Three new lay ministers serving in missions
Coworkers bring a variety of ministry, mission experience.

New Lay Minister: Walter Fircowycz, the Hispanic minister at Immaculate Heart of Mary mission in Houston, Miss., talks with Kathy O’Brien, the pastoral associate of St. Jude mission in Waldron, Ark. Walter is one of three new professional lay ministers who recently participated in an orientation workshop in Nashville, Tenn

[ohio] Three new professional lay ministers have begun working with Glenmary Home Missioners over the past six months.

Sister Arcadia Rivera-Gutierrez, a Daughter of St. Mary of Guadalupe, is a native of Puebla, Mexico. She now serves as the pastoral coordinator of Glenmary’s St. Joan of Arc mission in Plymouth, N.C.

Aston Franciscan Sister Pat Hinton, most recently from Winston-Salem, N.C., is working as the pastoral associate at Immaculate Heart of Mary mission in Houston, Miss.

Walter Fircowycz, who comes to Glenmary from Chicago, is serving as the Hispanic minister for the mission in Houston, Miss., and provides outreach to nearby Vardaman.

The staff of Glenmary’s Department of Pastoral Ministries and Pastoral Services, based in Nashville, has designed a three-phase formation program for new coworkers that addresses all aspects of home mission ministry.

All three coworkers recently attended the first-phase meeting in Nashville. During the four-day immersion into Glenmary, they heard presentations on and discussed missionary call, a history of Glenmary, Glenmary’s charism and approach to ministry, small-town living and more.

After this initial gathering, two shorter sessions will be held throughout the year with curriculum designed by department staff and shaped by participants and the needs they find in their daily ministry experiences.

Glenmary is celebrating the 20th anniversary of its lay pastoral coordinator program begun in 1989. The first class of lay pastoral coordinators was commissioned in 1992.

Glenmary’s eight lay pastoral coordinators currently staff nine missions in counties in Appalachia and the South.

Pastoral coordinators—married couples, single men and women or vowed religious—are appointed the canonical administrators of mission parishes by the local bishop. These professional lay ministers have responsibility for the growth and development of the parish community.

Pastoral associates work with a Glenmary priest-pastor or pastoral coordinator to provide pastoral leadership and pastoral care to a mission community. This full-time ministry relates to all aspects of parish life, but designated responsibilities can include liturgy, faith formation/development, administration and pastoral care as well as missionary outreach.

Hispanic ministers serves the Spanish-speaking members of a mission or region and work to build bridges between the various cultures found in a mission community.

Glenmary’s lay ministers are among 30,000 lay persons working in pastoral ministry positions in the United States. According to a 2008 national study by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA), there are over 18,000 additional persons enrolled in degreed and certificate programs in preparation for serving as professional lay ministers within the Church.