Our Ministries

Circle of Friends

Offers afternoon activities for all who wish to join in fellowship and engage in fun and informative programs.

New Parishioners Welcome Committee

Are you passionate about your parish?
Would you enjoy informing new parishioners about our spiritual, community, and educational programs?
Can you spend at least an hour or so each month calling a new member or meeting with them in person?

If so, the New Parishioner Welcoming Committee would be an excellent opportunity for you to serve your parish community and enjoy the experience of meeting new members of our church.

Adult Faith Formation

Our adult faith formation courses, workshops, and lectures seek to create a space for exploration, reflection, and dialogue on spiritual, theological, and biblical topics. Together, we hope to move toward maturity of faith, understanding of our tradition, wholeness and healing in our lives, and deeper friendship with God. Themes we have studied include women of the Bible, difficult scripture passages, the book of Revelation, the spirituality of chronic pain, the spirituality of imperfection, forgiveness, caring for the caregiver, befriending the life not chosen, among many others.

Altar Servers

Altar servers help the entire community in their prayer and worship of God by assisting the priest at Mass. The care and attention altar servers show to their ministry add to the reverence and beauty of our liturgies. An Altar Server must be 12 years old or in 7th grade.

Canticum Sacrum

Canticum Sacrum is a choir of intermediate to advanced level adult avocational singers with the goal of enriching shared musical understanding and growth. We are a 16-20 member chamber chorus that ministers weekly to the Sunday evening 7:30 PM Mass in a blend of classical and contemporary styles.

Centering Prayer

St. Ignatius Loyola hosts a Centering Prayer group that offers an opportunity to learn and practice this form of prayer. This group meets every Monday at 6:30 PM (except in July and August) in the Parish House. Beginners as well as advanced practitioners are welcome.

Children’s Liturgy Of The Word

Children at the Sunday 9:30 AM Mass process into the Lady Chapel to hear the readings of the Liturgy of the Word and participate in understanding their meaning.

Emmaus Bereavement Ministry

The Emmaus Group of St. Ignatius Loyola offers a safe environment, enriched by our faith, where we meet to share our sorrow, our stories, and our victories over sadness. As a community of faith, we find comfort in the promise of Jesus to be with us always.

Family Ministry

The Family Ministry’s mission is to strengthen our faith community through participation in the sacraments, prayer, special events and service. Our activities include our family mass, educational projects, social events and community service opportunities for our families with children of all ages.

Meeting Christ in Prayer

We welcome you to the profound spiritual journey that our patron saint, St. Ignatius Loyola, experienced and shared over 500 years ago in the form of his "Spiritual Exercises."

Meeting Christ in Prayer is one of various adaptations of the Spiritual Exercises. Equally valuable for beginners and experienced retreatants, we strongly recommend it before undertaking the one-on-one version of the Spiritual Exercises known as the 19th Annotation.

Ignatian Interfaith Ministry

Ignatian Interfaith Ministry’s mission is to promote dialogue through greater knowledge and understanding of the world’s faiths.

We seek to further its mission by fostering partnerships, and ultimately individual relationships, with houses of worship on the Upper East Side as well as leaders in their respective faiths.

Ignatian Volunteer Corps

The Ignatian Volunteer Corps provides semi-retired and retired adults age 50 and over with the opportunity to volunteer two days a week from mid-September through mid-June. 

Ignatian Young Adults

St. Ignatius Loyola Young Adults is a community for 20 to 30-year-olds who seek companionship and conversation to deepen their Ignatian spirituality, to find God in all things.

Lay Ministers’ Enrichment

LME is a ministry that organizes days of spiritual enrichment for the entire parish community. LME programs offer parishioners and guests time to pray together, learn together, get to know each other, and deepen the faith of the parish community.

LGBT Catholics and Friends

We are a group of LGBT parishioners and family and friends (and parents) of LGBT persons. We are a parish ministry of, by and for our lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender sisters and brothers in Christ and those who love and support them. Our ministry extends to, and embraces, the mission of the entire parish, our home.

Ministry of Care to the Sick and Homebound

The face of each person who suffers is a face of Christ. One of the deepest causes of suffering experienced by those whom sickness or aging afflicts is a sense of isolation from the faith community. Because we are members of the Body of Christ, it is Christ who is present to us in our suffering, particularly through our Ministers of Care.  

Retreats

In 1521 Ignatius was gravely wounded in a battle with the French. While recuperating, Ignatius Loyola experienced a conversion. Reading the lives of Jesus and the saints made Ignatius happy and aroused desires to do great things. Ignatius realized that these feelings were clues to God’s direction for him.

Self-Help Groups

St. Ignatius Loyola has hosted many twelve-step programs weekly. Below is a listing of groups that we are currently hosting.

Spiritual Direction

As a Jesuit Parish, St, Ignatius Loyola offers the Ministry of Individual Spiritual Direction to those wishing to deepen their relationship with God and their experience of prayer. 

Eucharistic Ministers

Eucharist allows us to participate more deeply in the Paschal Mystery, the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, inviting us to conform our lives to Christ’s. Just as Christ gave himself on the cross to save humanity from sin, we, as Eucharistic Ministers give generously of ourselves to serve all those who come to the table of God’s love.

Ignatian Social Justice

Ignatian Social Justice (ISJ) is a ministry of the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola made up of parishioners committed to raising awareness of current Catholic social teaching and advocating for social justice on timely and underappreciated issues. The volunteer group embraces the responsibility to inform, engage, and mobilize parishioners to promote social justice in our local community as well as global community.

Lectors

It is through the Lector that the living Word of God becomes present in the midst of the community gathered for worship. By their reverence in proclaiming the Scriptures, they nourish us through God's living Word, who consoles and challenges us each time we dare to listen.

Ministers of Hospitality

Christian hospitality draws people together, opens them to participation, and sets the tone for the liturgy. Ministers of Hospitality are the welcoming faces that greet parishioners and visitors to St. Ignatius Loyola as they enter the church for Masses of Concerts.

Parish Community Choir

Our Parish Community Choir shares a deep love of God and each other and finds joy in expressing that love through great choral music. Bringing together spirituality and the arts has continued to be a nourishing source of joy and comfort to our members and the wider St. Ignatius community in both good and challenging times.

Choir of St. Ignatius Loyola

Hailed by The New York Times as “a finely polished, stylistically nimble ensemble,” the Choir of St. Ignatius Loyola is comprised of New York’s finest professional singers. The core group of 19 members sings a demanding schedule of weekly parish worship services in a wide range of repertoire, with particular emphasis on new works, the sacred Renaissance repertoire, and Gregorian chant.

Parish Women’s Faith Group

Our group is composed of women who want to deepen their experience of God’s presence in their lives. Our meetings are characterized by a willingness to share experiences and insights in an atmosphere of discovery and respect.

Ranger Rosary

Ranger Rosary serves deployed members of our Armed Services. We make rosaries by hand and since August 2009, our group has made over 21,000 rosaries for servicewomen and servicemen.

Rite Of Christian Initiation Of Adults (RCIA)

The Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) is the ordinary way the Church reaches out to adults who inquire into the Catholic faith. Since the beginning of the Church, adults have been welcomed into the Church through baptism after a period of instruction, prayer, and reflection.

Society of St. Vincent de Paul

The St. Lawrence O’Toole Conference of the St. Vincent de Paul Society is one of the oldest SVdP Conferences in the United States. Our Conference has been active since it was formed in December of 1865 (only thirty-two years after the original Society of Saint Vincent de Paul was founded in France).

The Children’s Choirs

Participants in the Children’s Choirs rehearse weekly during the school year, and participate in Sunday liturgies, the Christmas Eve Family Mass, the annual Christmas Concerts and the spring Sing and Celebrate! concert

Wallace Hall Choir & Orchestra

The Wallace Hall Choir & Orchestra ministers to the weekly 11 AM Family Mass at the Church St. Ignatius Loyola. This ensemble features our avocational, volunteer singers and instrumentalists in musical styles that range from classical, contemporary classical, pop, folk, and gospel in weekly Masses and yearly concerts.

Youth Ministry

Through Youth Ministry at St. Ignatius Loyola, the youth of our parish are called to love God, serve others, and be themselves.