The Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd – 1/17/2010
January 12, 2010 by George · 8 Comments 
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The Holy Apostles will be visiting
The Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd
Sunday 1/17/2010
10:30AM - Holy Eucharist
96 Jewett Parkway
Buffalo , New York 14214
(716) 833-1151
Visit them at: http://www.goodshepherdbuf.org/
About George
Today we visited Church of the Good Shepherd. It’s been many years since I’ve visited and the church is still as beautiful as I remember. The Tiffany stained glass is magnificent and fits wonderfully into the simple but elegant design of their chapel. You can see some beautiful pictures and read a good history of the church by visiting their website.
I want to start off by mentioning that the pews at Good Shepherd are without a doubt, the most comfortable I can ever remember. Nice and Cushy for the Tushy. There were around 50 people in attendance including the clergy, choir and our group of eight. At first the service seemed a little disorganized, but it must be mentioned that they are currently in somewhat of a transition as they search for a new minister. Once things got rolling, the wonderful choir and pianist provided a joyous selection of music and The Reverend Charles Deacon led us the rest of the way, through the short Homily and Eucharist.
We joined their congregation for coffee after the service and they were very friendly and welcoming. We met some wonderful people at Good Shepherd and they expressed their hope in the future of their church, and left us with a very positive impression.
May God bless them, and guide them, as they search for a new minister.
P.S. I feel bad that I forgot to sign the Guestbook. I had planned to on the way out, but after coffee we didn’t exit through the narthex.
The Church of the Good Shepherd is a beautiful church that’s seen better days…much better. I was surprised as I looked over the congregation and saw only one familiar face when I was expecting to see many. The families with young children are gone. The vibrancy this church once had is no longer visible. Only one parishioner asked that we join the congregation at coffee hour and only because he knew one of us. Otherwise, I think we would have gone for coffee without an invitation or just left….left without meeting some of the more friendly parishioners.
The Church of the Good Shepherd is vital to Parkside and so much a part of that community. The spaghetti dinners vanished along with the strawberry festivals and other community get-togethers although it did sponsor a holloween party for the little ones this past October. It’s been without a rector for nearly two years now and unfortunately, it’s affecting the congregation and not in a good way.
This beautiful little church in the Parkside community of Buffalo, needs a new rector who will bring life back into the church, and children, and more young families.
I truely hope it happens soon…..really, really soon.
A few thoughts.
I’m wondering if anyone from Good Shepherd has been hear to read the reviews of our visit. If so, why not post a response? Let us know if what we say here is accurate or are we way off base. Give us your insite as to why it’s taking so long to replace the Rev. David Selzer. It must be tough on the parishioners to go two years, and counting, without a leader…someone they know is in charge and taking care of business. But then again, maybe it’s not. What do I know? I’ve never gone that long without a rector.
And then there’s the overwhelming pressure on the members of the search committee whose charge it is to find the “perfect” rector. There isn’t a church going that doesn’t. For this reason, I have no doubt that certain members of the congregation feel they MUST offer their good advice when it comes to who they should hire or shouldn’t hire. THAT I have been through.
I wish The Church of the Good Shepherd good luck. They deserve the best. It’s a community oriented church with parishioners that are tough when the going gets tough…this I know too.
I’m a parishioner at Good Shepherd and would like to say that we were really happy to have your group at our service last week! I’m also on the Discernment Committee and can say that we’re deep in the search process. It seems like this is taking a very long time (17 months so far), but the Deployment Office assures us that we’re doing it right , especially since David Selzer was so loved and had a long tenure with us. They were actually concerned that we were moving too fast at one point, but time committments at Thanksgiving and Christmas slowed us up a bit. To answer another post, although we haven’t put on a Spaghetti Dinner in several years, our annual Strawberry Festival continues every June and is a great event, rain or shine. Good Shepherd continues to host many events for the Parkside Community Association and provides meeting space for Festival Ballet, North Buffalo AA, City Strings, Girl Scouts and Eagle Ridge Kennel Dog Obedience Training. It’s a great place and we are working to build our attendance back up (unfortunately, it often declines during an interim period).
We hope you visit again and wish you the very best in your own discernment process!
Thanks for stopping by our site to offer a response to our posts and comments. It’s fortunate that you are able to have been given enough time to find a new Rector. Our group from Holy Apostles was hoping to have at least two years to grow our plant, but without any financial reserves or ongoing support and guidance from the Diocese, we were abandoned.
The Holy Apostles have been flourishing as we visit and share fellowship with other congregations. We still meet twice weekly and are determined to share our story to, hopefully, create a more open dialogue throughout the Diocese, as to the future of our churches. Most of our congregations are facing similar problems with declining ASA and the resulting financial burdens of maintaining staff and buildings. It would be nice for our new Bishop to be welcomed by
to welcome a new Bishop next year and show hima determined group of folks that are working together to rebuild and reorganize our resources.Thanks again for visiting and helping to spread the Good News!
This was my first time inside Good Shepherd’s and I was delighted to be there.
The main part of the church and the Children’s chapel are so very beautiful and in their beauty I found them to be inspiring. Within the service I enjoyed the extra time taken to name special people and places for prayers. I liked that Father Deacon presented the thought that it was significant that Jesus chose to perform his miracle with the wine in a somewhat private way,at a wedding celebration in front of the servants. He akined that to Jesus being there for all of us, at any time with plenty. It was delightful to have a choir and a pianist accompany our worship.
The worship guide, being new to the church, was somewhat difficult to follow and, in order to pay attention to the service, I gave up on it early on. I have noticed this to be the case in several other churches too. I guess I am completely spoiled by the worship guide from Holy Apostles. It was printed on larger size paper, using large print and it contained most of the service, music and the directions for standing, sitting, etc within it.
I especially liked when Father Deacon ended the morning of prayer by saying that the celebration is over and now the service begins.
The undercroft of this church is very large and very intersting with all it’s nooks and windows and doorways. I understand in time they want to create both a coffee/cafe area here and a training ground for students from St. Mary’s. It looks and sounds like the perfect setting, with the Frank Lloyd Wright house across the way and the possibility of touring the church, with all of it’s beautiful windows and rich history. My mind kept coming back to all the possiblities all week long. I have high hopes for this succeeding.
At the coffee hour everyone was buzzing with conversation and I wished we could have stayed longer and talked about their hopes and plans for the future.
I feel sad for this lovely church and it’s shrinking congregation in that they have not had a pastor for such a long time. It seems like a community that deserves to grow and thrive. It is not a large church and could not hold a huge number of people, but what they have to work with is a jewel and I think one would feel very fortunate to belong to this congregation. I would love to visit this church again, when they are a couple years on with their new rector and have a chance to build again. I am quite sure that with the right combination of people at the helm, this church could fulfill one’s desire for worshipping and fellowship in a unique and wonderful way.
First, a comment to George (who happens to be my brother) – don’t assume our next Bishop will be a “he”!!!!!
Now, about Good Shepherd – the church sanctuary is a true gem. It reminds me of a tudor mansion with all of the beautiful dark wood. And, the stained glass windows are breathtaking. When you look at them you just know they are something very special. I couldn’t stop looking at them all during the service – and a little whisper in my head kept repeating to me “Tiffany, Tiffany, Tiffany”. That whisper was absolutely correct – this collection of Tiffany is amazing.
It makes great sense to find a way to capitalize on these masterpieces. Hopefully, the community at Good Shepherd will be able to establish tours in conjunction with all of the things going on at the Davrwin Martin house, and that will result in more exposure for this church community.
My overall impression of the service was very positive. I really enjoyed the music and choir. My preference for instrument music in smaller churches is to have piano rather than organ because the piano seems more intimate, and the fill in pianist was a pleasure to listen to.
I was impressed with all of the prayers for the people during the intercession and the idea of praying for select members every week. Father Deacon, even though he is a supply priest, appeared to have a good knowlege of this particular church community. I never suspected him to be a “sub”.
This church has been searching for a new priest for a long time, and being somewhat rudderless has probably impacted attendance and the ability of the parish to sustain activities like church school and bible study. Even though there is a childrens chapel and lots of space for classes, there does not appear to be any activities for children. I don’t think this is the church I would choose to attend if I had young children. The new priest will have considerable rebuilding ahead of him/her before it will again be family friendly for a younger audience.
The coffee hour after service brought back lots of memories for me as a teen ager. What great dances and othe deanery functions were held here for the youth of the diocese.
Good Shepherd has a fantastic initiative under way that could really change the complexion of this church. I hope the creation of a cafe and coffee house in partnership with St. Mary’s School for the Deaf moves ahead quickly. There is a ready audience for lots of traffic and some potential income because of the proximity to the Darwin Martin house. Thirsty tourists would now have somewhere to go either before or after their tours, and they could also tour the building and view those phenomenal Tiffany windows.
Good luck, Good Shepherd community.
You should be commended for your careful and thorough reading of the posts and comments. I have corrected the offending comment. My apologies. Would you be available to “proof” for me?
The only preference I have for a new bishop is someone who will listen, hear and guide us as we discern the future of our diocese.