St. Paul’s and All Saints’ Cathedral in Conversations about Shared Ministry

Clergy, Vestry, and Search Committee members gathered with the All Saints’ Cathedral Dean and “Chapter” (the same thing as a Vestry, but for a Cathedral) at the home of Dean Kevin Carroll last Sunday, June 26. The event was hosted by Dean Carroll, who cooked burgers and brats for the crowd.

The congregational leaders were meeting socially to get to know each other better and to speak directly and informally about how the two congregations could collaborate in ministry and operations. Both congregations were founded in the 19th century, and have been one-block-away neighbors the whole time. Both congregations experienced major growth and vitality that began to taper off toward the end of the 20th century as mainline denominationalism began to decline. The decline at both congregations was especially acute in central Milwaukee because of major demographic change over the last several decades.

The two congregations are interested in finding ways to join forces in ministry and operations, including collaborating in outreach and internal programming, and sharing expensive human and operational resources. The clergy heads of both congregations have worked closely together to identify operations for collaboration that benefit both churches, and the efforts have been well received by the bishop and staff of the Diocese of Milwaukee. Both leadership teams are becoming acutely aware of the need for major operational changes in both congregations, and the Search Committee has joined the conversation because these efforts have a major bearing on identifying a new rector whose gifts and passions are aligned with this way of thinking.

The ongoing conversations with All Saints’ Cathedral will be the subject of the next Interim Rector Forum, which has not yet been scheduled, and all members of the parish are welcome to that conversation.

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