Good Shepherd Parish serves four churches in western Cecil County, Maryland:
Good Shepherd in Perryville, St. Agnes in Rising Sun, St. Teresa in Port Deposit,
and our mission church, St. Patrick in Pilottown.

We are part of the Iron Hill Deanery in the Diocese of Wilmington, Delaware.

What is a Deanery?
 

In the most recent Code of Canon Law, bishops were given the authority to assemble parishes into smaller geographical groups. These groups of parishes within a diocese were then put under the care of a “dean” and called “deaneries.” Like all dioceses, the Diocese of Wilmington is organized into small regions called deaneries. A deanery is made up of contiguous parishes and is led by a pastor within the deanery who serves as the dean. A dean is appointed by the bishop and his responsibilities include overseeing the spiritual needs of priests, being attentive to pastoral issues in his deanery and coordinating regional pastoral initiatives.

Here are the seven deaneries of the Diocese of Wilmington:
City Deanery – Very Rev. Roger DiBuo, VF
Central New Castle Deanery – Very Rev. Joseph Piekarski, VF
Brandywine Hundred Deanery – Very Rev. James Kirk, VF
Silver Lake Deanery – Very Rev. James Lentini, VF 
Eastern Shore Deanery – Very Rev. John Gabage, VF
Ocean Deanery – Very Rev. John Solomon, VF
Iron Hill Deanery – Rev. Edward Ogden, OSFS, VF

Note: A vicar forane or VF, sometimes called a dean, is a priest appointed by the bishop to promote a common pastoral activity in a region of the diocese and to provide spiritual and pastoral counsel to the other priests in that region.

Here are the parishes that comprise the Iron Hill Deanery:

Good Shepherd Church
Holy Family
Immaculate Conception (Elkton)
Resurrection
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton
St. John’s / Holy Angels
St. Joseph (Middletown)
St. Margaret of Scotland
St. Thomas More Oratory at the University of Delaware.