Page 241 - ROCHESTER

St. mattHew cHurcH
In 2004, two neighboring faith communities became one with the opening of a new Livingston County church.
On March 14, 2014, parishioners from St. Joseph in Livonia and St. William in Conesus celebrated their unity with a prayer service at the brand-new St. Matthew Church, which Bishop Matthew H. Clark dedicated that same year.
St. Matthew’s roots extend back to the founding of St. William Church in 1875. Father William Seymour served as inaugural pastor, with the church at 6199 Elm St. opening in 1877 and Bishop Bernard J. McQuaid dedicating the facility in 1881.
Another Conesus Lake-area parish, St Joseph, was incorporated in 1910 under Father Malachy Garvey, pastor. Groundbreaking for a church took place in 1911 under a new pastor, Father Michael Krieg, and the building at 14 Washington St. was dedicated in
1912 by Bishop Thomas F. Hickey. Three years later St. William became a mission of St. Joseph, remaining so for the rest of the churches’ existences. On May 7, 1961, Bishop James E. Kearney celebrated St. Joseph’s 50th-anniversary Mass. And, on Aug. 1, 1976, Bishop Joseph L. Hogan presided at St. William’s 100th-anniversary liturgy.
As a new millennium dawned, St. Joseph/ St. William opted to construct a new church and become a single parish. St. Matthew’s spacious facility, located on Route 20A (6591 Richmond Mills Road) in Livonia, is one of the newest churches in the Diocese of Rochester.
In 2007 St. Matthew became clustered with St. Mary’s Parish in Honeoye, Ontario County.
239