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	Items from St. Alban's were carried in the opening procession into St. Stephen's at the first service of the merged parish Aug. 6. Participants included (from left) Carolyn Standifer, A.J. (Brad) Bradley, Stephanie Wolpink, Audrey Bradley and Bill Hull. Photo by Melodie Woerman

Two Wichita parishes merge
Combined ministry will offer stronger Episcopal presence

By Melodie Woerman
Editor, The Harvest

St. Alban’s, Wichita, was at a crossroad. Membership was down, with about 40 people in church on Sunday. It was viable, but just barely, with people still reeling from a conflict with a former rector a few years ago. “We were like a bird in a shrinking cage,” said Bill Whitaker, a 15-year member of the parish.

Three and a half miles away, St. Stephen’s was at its own crossroad. Its Sunday attendance was hovering at just under 100, in part from its own conflict with a priest in the recent past. A new rector had been called, but there was concern. How could they reach that critical mass of members needed to really grow, to offer programs, to make a difference in their community?

Each parish knew it needed help. They discovered all they really needed was each other.

After only six months of meetings and negotiations, the two parishes have merged and formed a new congregation that will offer a stronger Episcopal Church presence in northeast Wichita.

“We no longer will be small and struggling but strong and growing,” said the Rev. Steven Mues, rector of the former St. Stephen’s parish.

The new parish will use the existing St. Stephen’s facility, since it’s larger and more functional. The St. Alban’s property will be sold, and thanks to a vote of the diocesan Council of Trustees, the proceeds will go not to the diocese but to the new parish for ministry needs. Liturgical items from St. Alban’s, everything from candlesticks to the altar cross, will be incorporated into worship at St. Stephen’s.

Other aspects of parish life also will be joined. Mues will be the rector of the new parish, and St. Alban’s priest-in-charge, the Rev. Jim Mitchell, will be the assistant priest. Vestries, budgets, choirs and program committees all will be combined.

Parish leaders noted that resolving those issues, while complex, happened with some ease. The only thing that proved difficult was a name. And even there they found a compromise.

For now, the parish will be known as the “Combined Ministry of St. Alban’s and St. Stephen’s.” By January the parish will come up with a process to help decide — jointly — on a name.

Based in friendship

Mues said he’d only been on the job two weeks last October when Mitchell called him for lunch. The two discussed ways their parishes could share ministry opportunities, and they discovered they each had a passion for growing the church — and a growing personal friendship.

In January they convened a task force on shared ministry, made up of the clergy, wardens and a member from each parish. Members of that group discovered they had many goals in common, especially increasing membership and expanding outreach efforts.

While they met, other parishioners got better acquainted through dinner meetings and a combined Lenten program.

By spring the task force members had concluded that a merger would offer the two congregations what they wanted most — the chance to grow and be a significant presence in the community.

That group came up with a written plan and presented it to both vestries. Joint meetings between the task force and vestry members followed, along with two open meetings in each parish so people could learn more about the proposal.

Mues and Mitchell met together with people in their homes to answer questions and allay the logical fears that arose.

Mitchell said St. Alban’s was afraid that, being the smaller of the two congregations, they would be seen as “poor cousins who couldn’t make it on our own, coming with hat in hand to the rich cousins,” he said.

He helped them realize that while small, they had gifts to offer to the union, including some financial resources, good programs and effective lay leadership. “People now are coming in not as poor cousins but as brothers and sisters,” he said.

At St. Stephen’s there were questions, too. Mues said the parish felt it had turned a corner with his call as rector, and this could change that. “They asked themselves why they should do this.”

Through joint discussion, however, both congregations came to see that “there is strength in numbers,” according to St. Stephen’s senior warden Lyndon Wells. “We wanted to get to program size, with more outreach, youth programs and Christian education.”

In May, the two vestries adopted the plan to merge, but it required a vote of each parish to finalize it.

Each congregation met on June 18, and while task force members expected the measure to pass, even they were surprised by the margin. At St. Stephen’s the vote to merge was 117 to 1; at St. Alban’s it was 33 to 1.

Mues said the speed with which the merger happened surprised him. “It was if we were running to keep up with the Spirit’s leading in this,” he said. “Amazing consensus developed at nearly every turn.”

‘Today’s the wedding’

The first service of the new merged parish took place Aug. 6, but it came only after the people of St. Alban’s said good-bye to their building.

At the last service there July 30, members were asked to gather items from around the church that had meaning for them. Kneelers, hymnals, vestments and other items were placed at the foot of the altar for the final Eucharist there.

Those things then were carried in the opening procession at St. Stephen’s and placed around that altar, a move Mitchell saw as significant. “This is a symbol of going on a journey,” he said. “It’s not just words and prayers but something physical.”

Wells noted the excitement that was present among attenders before the service began. “It’s like a marriage,” he said, “and today’s the wedding.”

A proud bishop

Bishop Dean Wolfe was on hand to celebrate the Eucharist and preach. Looking out at the crowd of 200 that filled the pews, he said, “No bishop could be as proud of a parish as I am of this one.”

Noting the struggles the congregations endured in recent years, he said, “Each of these parishes survived because a handful of faithful and tenacious people just wouldn’t give up. And each of these two parishes is filled with gifted and faithful people who have much to contribute to the building up of the Kingdom. God rightly expects us to do better going forward, and our collective presence here today is an outward and visible sign that we intend to do precisely that.”

Members from St. Stephen’s said they were excited about the new future. Rick Gaskill said, “Everyone believes this is going to grow, so it is a chance to carry out the ministry each congregation wants to do. This will give us a critical mass. Something will happen that we have dreamt about.”

Plans already have begun to explore a ministry of friendship with staff and students at a nearby elementary school. Adult classes will be expanded, and special programs to impact youth are being discussed.

Suzanne Graham helped found St. Stephen’s with her parents in 1963 as a child. She admitted there were unknowns in the parish’s future but said members had a sense of excitement. “I see this as a tremendous opportunity,” she said. Whitaker said for the people of St. Alban’s the merger “was like breathing new life.”

When asked whether people would experience a sense of loss in leaving their building, he said he didn’t think so. “Jim (Mitchell) will be here,” he said. “We’ll have the people and our former landmarks.”

But Whitaker has suffered a true loss, when his wife of 44 years, Deacon Chrystle Whitaker, died suddenly of an apparent heart attack just three weeks before the inaugural service. He said she would have been proud of what happened.

Fourth merger

This is the fourth merger of parishes in the history of the diocese, and the second in Wichita. Good Shepherd Church was created in 1989 by the merger of St. Mark’s and St. Matthias’. In 1998 the Church of the Ascension, Kansas City, merged with St. Paul’s. That new parish retains the name St. Paul’s. In 1930 two parishes in Wakefield, St. John’s and St. George’s, combined their congregations and their church buildings to form the Church of Sts. John and George. That parish was closed a number of years ago, and the building now belongs to the local historical society.