Our Church History

The Catholic Church of the Good Shepherd is built on property that was once a huge truck farm in the early 1900's. Women, children and a few men were brought from Baltimore City by wagons to work in the fields during harvest where they picked cantaloupes, strawberries, potatoes and tomatoes. For their backbreaking work from sunup to sundown they would hope to make the top wage of about $1.00 per day. In order to help support the family, children would be taken out of school in March and wouldn't start school until the last crops were gone. There were "picker shanties" where the workers could sleep at night instead of making the long trip back to Baltimore and they were allowed to take their food from the fields.

Though Sunday was the "day of rest", it was necessary to work in the field all afternoon and into the night since the market opened 1 A.M. Monday and the crops had to be loaded on boats and shipped up Marley Creek to Baltimore City.

No excuse was valid enough, though, to keep these people from attending Mass. Every Sunday they would get a very early start and walk the ten miles or so to St. Athanasius Church in Curtis Bay, returning as quickly as possible to do a full day's work.

In 1919 the area was sparsely populated but there was a fast-growing need for a Catholic Church in Glen Burnie. St. Rose of Lima in Brooklyn agreed to start a mission church, Holy Trinity, and Father Leonard J. Ripple, who later became Pastor of St. Rose, was appointed to the mission in 1922. But the influx of families to the Glen Burnie area was so great, a larger building was soon needed. The site of the present church was acquired in 1925 and construction completed in 1931. Holy Trinity was then declared an independent parish with Father Arthur Slade serving as its first Pastor.

From a small number of persons attending Mass in those first years, the membership of Holy Trinity Parish grew to almost 15,000 by 1966. It was becoming impractical and ineffective to serve this many people with one parish. Using data from many sources, including Anne Arundel County Planning and Zoning Office projections were made which indicated development would triple the Catholic population within 15 years.

Clearly, something had to be done soon, so in 1968 a Shared Ministry was approved for Holy Trinity by the Archdiocese. Under the plan, Holy Trinity was divided into five areas, alphabetically designated and each with its own Pastor.

Reverend John L. Kelly was assigned to Area "B" which eventually became the present Parish of the Good Shepherd. It was to include the communities of Point Pleasant, Shoreland, Suburbia, Country Club, Cadillac Homes, Margate, Acreslee, Twin Coves, Autumn Glen, and East Glen Burnie, with a total Catholic population of almost 2,300.

After arrangements had been made to pay Anne Arundel County for the use of Point Pleasant Elementary School, Area "B" held its first Mass on February 23, 1969 in the auditorium. Every Saturday thereafter volunteers came and set up the altar and folding chairs. The people were glad to have Mass near their homes and began to feel a sense of togetherness which would eventually lead to the building of their own Parish Center.

In January 1972, at a meeting with Lawrence Cardinal Shehan, the Shared Ministry Pastors of Glen Burnie were given permission to form three new Parishes, to be effective in July. After this approval was given, Area "B" chose the name Good Shepherd for the new Parish. The decision to build a Church was made and a Building Committee was formed. To finance the venture, a Building Pledge Committee was organized and began to canvass Parishioners for support in a two-year pledge campaign.

However, the Parish still lacked a central base from which to operate, and funds sufficient to contemplate building a Church would not be available for two years. Many of the Building Committee members believed that the Parish had the "know-how" to erect some type of multipurpose structure for more immediate use. Two fortuitous events concurred to make it possible. The parish received a generous gift which, along with available funds, made it possible to begin serious planning for a Religion Center which would be large enough to include a Chapel, priests' living quarters, an office and meeting rooms. At the same time, in order to live more economically and within the Parish Community, Father Kelly was seeking a temporary residence. He was able to move out of Holy Trinity's rectory in July 1973, when a parishioner, Mrs. Mary Brukiewa, kindly opened her home to him. Mrs. Brukiewa had worked on the truck farm as a child and lived in the area for over 60 years. She did much to acquaint Father Kelly with its history and its people during the year he used her basement as the first Parish Rectory.

C.C.D. classes were then meeting in the school, but once the Religion Center was underway, the teachers began holding classes in their homes. The Religion Center would eventually serve to more formally organize the program by having scheduled classes under one roof.

Of even greater importance, however, the basement of the building would contain the Chapel where the people could attend Mass in their own facility, thereby giving a sense of Parish community.

Work began in June 1973. A forty foot trailer, the gift of a local contractor, was delivered to the building site. It was urgently needed for equipment and material storage and would later serve in more critical times as the "office" for around-the-clock watchmen. Men, women and children came on weekends to clear the land. Some heavy equipment was necessary, but many strong backs were what really moved the rocks, limbs and debris.

The foundation was dug and the walls put into place by September when the pre-cut modular structure was delivered. From that time on the men of the Parish could be seen every evening and all day on weekends, working steadily on the heating, plumbing, electrical work, plastering, painting or laying tile. There were, of course, true professionals and self-made professionals who oversaw and directed the jobs.

The work was done by men who had labored hard at their own jobs all day. A few had done a "little work around the house", but the majority were involved in their first construction as really unskilled labor. Many were government workers or teachers, some worked in nearby plants, and there were businessmen and salesmen-virtually every walk of labor life was represented.

Work progressed at a steady pace. Spirits were high with a sense of accomplishment when the building stood over half completed.

But the night of March 10, 1974 was one that would test the faith of the people of Good Shepherd Parish. A resident of Suburbia looked out into the night and was horrified to see the brand new building in flames. The fire department was called as quickly as possible. But it was too late.

The flames were seen as far away as Quarterfield Road. Word spread fast as it always does in this close community and soon Furnace Avenue was filled with people, choking back anger and tears in the thick smoke.

Innumerable man-hours were crumbling into ashes. Insurance would replace the materials, but nothing could replace the personal involvement of the people. True, the men had been the ones working at the Church. But their wives and families had made many sacrifices, pulling a heavier load at home so their men would be free to work.

The fire department indicated that the cause of the fire was arson.

The very next morning volunteers from all around began to clear the rubble. The question of abandoning the project was never really considered. The parishioners' principal concern was not "if" but "when" the rebuilding should begin. And even another task was added: for over three months and twenty-four hours each day parishioners and friends mounted watch on the new structure, using the trailer, now equipped with light and heat, as their office. That determination culminated in the blessing of a new Religion Center in October of the same year.

But the thoughts of most parishioners were never really diverted from the real goal-a Church. The building and rebuilding of the Religion Center was just the beginning. There followed the temporary surfacing of the parking lot; the construction of a large garage which, together with the green trailer, would supply necessary additional space; the clearing and preparation of the ground where the Church would be built. The general area adjacent to the Religion Center gradually took on the appearance of a construction company yard-with stacks of corrugated sheeting, bar steel beams lumber, a huge oil storage tank, and rows of concrete storm-drain pipe.

In the late summer of 1975 bids were put out for the Church structure. The final selection went to the B.G. Geddings Company who would dig the foundation; Richard Niehaus Building Systems of West Mifflin, Pennsvlvania would erect the Church shell; Deca Corporation received the electrical contract; W &T Buettner of Glen Burnie was awarded the plumbing and heating work. A loan, secured from the Bank of Glen Burnie, and revenue from the Building Pledge Campaign provided the necessary funding. Ground breaking ceremonies, covered by both television and newspapers, were held on November 24, 1975.

Just as before with the Religion Center, the men of the Parish resolutely applied themselves to follow up the general work of the sub-contractors, to produce a Church from a very basic shell structure. Each week they accomplished either a relatively major task of construction or completed some of the more delicate and tedious finishing details. Dom Stephen Reid, who came to Good Shepherd as Associate Pastor in October 1974, painted the murals in the Church and choir loft; Father Stephen likewise carved the wood statue of the Good Shepherd that stands in the Church vestibule.

The wearisome routine of weeknight and weekend work continued for twenty-one months. There were as many as seventy-five to one hundred volunteer laborers on some weekends. The occupancy permit was granted by Anne Arundel County and the first Mass was said on September 3, 1977.