original communion rail since it matches size, shape, and style of those remaining at the side altars.

Elaborate, gothic-inspired side altars dedicated to Mary and Joseph. This gilded, gothic-inspired style is similar to the high altar at St. Florian.

The tabernacle is located in the east transept at the Sacred Heart altar.

Elaborate windows, depicting Jesus and the Blessed Mother, are found on the east side of the nave and above the choir loft.

Bright, pastel windows are found in the clerestory.

In the west side of the nave, depictions of saints are found along alcoves.

Symbols of the four evangelists are found in the vestibule.

Daily Mass is held in a side chapel on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday at 8:30am.

Saturday Vigil Mass is 4:00pm preceded by confession at 3:15pm. Sunday Mass is at 8:30am  (no choir) and 11:00am (with choir). Fr. Tyrone Robinson is the current pastor as well as Vicar for the Trinity Vicariate.

Parish website (including detailed history): St. Mary's of Redford
History of the school: IHM Sisters
For more photos: Flickr & AOD Film Services