Rural Kent parish celebrates quarter-century milestone

A quarter of a century has gone by since the Church of the Good Shepherd was established as a parish Oct. 16, 1989, based in the village of Kent in southwestern Indiana County.

As the roughly 800 members of the Roman Catholic parish pause to mark the milestone and celebrate the progress that has been made over the years, it's apparent that some things at the rural church have come full circle.

John Edward Timko of Irwin, the architect who designed the church building, and Msgr. Michael Matusak, who was the first pastor of the parish from its creation until 1997, are among guests expected to return for an Oct 19 Mass and receptions celebrating the Church of the Good Shepherd's 25 years. Bishop Lawrence E. Brandt of the Greensburg Diocese will be the principal celebrant and homilist for the special 2 p.m. Mass.

Greeting those in attendance will be Father William J. Lechnar, administrator of the parish since June 4. The appointment has been a return to familiar territory for Lechnar, who served as a deacon at Good Shepherd in its early days, before his ordination in 1997.

Lechnar recently gathered with some of Good Shepherd's longtime parishioners near the entrance to the church grounds, at one of the treasured landmarks at the site a Blessed Mother shrine. The stone grotto and statue was moved from the former Holy Cross Church in Iselin. Dating from 1908, Holy Cross was one of the earliest houses of worship for local Catholics and one three churches that formed the basis of the current Good Shepherd parish.

It was the first statue I ever blessed as a deacon, Lechnar noted of the figure of the Blessed Mother at Good Shepherd. I never dreamed I'd be back here as administrator of the parish.

It came over on a lowboy, parishioner Harry Baroni, 90 of Center Township, said of the shrine, recalling that a section of the crescent-shaped stone structure was temporarily removed so that it could make the trip on the trailer.

Other shrines along the lane leading to the Church of the Good Shepherd represent the former parish church of St. Gertrude in McIntyre and its mission church, St. Anthony in Aultman, both established in 1918.

Changing populations and mounting maintenance concerns after the better part of a century of service were among factors that eventually prompted suppression of the Iselin and McIntyre parishes to allow formation of the combined Church of the Good Shepherd Parish.

Good Shepherd parishioner Beth Marshall of Kent, who used to attend the McIntyre church, pointed out that none of the three older churches was handicapped-accessible and that needed upgrades would have cost about $500,000.

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Rural Kent parish celebrates quarter-century milestone