Good Shepherd Church

History

The Good Shepherd Sisters came to Belfast in 1867 at the invitation of Bishop Dorrian, living first in Bankmore Street before moving to Ballynafeigh. The foundation stone for the Good Shepherd Church was laid by Most Rev Joseph MacRory in March 1914. The outbreak of war interrupted the work many times. The main structure was completed and in use for Mass by 28 August 1917, with Mass celebrated on a temporary wooden altar, and the chapel was solemnly dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus by Bishop MacRory on 18 April 1920.

The sisters and their community used the church for almost sixty years. By the late 1970s the chapel was too large for the religious community, while Holy Rosary Church was too small for the congregation of Holy Rosary parish, which had been founded in 1896 and whose first church was dedicated on 9 October 1898. In 1980 Archdeacon Robert Murphy took over the chapel of the Good Shepherd Convent, altering and adapting it for parish use, and Bishop William Philbin dedicated it as Good Shepherd Church for the parish on 7 October 1980.