This article originally appeared in the January 2004 Boost-A-Month Club Newsletter

Collaboration Key To Mississippi Ministry

In addition to the work generated as pastor of three missions Father Tim finds time to combine work with a little relaxation, helping Brother Terry O’Rourke train assist dogs in Aberdeen.

Father Tim Murphy lives in Aberdeen, Miss., where he pastors St. Francis of Assisi Church with the help of a pastoral associate. He is also the pastor of two other missions—in Okolona and Houston, which have resident pastoral associates. And he serves as sacramental minister for another mission in Bruce which has a resident pastoral coordinator.

To these coworkers, Father Tim is known as the great collaborator. To the rest of the U.S. Church, struggling to find new models of ministry in the face of a declining number of priests, his collaborative Glenmary ministry offers an answer: priest-pastors teaming with pastoral associates and pastoral coordinators to preserve local Church communities served by resident pastoral ministers.

Father Tim firmly believes in the importance of having local pastoral leadership in every mission. But because of the great distances involved, he is unable to have a “meaningful presence” in all three mission parishes for which he serves as the canonical pastor.

That’s why his team of pastoral associates is so critical. In Aberdeen he is assisted by pastoral associate Susan Sweet. In his two satellite missions he depends on resident pastoral associates (Sister Liz Brown in Okolona and Sisters Rosemary Empen and Pat Sullivan in Houston) to provide that pastoral care and to handle day-to-day operations.

“I’m in awe of how much these folks have to offer,” Father Tim says. “They’re talented and dedicated, and they’ve made big sacrifices in order to serve here. They easily could have gone to bigger parishes with more support.”

Although his physical presence in each mission parish is limited, Father Tim is always available to the pastoral associates, and he meets with them regularly. And he’s always open and willing to implement their ideas on how to better serve the people of their respective mission communities.

Sacramental duties keep Father Tim on the road. Besides his three missions, he also serves as the sacramental minister for Bruce, led by pastoral coordinator Sister Mary Jean Morris. She is the second generation of lay leadership in this mission founded by one of Glenmary’s first pastoral coordinators, Amy Giorgio.

“A gift to the Church”—that’s what Father Tim calls lay leaders like Amy and Sister Mary Jean. He recalls how, in the past, others have tried to call a Catholic community together from a distance. But because they didn’t live in the county, a local Church just couldn’t sustain itself.

“But when someone like Amy Giorgio went into Bruce to call together a new Church, she was able to approach people and say, ‘I’m here on behalf of the Catholic Church,’” Father Tim reports. “The local people could see how she and our other coworkers are committed to service, not to power. That’s why they’re so well accepted in the community. And that inspires me and heartens me.”

When it comes to sacramental ministry, Father Tim is committed to treating all Glenmary missions in his area alike. He cuts no special deals for Aberdeen—just because he lives there; and he celebrates Mass in the Bruce mission just as frequently as the missions that he pastors.

This means he celebrates Mass two Sundays a month in Aberdeen and Houston and on the other two Sundays in Okolona and Bruce. Communities gather on other Sundays for Sunday Worship in the Absence of a Priest.

In Mississippi at present, Glenmary has two priest-pastors (teaming with Glenmary brothers, pastoral associates and multicultural workers) who are responsible for five missions. It also has three pastoral coordinators (teaming with pastoral associates and multicultural workers) who are responsible for six missions. And senior member Father Gerry “Pete” Peterson assists everyone!

“Glenmary’s mission is not just to the Catholic people in our areas, but to the entire county. And our lay coworkers know that,” Father Tim says. “They are there not just to minister in the parish, but to feed the poor and visit the jails and nursing homes.”

Father Tim is at the heart of a model of ministry in Mississippi whose impact, he says, is enormous. “The Church is present in so many places because coworkers have had enough vision and courage to commit to a career as professional lay leaders.”

And because Glenmarians like Father Tim have had the vision and courage to welcome them into their ministry!