A MEETING WITH OUR BISHOP

WHY DO WE NEED A PRIEST?

This is not a trick question. On Tuesday, October 18, 2022, Vestry members and Gary Packard joined a

zoom meeting with Bishop DeDe Duncan-Probe and Canon Carrie Schofield-Broadbent, and the Bishop

asked us, “What makes you think you need a priest? Why is that important to you?”

Please pause here to reflect, pray, and generate your own responses.

With the recent passing of our beloved Brigid Galusha fresh in our minds and hearts, we stressed the

need of a “pastoral relationship” – for counseling and guidance, funerals, personal delivery of a

meaningful homily, etc. As one member described, “part of the soul of our church is gone” (without a

priest). Did you come up with similar needs for a priest? Perhaps having weekly Eucharist is important to

you. What about a priest with a creative vision for our future? What else?

The Bishop also asked what we could afford in terms of hiring a priest (e.g., full-time, half-time, quartertime), how our collaborations with other congregations were going, and what ministries we’re engaged in

and most proud of.

Again, you are invited to pause, reflect, pray, and respond to these questions yourself.

Since we had a half-time priest for the past several years, we believe that we could sustain the same

moving forward. We described our monthly joint leadership meetings, monthly joint services, and

various collaborations with Emmanuel and Grace Episcopal Churches in Elmira, along with open

questions about everyone’s commitments in the new year. In addition, we reported recent outreach from

Our Savior Lutheran’s Church in Horseheads, who expressed interested in collaboration opportunities

with St. Matthew’s. We gladly discussed our ministries, particularly the Browse and Buy, community

dinners, the village food pantry, Teal Park pie sales, and the Children’s Clothing Closet. How did you

respond to these questions? Would you add or change anything? What do you think about our

collaborations with other churches?

The Bishop responded very positively to all that we have been doing and continue to do, “You don’t need

a priest to validate what you do.” With all due respect to Mother Wanda (whom we all agree left huge,

wonderful shoes to fill), Bishop DeDe asserted that the church is more than any one person/priest. She

spoke highly of the service ministries we’re engaged in and our steady presence and tenacity (though she

also reminded us to have fun and be joyful). She encouraged us to continue collaborating with willing

partners in the area and to move forward with our “parish profile” so that we can advertise for a priest,

while encouraging the other area churches to also generate parish profiles and discover where there is

overlap.

In light of the scarcity of supply priests and the need to adapt, the Bishop said that some of us could be

trained to offer Communion from the Reserved Sacrament. That is, if a supply priest consecrates extra

wine and wafers ahead of time, we could have a few trained laypersons distribute them at other services,

thereby having the Eucharist even when no priest is available. We are now working to find a day in

December when Canon Carrie can come here to do a full day training with lay worship leaders (from

Emmanuel, as well as St. Matthew’s).

Would you be interested in participating in this training? Please let us know – either the Vestry or Melissa

Ransom in the office. We’d also love it if you would share your responses to the above questions and other

input for our “profile” and ad for a new priest. Thank you!