Page 187 - ROCHESTER

St. JoHn of rocHeSter cHurcH
The roots of Fairport’s St. John of Rochester Church date to 1962,
when Bishop James E. Kearney established the new community in honor of St. John Fisher, bishop of Rochester, England, during the reign of England’s King Henry VIII.
185
The martyr saint, who in 1961 had been designated patron of the Diocese of Rochester, N.Y., typically signed his pastoral letters, “John of
Rochester,” inspiring the name of the new parish.
Father John LeVeque was the founding pastor and celebrated the parish’s rst Masses in a 50-seat chapel in Bushnell’s Basin, which had been donated by Pittsford’s St. Louis Church. Because of the chapel’s small size, many worshippers had to stand in the doorway or under the windows.
In October 1962, the new parish broke ground on a combined school-church building, and Father LeVeque celebrated the rst Mass there the following fall.
In 1980, Father Bernard Dollen became pastor and immediately launched a drive to build a new church. Ground was broken on Oct. 31, 1982, and the new church at 8 Wickford Way was dedicated by Bishop Matthew H. Clark on the same date the following year.
In 1993, construction began on the parish’s Ministry Building, which houses parish of ces and meeting space for parish ministries. It was dedicated in 1995. In 2013, the parish completed an extensive renovation project, which included expansion of the narthex, updates to the interior of the church and installation of a Parsons organ.