Serving in a new rhythm

With joy and gratitude, I begin serving in a new context as Vicar for Evangelization, Discipleship, and Stewardship, while also becoming pastor of Oswego and Columbus. At first glance, this arrangement may seem out of the ordinary, since such commutes are not common for diocesan priests. For that reason, I want to offer a brief explanation for those who may wonder how this will work.

While this assignment is out of the ordinary, it is not a departure from the work of the vicariate. Rather, it will help deepen it.

The work of the Vicariate for Evangelization, Discipleship, and Stewardship (EDS) is diocesan in scope and parish in purpose. Our office serves and supports pastors and parishes in forming healthy lay leaders in the vision and implementation of evangelization, discipleship, and stewardship. That work is not meant to hover above parish life. It is meant to strengthen parish life from within.

In this new assignment, my work as vicar will remain diocesan in scope while being grounded more concretely in the daily life of parishes. My ordinary rhythm will be to be in Wichita Sunday afternoon through Wednesday, serving the bishop, the Bishop’s Leadership Team, and the EDS office, while also scheduling visits with priests and parishes in the metro area and western parts of the diocese. Wednesday evening through Sunday morning, I will generally be in Southeast Kansas, serving Oswego and Columbus, while remaining available to pastors, parishes, and leadership teams throughout the diocese, either in person or via Zoom or Teams. Thursday will ordinarily be my day off.

This travel pattern also creates new opportunities for connection across the southern and eastern parts of the diocese. Highways 54, 400, 160, and 166 pass through or near many of our parishes, allowing this new rhythm to become not simply a commute, but a way of being more present to the wider diocesan family.

Bishop Kemme and I have discerned this carefully, and I am grateful for the good that can come from it. This assignment provides a stable representative presence for Southeast Kansas on the Bishop’s Leadership Team, gives me grounded parish experience that will continue to inform my teaching and formation work, and roots the EDS mission in the concrete realities of parish life. Personally, it also gives me the stability and joy of serving as a pastor.

Evangelization invites relationship. Discipleship forms communion. Stewardship embodies solidarity. That whole movement is most fruitfully lived in the parish, where people pray, serve, sacrifice, belong, and grow together as disciples.

I am grateful to serve the Church in the Diocese of Wichita in this new rhythm, and I look forward to walking with pastors, parish leaders, and parishioners throughout the diocese as we continue forming disciples for the mission of Christ.