Dec 19, 2011

Our Lady Queen of Peace

Where: Our Lady Queen of Peace church, 3800 Ely Place SE, Washington, DC 20019.

When: Sunday, December 18th, 2011.

Web: The parish has no website.  This is its listing on parishes.org

We attended 10:30am Mass at this parish church in the Fort Dupont area of the city. A single priest celebrated Mass, aided by a deacon, 15 choiristers, 2-3 band members, 9 altar servers, and 4 eucharistic ministers.  This was one of the largest retinues we've seen at a regular Sunday Mass in the district.  The congregation of about 150 was exclusively black and trended older and female.

The Mass followed the standard rite.  Both the host and wine were offered for communion.  The priest gave communion to some infirm people in their seats before everyone else.  The deacon gave the homily - from a prepared text - that used various quotations from Scripture and Advent reading themes to remind us that God is always with us.  This, the deacon told us, was the meaning of Christmas.