St. Joseph's Church (Seattle)

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St. Joseph's Church
Seattle - St. Joseph's 09.jpg
The church's exterior, 2012
St. Joseph's Church (Seattle)
St. Joseph's Church
47°37′34″N122°18′29″W / 47.626124°N 122.308152°W / 47.626124; -122.308152
Location732 18th Ave E
Seattle, Washington
Denomination Catholic
Religious order Society of Jesus
Website Official website OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
History
DedicatedApril 21, 1907 (1907-04-21)
Architecture
Heritage designationSeattle Landmark
DesignatedMarch 31, 1980 [1]
Architect A.H. Albertson
Architectural type Art deco
Years built1930 (1930)
Administration
Archdiocese Seattle
Deanery South Seattle

St. Joseph's Church is a Catholic church in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle, in the U.S. state of Washington. It is part of St. Joseph's Parish, within the Archdiocese of Seattle and is a ministry of the West Province of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). [2] It has been designated a city landmark by the Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board. [1]

Contents

History

St. Joseph's Parish was established in 1907 with Alexander Diomedi, S.J. as the founding pastor. Early parishioners were predominantly working-class second generation Irish Americans. In the 1920s, a new church building, a granite-faced Gothic church was planned but scaled back due to the Great Depression. The current building was dedicated in 1930. The church removed its statues in 1965 in the spirit of Vatican II and developed an increasingly social justice oriented character. [3]

St. Patrick's Parish in Portage Bay was merged into St. Joseph's in 2022. In 2024, as part of the Archdiocesan "Partners in the Gospel" merge plan, St. Joseph's was partnered with St. Therese Parish in Madrona. The parishes intend to merge by the end of the 2020s. [4]

LGBTQ ministry

Under the leadership of Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen, priests in Seattle have historically been accepting of lesbian and gay Catholics. St. Joseph's Parish is located in Seattle's gay neighborhood and has been at the center of this support. In 1983, Hunthausen hosted a DignityUSA conference at nearby St. James Cathedral. Dignity is a group that advocates for change in the Catholic Church's stance on homosexuality. [5] Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, St. Joseph's Church hosted the Seattle chapter of Dignity and celebrated a weekly LGBTQ mass. This ended in 2001 due to pressure from the archdiocese. [6] Although Dignity is no longer active in the parish, St. Joseph's has an active LGBTQ ministry, aiming to provide an inclusive and supportive community for LGBTQ parishioners and the neighborhood. [7]

References

  1. 1 2 "St. Joseph's Church" (PDF). Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board . Retrieved May 17, 2023.
  2. ↑ "Who We Are". St Joseph Parish. Retrieved January 30, 2026.
  3. ↑ Murakami, Kery (April 23, 2007). "St. in 2007 Joseph's celebrated 100 years of change on Capitol Hill". Seattle Post-Intelligencer .
  4. ↑ "Final Parish Families" (PDF). Seattle, WA: Archdiocese of Seattle. February 4, 2024.
  5. ↑ McKenna, Kevin; Aguirre, Michael (2016). "A brief history of LGBTQ Activism in Seattle". The Seattle Civil Rights & Labor History Project. Seattle, WA: University of Washington.
  6. ↑ "Gay Catholic Group Dignity/Seattle to Leave St. Joseph Catholic Church After 21 Years". DignityUSA. October 1, 2001.
  7. ↑ "LGBT Ministry". St. Joseph Parish. Retrieved February 3, 2026.
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