Glenmary's Commitment to Lay Ministry Grows
Gilchrist to Support Expanding Lay Mission Effort  

Five newly commissioned lay pastoral coordinators with program founder Father Frank Ruff (back center) and Father Mike Caroline (left front) who will take over as program director this fall. From left: Sister Florita Rodman, Sister Edna Maier, Sister Maria Goretti Browne, and Ginny and Paul Witte.

CINCINNATI (August 31, 1999)—Jay Gilchrist's appointment this summer as the first associate director of Glenmary's Lay Pastoral Coordinator Program is one sign of this home mission organization's growing commitment to invite lay men and women to share their ministry to rural America.  Another sign: In August Glenmary president Father Jerry Dorn commissioned five new lay pastoral coordinators, bringing to 11 the number of lay leaders now staffing Glenmary missions in Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee and Virginia. This group includes Sisters of various congregations as well as married men and women, some serving in pastoral teams.

Jay Gilchrist, before assuming his new position with Glenmary, had been serving as one of Glenmary's first lay pastoral coordinators in Madisonville, Tennessee, where he established a new Glenmary mission church in 1992—the Catholic Community of Monroe County. All new Glenmary missions opened in recent years have been established by lay leaders such as Gilchrist. Glenmary priests, brothers and lay coworkers currently staff 70 missions in the deepest pockets of poverty in Appalachia, the South and the Southwest.

"Jay's new job is to ensure high quality missionary ministry in those counties in which Glenmary has placed lay pastoral coordinators," says Glenmary Father Frank Ruff, founder and current director of the Glenmary Lay Pastoral Coordinator Program. The office for the Lay Pastoral Ministry Program is in Nashville, Tennessee, where Glenmary clusters a variety of support services for missioners in the field. Gilchrist's wife and family are still in Madisonville, Tennessee, waiting to sell their home before relocating to Nashville.

About Lay Pastoral Coordinators: After revisions in Church law allowed lay persons to be designated as canonical administrators of parishes, Glenmary invited the first lay people to serve in this role in 1991. Glenmary lay pastoral coordinators have responsibilities similar to those of pastors. They are hired and commissioned by Glenmary and appointed by their respective bishops. Their tenure is the same as that of Glenmary pastors—usually six to 10 years.

Traditionally a parish’s pastoral care and sacramental ministry have been combined in one person: the priest-pastor. In a parish led by a lay pastoral coordinator, these roles are divided: The pastoral coordinator provides for the day-to-day pastoral care of the community while a non-resident priest provides sacramental ministry. When a priest is not available for Eucharist, the pastoral coordinator leads the congregation in the Church-approved “Sunday Worship in the Absence of a Priest.”

Glenmary Lay Pastoral Coordinators and Where They Serve:

Sister Maria Goretti Browne, OP, Sts. John and Elizabeth Church, Grayson, Kentucky.
Polly Duncan Collum, Tippah County Catholic Community, Ripley Mississippi.
Sister Joseph Fillenwarth, SP, Holy Redeemer Church, Vanceburg, Kentucky.
Amy Giorgio, St. Luke the Evangelist, Bruce, Mississippi.
Gene and Mary Helen Grabbe, St. John Catholic Church, Eupora, Mississippi.
Robert Laremore, Resurrection Catholic Church, Moulton, Alabama.
Sister Edna Maier, SND, St. Joseph Church, Clintwood, Virginia
Sister Florita Rodham, CDP,  St. Helen Church, Amory, Mississippi.
Paul and Ginny Witte, Catholic Community of Monroe County, Madisonville, Tennessee.