On Long Pond Road, just north of Ridge Road West in the Town of Greece, Greece Baptist Church has been gathering believers since 1814 - more than a decade before the city of Rochester was incorporated and before the Town of Greece existed under that name. Today the congregation describes itself as a voice and home for progressive Christians in the greater Rochester area, a place where people of diverse lifestyles, ethnicities, and perspectives worship together around a faith centered on grace rather than guilt or shame.
From a Log Schoolhouse to Long Pond Road
The congregation traces its origins to 1814, when a small but hearty group of believers began meeting in a log schoolhouse. In 1832 the group acquired land at the corner of Ridge and Long Pond Roads and built its first house of worship. A century later, with the original facility outgrown, the church purchased fifteen acres further out Long Pond Road. Ground was broken in March 1959, and the present sanctuary was dedicated on May 15, 1960.
Two additions helped shape the worship space still in use today. Memorial stained glass windows were installed in 1968, and in 1980 a pipe organ built in 1894 by Jardine & Son was restored and installed in the sanctuary. As the congregation entered the twenty-first century, the eight acres to the north of the church were developed into affordable housing for seniors - a reminder that the property has long served people beyond its walls.
The members themselves describe their congregation in plainly human terms: Greece Baptist Church is not a building. It is a living, breathing gathering of people who listen for God's will and seek to follow it.
Worship on Sunday Mornings
The congregation gathers every Sunday morning at 10:00 am in the sanctuary, both in person and virtually. The service includes singing, prayer, spoken responses, and a sermon; on the first Sunday of each month, the congregation shares communion as a reminder of the depth of Jesus' love for humanity. Most services run about an hour. A large monitor in the sanctuary helps everyone follow along with the order of worship, announcements, and the church calendar.
For those who cannot attend in person, the service is broadcast by Zoom (meeting number 997 086 475, passcode 173071). The same worship also reaches a wider audience each Sunday at 9:30 am through a thirty-minute radio program called Good News on WGMC Jazz 90.1FM, which streams live at jazz901.org. Each broadcast pairs a message with music and prayer as a way of carrying the message of God's grace and love into the community.
Coming for the First Time
Visitors entering through the front door - marked Door #1 - find a welcome table just inside the entrance, where greeters hand out a printed program with the order of worship and answer any questions. The sanctuary is to the right, restrooms down the hallway to the left. Visitor parking spaces are reserved near the front entrance, and the building sits between two large parking lots.
The building is fully accessible. Sidewalk ramps serve both the front door and the back door (Door #8), and the sanctuary, offices, classrooms, and restrooms are all on the ground floor. The fixed pews were removed from the sanctuary in 2015, leaving flexible seating that easily accommodates wheelchairs and walkers. A lift provides access to the lower level, where the kitchen and Dean Hall are located.
After worship, coffee is served in the parlor from 11:00 am until 11:30 am - a natural place to meet the people who call the church home.
The Symbol of the Paper Crane
When the congregation could not gather in person during the COVID pandemic, members adopted a shared spiritual discipline: each person folded an origami paper crane in their own home while praying privately. The cranes were then hung in the sanctuary as a visible sign that their individual prayers were joining together as they were lifted up.
That experience became the church's logo. The folded shapes that make up the image echo the cranes themselves and symbolize how a congregation brings together unique experiences and beliefs to form something of great beauty - the body of Christ. The crane also carries older meaning: it is a symbol of peace and a reminder of the call to be peacemakers. Members see in the same shape hints of three other Christian symbols: the dove of the Holy Spirit from the Early Church, the phoenix of new life rising from the ashes, and the wild goose from the Celtic tradition, calling for a return to the rhythms of nature.
Walking With Young Families
Children and youth are woven into the life of the church rather than set apart from it. Nursery care is available for infants and toddlers during worship, with age-appropriate stories, toys, and activities in a room designed for that age group. Preschool and elementary-age children take part in stories and activities that help them experience the love of Jesus and practice being a person of good character, and the church hosts community events that offer families fun, safe activities to share. Middle and high school youth have a variety of study and fellowship opportunities, and the staff and facilities can be made available to groups of young people looking for a safe place to gather.
Programs include community family events, Youth Fellowship, and Vacation Bible School. Marilyn Thrall, the Director of Family Life Development, has worked with the congregation's children and youth for more than four decades. A retired elementary school teacher with degrees from SUNY Brockport in early childhood and elementary curriculum, she keeps the focus on relationships, on taking care of one another, and on having fun along the way.
Adults Who Never Stop Learning
The church takes seriously the idea that faith is a lifelong process. Bible studies and adult education classes are offered throughout the year, and a monthly Book Group reads and discusses contemporary fiction. Periodic non-fiction discussions bring the congregation into conversation with guest speakers on current events and important social issues, ranging from Medicare and senior health to the founding history of the nation to the witness of people whose kindness has shaped a community.
On the first Sunday of each month, Pastor Steve Gretz leads a discussion in the parlor called Forum. The series, sometimes titled Baptist ABCs, walks through Baptist beliefs, history, worship, and service; other months the Forum turns to community speakers on subjects such as health insurance for seniors.
Mission Beyond the Walls
The congregation works with a wide circle of partner organizations, religious and secular, to help build community and lift people up. Three long-standing rhythms shape this work.
Faith in Action Day is an annual Sunday when, instead of regular Sunday School, everyone in the church is invited to take part in some form of mission or service work, with options suited to all ages and ability levels. The Alternative Gift Market, held around Christmastime, showcases gifts from organizations such as BeadForLife, Coffee Connection, World Vision, Cameron Community Ministries, Heifer International, Church World Service, and PET Project. A goat bought on behalf of a loved one, for example, is given to a poor community and acknowledged with a commemorative card under the Christmas tree in place of a traditional present.
Greece Baptist Church has also joined with other Greece churches to sponsor Habitat for Humanity homes in the City of Rochester under the church's Board of Missions. To date, the Greece Church Coalition has sponsored eight homes, from a first house at 44 Love Street in 2000 to a most recent at 486 Garson Avenue in 2023.
Several other ministries keep the church's mission close to home. The Prayer Shawl Ministry gathers volunteers once a month to knit together and prays over shawls made throughout the month at home; in its first year the group gave out more than sixty shawls to church and community members in need, and the shawls continue to be distributed through local hospitals, nursing homes, and visits to the homebound. The Greece Ecumenical Food Shelf, which began at Greece Baptist in May 1977 and today feeds close to 4,500 clients a year from a town-owned facility on Maiden Lane, also has roots here. So does the Greece Ecumenical Clothing Closet, which started as Gramma Janes' Clothing Closet in a small utility closet inside the church and now shares a building with the Food Shelf.
RocUbuntu and the Work of Racial Justice
In response to the racial upheavals of 2020, Greece Baptist helped form RocUbuntu - a coalition of six congregations: John Knox Presbyterian, Trinity Episcopal, Greece Baptist, Greece United Methodist, Messiah Lutheran, and Gates Presbyterian. The name comes from a Zulu word meaning humanity toward others, or I am because we are.
RocUbuntu's mission is to promote racial and social justice in its communities. Its vision is of an inclusive community where all people live together equitably, and its work is organized around five values: reducing poverty, housing equity, educating about inequities, and ending violence.
The coalition's actions take many forms. Members publish monthly newsletter articles on racial justice issues, hold rallies outside member churches, and read together through book studies - past titles include White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo, The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein, America's Original Sin by Jim Wallis, Slavery by Another Name by Douglas Blackmon, Outrageous Justice, and Houses of Healing by Robin Casarjian. RocUbuntu also provides financial support for a youth essay contest on gun violence, fills backpacks for migrants leaving detention, advocates for racial justice legislation including the Clean Slate Campaign and Dignity not Detention, places books by Black and minority authors in Little Free Libraries outside Greece schools and churches, meets with the Greece Police Department to improve equity in policing, sponsors an Afghan refugee family, and partners with RISE Community School #106 in Rochester to provide school supplies and volunteers.
Give Me a Break
Give Me a Break is a free respite program for those caring for a loved one with memory loss. The program meets every Wednesday from 1:00 pm to 4:30 pm in the church parlor, entered through Door #8. Participants may stay for a short while or for the full four hours; families bring a snack for their loved one.
Each participant is paired with one carefully screened and trained volunteer companion, and a trained coordinator supervises the program at all times. The volunteers and the participants play games, sing songs, do crafts, and create new friendships together. The program was developed through the cooperative efforts of Greece Baptist Church, Lifespan agencies, the New York State Caregiver's Respite Coalition, and the national REST (Respite Education and Support Tools) Training Program, and is funded in part by a grant from the NYSCRC.
Caring for One Another
A Caring Team works with the pastors and deacons to serve homebound members and friends through home visits, phone calls, card-writing, meals, and rides to appointments. The team also offers home communions when they are requested and provides worship services at nearby senior living centers. Church life is shaped as well by church potlucks and picnics, a monthly men's and women's brunch, and small groups that form for fellowship, learning, and fun.
Music Across the Community
Music is a long-standing gift the church shares with the wider community. Each year Greece Baptist partners with WGMC Jazz 90.1FM to present a free community concert series, with monthly performances of jazz, swing, and big band music from October through May. Concerts begin at 7:00 pm in the sanctuary. Past performers have included The Joey Stempien Big Band, Kenny Foster's Game Night Quartet, The Greece Concert Band, The GateSwingers Big Band, Laura Dubin and Antonio Guerrero, The Bill Tiberio Band, Duo Scambio, and The Kodak Concert Band.
The church also partners with other local musical organizations to offer music from a range of genres, including the Golden Link Folk Singing Society, The Greece Performing Arts Society, and Cordancia Chamber Orchestra. Worship services themselves feature a wide variety of music, and the church is home to a bell choir directed by Office Manager Brandon Arva.
Partners and Friends
Greece Baptist is part of the American Baptist Churches USA and of the American Baptist Churches of the Rochester / Genesee Region. It cooperates closely with several neighboring Greece congregations - Greece United Methodist Church, Messiah Evangelical Lutheran Church, and Trinity Episcopal Church - in providing shared services and programs, including the ecumenical food shelf and Habitat coalition work. The building also serves as a meeting place for the regional American Baptist body, for All Saints Anglican Church, for Scouts BSA Troop 48 and Troop 148, for Cub Scout Pack 48, for several Girl Scout troops, for Twelve Step groups, for AARP tax preparation, for an Alzheimer's Association caregivers' support group, and for the Give Me a Break respite program. It also serves as a polling site for Monroe County elections.
Pastoral Leadership
Pastor Steve Gretz became Greece Baptist Church's Senior Pastor in the summer of 2007, after serving American Baptist congregations in Massachusetts for twenty years. A native of Canandaigua who graduated from Bloomfield Central School and Stanford University before earning his M.Div. at Princeton Theological Seminary, he returned to the Rochester area after years on both coasts and in Europe. His work focuses on encouraging people to grow spiritually in their individual faith journeys and to grow together as they share their experience of God's love in Jesus Christ.
Marilyn Thrall, the Director of Family Life Development, has spent more than four decades working with the church's children and youth. Brandon Arva, the Office Manager since June 2014, is also the director of the church's bell choir; he came to the role after years of involvement in American Baptist youth programs, with degrees in music education and music theory from Hartwick College, the University at Buffalo, and Kent State University.
Greece Baptist Church sits along Long Pond Road as it has for more than two centuries, its sanctuary still in weekly use and its doors still open to whoever needs a place to pray, to learn, to serve, or simply to rest.