The Diocese of Sioux City recently announced that marriage and family life will no longer be a stand-alone office but will be merged into the Office of Faith Formation to best serve the parishes.
Deacon Mark Prosser, chief of staff, said the decision to restructure and merge the offices came after months of discerning and planning. Two factors moved the office merger forward: the director’s position for marriage and family had been open for many months and the diocese had been receiving many positive comments about the work of the Office of Faith Formation.
Karmen Bower, who was hired in June of 2023 as director of faith formation, will remain director of the office. She is presently assisted by two faith formation coordinators – Danielle Fennessy and Madeleine McLarty.
“Since Karmen has taken over faith formation, she and her team have really focused on being out in the field and on the ground with DREs, pastors and so on across the diocese,” said Deacon Prosser, who noted the office has shifted most meetings/trainings to a deanery level model for accessibility.
The main philosophy of this move is to have one office provide faith formation for the entire continuum of one’s life – from infants for baptism preparation, to children for religious education classes and adults for marriage preparation as well as adult faith formation programs.
“A parish is made up of people at all different stages of life,” said Bower. “I am really excited about the cohesiveness of what we might be able to help parishes implement.”
Perhaps it is a sponsor couple, she noted, who then can follow a newly married couple through baptismal preparation. Rather than having all ministries separated, existing relationships could help services naturally flow over into other areas of the faith formation continuum.
“You need community to successfully live a life of discipleship,” explained Bower. “We are looking at where those relationships are and rather than having them disjointed, we can explore ways that we can help people walk through all parts of life by using relationships that are already built.”
While relationships between parish staff and parishioners are important so are building relationships between the diocesan staff and parish personnel.
Often, noted Bower, parish ministry staff are quite small so they can sometimes feel isolated in their work. The diocesan faith formation staff has found that parish staff value the opportunity to bounce ideas off of them.
“That sense of isolation is one we are hoping to chip away at by being there for them and helping to build a community – to know they can call another DRE if they are using the same curriculum,” she said. “We are trying to strengthen those networking connections and our availability.”
One of the benefits in having these ministry services under one umbrella, noted Deacon Prosser, is that pastors and parishes leaders will know who or what chancery office to call when they have questions about the gamut of faith formation programming and services. He referred to it as a “one-stop shop.”
The deacon said Bishop Walker Nickless saw value in offering simplicity to pastors and parish staff.
“What we see in the parish is we tend to have the same people who are involved in all parts of parish life,” said Bower. “There might be the second grade catechist who is also a cantor at Mass and also might help with OCIA (formerly RCIA). There is usually a lot of overlap. Oftentimes, the ministries of our parishes are not rigidly divided between different people.”
If someone calls the Office of Faith Formation with a question about religious education, they might also have a question about baptismal preparation, grief counseling or other ministry programs that fall under the auspices of faith formation.
With the approval of this office merger, Bishop Nickless also authorized the hiring of an additional faith formation coordinator.
Bower pointed out that currently the two faith formation coordinators on staff divide their coverage area between the northern and southern parts of the diocese. Once a third coordinator is in place, the three will be assigned a coverage area to serve as the point of contact for parishes. This helps parishes know exactly who to call.
“Our coordinators will really be able to integrate themselves into parish life as they won’t be stretched as thin, which will be a big benefit,” said the director.
When it comes to programming and services related to marriage and family life, both Bower and Deacon Prosser acknowledged there is bit of a learning curve.
Given the faith formation staff has training and research to do regarding this added ministry, the deacon noted the office will not be at optimum efficiency on day one. As the staff gets up to speed in this area, they will be able to answer questions, be a resource for parishes “and with time and training, our operational efficiency across the whole spectrum will become more efficient.”
“Right now, we are starting the process of diving deep into what is already being offered in the parishes,” noted Bower, who said there is an array of programs being offered. “We will probably focus on individual parishes, see what they are doing and then help them do it well.”