SCHENECTADY & AMSTERDAM — While the parishioners at St. Mary’s Church in Amsterdam may be pleased with the news that a new pastor will be arriving next week, not so the parishioners at St. Anthony’s Church in Schenectady, who are losing him.

“We are saddened because of his leaving and it will take a particular process to allow people to regain confidence and comfort after losing him,” said Ron McClosky, a member of St. Anthony’s Parish Council, who said the Rev. John Medwid was a beloved parish leader.

The Albany Roman Catholic Diocese has not announced who will replace Medwid, who is to officially take over as the pastor at St. Mary’s Church in Amsterdam on Monday.

The St. Anthony’s Parish Council is expected to meet Monday with a representative of the Albany Diocese to discuss the situation, McClosky said.

“As it stands right now, we don’t know who the replacement will be,” McClosky said.

The parishioners at St. Mary’s in Amsterdam lost their pastor of 27 years, the Rev. James Gulley, at the beginning of the month when he retired, and had been in limbo for weeks without a permanent replacement being named.

It was announced Sunday that Medwid, who has served at St. Anthony’s Church for the last 12 years, would take over.

Medwid, 47, is an Amsterdam native and a graduate of Bishop Scully High School. Medwid’s mother still lives in the area and attends Mass every day at St. Mary’s.

Medwid also speaks Spanish, a bonus in an area with a large Hispanic population and a church with a growing number of Spanish-speaking parishioners.

St. Anthony’s has also seen a growing number of Spanish-speaking parishioners, according to McClosky.

Currently, over 900 families attend St. Anthony’s Church. The parish is closely linked with St. John the Evangelist Church a few blocks away, which serves over 2,000 families.

Medwid and the Rev. Richard Carlino, the pastor at St. John the Evangelist, administered to their own parishes along with St. Mary’s Church on Eastern Avenue, Carlino said.

“Now, I’m the only one left,” Carlino said.

Through the Albany Diocese’s two-year initiative, “Called to Be Church,” which is looking at various churches throughout the diocese in the wake of changing demographics and a shortage of priests, members of St. John the Evangelist, St. Anthony’s, St. Mary’s and St. John the Baptist churches recommended that regular Mass at St. Mary’s be discontinued, but that the building remain open for religious education and special events.

Bishop Howard Hubbard announced last week that a 24-member Pastoral Planning Review Committee was set up to review the recommendations of the 39 pastoral planning committees throughout the Albany Diocese.

Bishop Hubbard intends to make a decision regarding the various recommendations by January.

McClosky said he thinks St. Anthony’s parishioners are anxious about the future, but the change will only help bring the parish community closer.

“We are a family and when the family loses the head of its family, the family comes together and bonds even more,” McClosky said.