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St. mark’S cHurcH
St. Mark’s Parish in Greece began in the former lakefront Star of the Sea Chapel on Edgemere Drive, which had been built in 1910
to serve Catholic families vacationing on Lake Ontario during the summer.
The chapel was placed under the supervision of the pastor at Greece’s Our Mother of Sorrows Parish. But as the years went on, summer homes along the lake became year-round residences for families by the 1960s. As a result, Bishop James E. Kearney decided it was time for a larger church
and a new parish.
In 1964 Father Joseph Donovan, the rst pastor of the newly incorporated St. Mark Church, began the process of moving the community from Edgemere Drive to a new worship site at 54 Kuhn Road. He walked the beach and talked to people, trying to spread the word about the new church. Father Donovan served St. Mark for more than 20 years until his retirement in 1985.
Father Thomas Erdle became the parish’s second pastor in 1985. Under his leadership, the parish built a new church, parish of ces and a new priests’ residence in 1993, dedicated by Bishop Matthew H. Clark. Father Erdle, who knew American Sign Language, also helped established the parish’s long- standing outreach to the deaf community.
In 2014 the parish celebrated its 50th anniversary.
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