Church of the Good Shepherd

Church of the Good Shepherd was established in 1911 in Ballantyne Bridge, a hamlet in the Town of Henrietta south of Rochester. The parish was founded to serve the rural Catholic farming families scattered across southern Monroe County, at a time when Henrietta was still open farmland dotted with small settlements.

Monsignor Thomas F. Connors served as the founding pastor, and a modest church was constructed the same year the parish was established. Father Victor J. Hurley provided two decades of stability during his pastorate from 1919 to 1939, guiding the parish through the prosperous 1920s and the difficult Depression years.

Father George Vogt served the longest pastorate in the parish's history, leading Good Shepherd for 26 years from 1946 to 1972. His tenure coincided with Henrietta's transformation from rural farmland to suburban community, as families moved south from Rochester seeking affordable homes and good schools.

In later years, Good Shepherd experimented with co-pastorates and lay pastoral administrators—a model that became more common in the Diocese of Rochester as the number of ordained priests declined. The parish was served by several women administrators, including Susan Reed, Nancy DeRycke, Barbara Swiecki, and Sister Sheila Stevenson, RSM. The parish closed on October 21, 2019, after more than a century of service to the Henrietta community.