In Chillicothe and other communities, parishes share clergy, and a sense of connection.
By Kathleen Moore
Every other Wednesday, five clergy colleagues gather to discuss the scripture readings for upcoming Sundays, plan liturgy and formation, coordinate pastoral care needs, and review budgeting, finance, and building maintenance.
While this might sound like the staff meeting of a cathedral or a cardinal parish, it is actually the biweekly meeting of the clergy cohort that shares responsibilities for four small parishes in south central Ohio— St. Philip’s in Circleville, St. Paul’s in Chillicothe, St. John’s in Lancaster, and St. Paul’s in Logan—some of which are more than 35 miles apart.
“With this model, we’ve got three priests and two deacons, all with different strengths and weaknesses that combined fill in any gap we might have,” says Mark Conrad, who serves as St. John’s senior warden.
“That is a fantastic place to be for a smaller church. And not only do we have this team of clergy, we have collaboration with the other churches. So once in a while, because we have this connection, we can do something together. That could unfold in a lot of ways—it could be as simple as church picnic or as complex as four-church outreach ministry.”
Wendell Mulford, St. Paul’s, Chillicothe’s senior warden, says that his parish could no longer afford full-time clergy. “We’re in a rebuilding mode,” he says. “The benefit [of this model] is wonderful because we get all these good clergy, and you also get the benefit of multiple perspectives and multiple styles. There’s an incredible synergy with this work.”
The Rev. Canon David Getreu is rector of the four- parish collaboration. (Photo: Joseph Scheller)
“Each parish maintains its own identity and form of governance,” the Rev. Canon David Getreu, who serves as the rector of all four congregations, says. “I function as the administrator and deal with the operational side, and the other priests (the Rev. Rowena MacGregor, the Rev. Michael Ralph and the Rev. Stephen Smith) and deacons (the Rev. Craig Klein and the Ven. Paul Scanlan) do pastoral care, education, visit the sick, and outreach programs.
“It’s a benefit for the parishes, because they get to connect to other Episcopalians, and they’ve been so isolated,” he says. “And they get a huge variety of preaching and liturgical and ministry styles that you would normally find in a wealthy parish. The benefit for clergy is they’re not working in isolation anymore. They are working together, and it’s rejuvenating their priesthood.”
MacGregor is already feeling the benefits of the collaboration, which began in November 2022. “It’s like night and day, it’s extreme,” she says. “As one pastor for one church in a particularly isolated situation … where, even if there was good monthly collegiality, you’re still on your own, facing things and working them out very much in an insular fashion—it’s very draining. In the last three weeks working in this collaboration, I have laughed more than I have in the last 17 years of ministry.”
“We just find ourselves laughing an awful lot,” Ralph says. “I’ve found myself looking forward to going to work for the first time in a while—this is a completely different experience in ministry.”
Scanlan says working in the collaboration “is the most collegial I have felt as a deacon working together with priest colleagues, not for a rector.” Scanlan, who continues to visit parishes across the diocese as archdeacon, stresses the importance of including deacons on the team. “Deacons bring a different aspect to liturgy and parish life,” he says. “Deacons are not called to do a to-do list. Deacons are called to bring ideas, foster the community to take what the ideas are and then to go with them.”
Clergy in the collaboration rotate preaching and presiding at each parish, so congregants have gotten to know them all. While the four congregations hold their own in-person Sunday services, they collaborate on a single bulletin and host a Sunday Zoom service together.
During Holy Week, which can be a grueling time for congregational staff and volunteers, Circleville and Chillicothe shared Maundy Thursday and Good Friday services, as did Logan and Lancaster, and all four congregations gathered for the Easter Vigil in Circleville. In February, during Bishop Smith’s visitation to Circleville, all four congregations sent people to be confirmed or received.
“I can honestly say our church financially and structurally is probably the best since 1968,” says Bill Parker, who has served on St. Philip’s, Circleville’s vestry many times over the years. “All the clergy are very well-thought-of and well-liked, and we see different faces on different Sundays.” Parker credits Getreu’s financial and leadership skills with helping make this model work. “Father Dave, with his financial background, has a lot to give. You need a leader; someone who has the wherewithal and the talent and the energy like Father Dave to pull all this together.”
A gathering of wardens (left to right): Alexa Hall and Rebecca Nance, junior and senior wardens, respectively, at St. Philip’s, Circleville and Mark Conrad, senior warden at St. John’s, Lancaster. (Photo: Joseph Scheller)
Conrad agrees, saying that the decrease in financial strain and isolation has made St. John’s, Lancaster a healthier place. “The church is healthier, and healthy churches are much more likely to attract people. If we’re going to have church growth, this is how it’s going to happen.”
Thanks to the collaboration, newcomers are exposed to many preaching and liturgical styles and members of all four congregations, and thereby get a fuller sense of the Episcopal Church. That “makes them more likely to stick around,” Conrad says. He has observed that it is easier for members to overcome annoyances with a particular congregational custom or a certain clergy person’s style if they see their parish as part of a larger community in which faith is expressed in many ways.
The Rev. Michael Spencer, the diocese’s canon for transition and congregational ministry, believes congregational collaboration also builds resilience. “With a model like this one, with four churches, three regular priests, and two deacons, it’s a lot less vulnerable to coming apart at the seams when one component needs to change for some reason,” he says. If a priest takes another call, for example, “it takes the stress off, so it’s not, ‘my gosh I’ve got to find a priest in an era when we’re struggling to have priests at the ready.’ They’ll be able to continue to move forward without a significant loss of momentum.”
The key to successful collaboration, he says, is enthusiasm in each congregation. “Most of the time, these relationships tend to endure when they do start at the grassroots level,” he says. “The most important thing really is the members of the church—the faithful that show up week in, week out, month in, month out.
“This is a model to remind ourselves that we’re not these islands floating around—we’re all dependent on each other. When we’re all called to do the work together, then we’re stronger.”
Read this story in the Summer 2023 edition of Connections Magazine.
