Our parish history...

In July 1875, an Episcopal Sunday School met at the Ohio University Chapel. Shortly thereafter the Episcopal Mite Society was organized, and the Rev. Mr. Haskins of Brooklyn, New York, preached at a 10:30 A.M. service at the same college chapel, presumably the first Episcopal service held in Athens. That year also marked the beginning of the Diocese of Southern Ohio under the Episcopate of Bishop Augustus Jaggar. Regular services were held at different intervals until 1881 and then suspended until after the turn of the century. April 16, 1907, marked the formation of the Hocking Valley Mission. Athens at that time was the smallest of three small population centers in the Hocking Valley, the others being Logan and Nelsonville. The Episcopal mission, along with Good Shepherd, included St. Paul's Logan; Epiphany, Nelsonville; Trinity, McArthur; and St. David's, Jackson (now defunct). The Episcopal community in Wellston elected to join with the mission in Jackson since it seemed to have more of a future than the Athens church. For the following fifty years Good Shepherd mission was served by priests-in-charge, some staying for brief periods of a year or two, others for longer spans of time. Eleven different clergy were responsible for the spiritual leadership of the mission until it assumed parish status in 1958.

After meeting in various locales such as the Presbyterian Church; the basement of Carnegie Hall, now Ohio University’s School of Journalism; and the University’s Fine Arts Building, later known as the "Music Hall," the first church building was constructed at East State and Carpenter streets (subsequently the Kenney Wesleyan Church for many years, now apartments). Purchase of the land, at a cost of $2000, was made on June 5, 1913, but the cornerstone was not placed until four years later on May 27, 1917. The church was officially dedicated in October 1920 by Bishops Vincent and Reese. The Athens Messenger reported that "the church was beautifully decorated with colorful fall flowers for the occasion, and a quartet closed the service with an appropriate vocal selection." Good Shepherd was said to be "one of the finest small structures in the city." In the early 1950s, with the support of Bishop Henry Hobson and the assistance of a diocesan-wide college building fund, money was raised to relocate and construct the present building on University Terrace in order to develop a university paris. Bishop Hobson laid the cornerstone of the "new church" on November 2, 1952, and six years later Good Shepherd was admitted as a parish into union with the Diocese of Southern Ohio. Much of its monetary support, however, came from the Diocese as a result of its status as a University parish, a status it shared at that time with St Stephen’s in Columbus and Holy Trinity in Oxford.

The Rev. Phil Porter, Jr., was Rector at this time—his tenure was from 1949 to 1958— and was succeeded by the Rev. Pitt Willand. The 1950’s saw a decade of considerable activity by the Canterbury Club, serving college-age students, and the Sunday morning Church School, enrolling as many as 105 children in 1960. In 1962 the Rev. William G. Black, later to become Bishop of the Diocese of Southern Ohio, was called as Rector. His tenure at Good Shepherd, 1962—1973, was marked by considerable cultural and social change across the nation; the university community of Athens was no exception. In May, 1970, the campus was closed in response to rioting following the Kent State shootings; church attendance, already in decline throughout the 1960’s, continued to decline into the 1970’s.

After the four-year rectorship of the Rev. Phil McNairy (1973-1977), the Rev. E.F.M. "Mike” Morgan was called in 1979. The 1980’s and 1990’s were marked by Good Shepherd's changing relation with the Diocese: in 1981 the Diocese declared Good Shepherd to be self-supporting, and the church has continued in that status since. A remarkable consequence of that twenty-five year period has been the number of individuals who have come through Good Shepherd and have persued ordination: the Rev. Deacon Arthur Savage (whose ordination occurred in the 1970’s), the calls to ordination of the Revs. Steven Smith, Cynthia Hampton, Edward Payne, Katharin Foster, and Mark Shelly all originated at Good Shepherd and passed through the Diocese of Southern Ohio. The Revs. Elizabeth Hoster and Emily Richards were members of the congregation whose ordination occurred in other dioceses. Currently T.J. Luce and Leslie Flemming are in process toward ordination; both are current members. Truly, Good Shepherd, despite its small size, has been a “cradle of priests" in recent years.