Diocesan Profile 2024

Invitation from the Chair

Thank you for discerning with us in this process to call the ninth Bishop Diocesan of

The Diocese of West Missouri. We hope these pages, telling of the ministry and mission in

our diocese, are a guide for you as we, together, seek the will of God in this process.

Addressing the Primary Convention of West Missouri, the Rt. Rev. Daniel Sylvester Tuttle,

serving then as Bishop of Missouri, addressed the people who would later become The

Diocese of West Missouri saying, "Yours is a glorious mission field. Talk missions,

work missions, love missions." As we, in 2024, behold God's ministry and mission enacted

in and through The Diocese of West Missouri, this same truth is as clear to us in 2024 as it

was to Bishop Tuttle in 1890: in every corner, congregation, and community of The

Diocese of West Missouri, the mission field is glorious. From rural congregations to suburban

and urban, from the breathtaking Ozarks to large cities in Springfield and Kansas City, in a hospital system

and Episcopal school, in worship and outreach and learning, and in every moment of every place, the Holy Spirit continues to shed abroad God's promise of hope and love and life in this place. In the middle of all this, we continue to discover that God's mission field in West Missouri remains glorious these 130+ years later.

In January 2024, a large cross-section of our 47 congregations and communities gathered in 16 listening sessions; additionally, we received survey feedback from nearly 250 members of our diocese as we began to hear of the challenges, dreams, and values we share as we discern God’s will in electing the IX Bishop of The Diocese of West Missouri. We have discovered that, across our vast diversity, we share more in common than we don’t. The common ground we share, the perspective of meeting in the middle, does not equate with being average or complacent in this place, but a generous space in which we encounter one another and God and from which we are sent forth by God’s Spirit. Collectively, we are a people who are committed to knowing and serving our communities, with worship as our foundation for all of the ministry we share in our diocese.

When he stood to address the first convention of the nascent Diocese of West Missouri, our first bishop, the Rt. Rev. Edward Robert Atwill said, “Thus with many hearts to love the Diocese, with many tongues to pray, with many minds to think and many to work … the Lord’s arm will be stretched out to prosper and to bless, and our dream will come true.” With many hearts to love this place and with many tongues praying and thinking and working, we know the vision God has for God’s Kingdom come to earth is coming true here.

We thank you for your prayerful consideration in joining us in this discernment, and we look forward to sharing this sacred time with you.

The Rev. Steven King

Chair, Bishop Search Committee

Video message from the Chair of the Bishop Search Committee, The Rev. Steven King

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We’re Distinctly Midwestern

Welcome to Missouri. Jokingly referred to by some as Misery or the South of the Midwest, the Show-Me-State is a vibrant place of farms, small towns, big cities, and everything in between. You’ll experience all four seasons here, sometimes in the same week! Our diocese encompasses the western half of the state. While St. Louis, in that other diocese, is sometimes referred to as the furthest West of the Eastern U.S., Kansas City – our diocesan see – is the beginning of the West. Until 1991, the Kansas City Stockyards flourished as the premier place to sell livestock for over 100 years. If you were “going west” in the 19th century, you likely

departed on a trail from Kansas City. Today, our see city has a booming economy with industry, housing, and public transportation

continually expanding.

We sit at the crossroads of the United States. According to the latest census data, Hartville, in the southeast part of our diocese, is the

population center of the U.S. The southern part of the diocese is anchored by Springfield, our diocese’s second largest city and the home

of Bass Pro Shops. This is the heart of the Ozarks, a geographical area with many people descended from settlers who came from

Appalachia and with strong cultural ties to that past.

As we look to our truthful-but-tragic past, we recognize our diocese had 25 lynchings in 15 different counties according to eji.org. Through

the work of our Diversity & Reconciliation Commission, we’ve held two pilgrimages to lynching sites to pray and lament together – one in

Springfield and one in St. Joseph. St. Augustine’s in Kansas City is our only remaining historically Black congregation, and it’s a hub for

many of our efforts toward diversity and reconciliation.

Most of the Native American population of Missouri had been pushed out by White settlers by the time of our statehood in 1821.

Native peoples included the Kickapoo, Shawnee, Ioway, Otoe-Missouria, Delaware, and Osage. Many tribes passed through our state on

their way to the Indian Territory of present-day Oklahoma on the Trail of Tears. In August 2023, the Rev. Bradley Hauff came to lead a

workshop on the Doctrine of Discovery as we seek to diversify our learning and perspective.

Many of the communities that make up our diocese, particularly in rural areas, have significant portions of the population who are Hispanic.

Our diocesan missioner for Hispanic ministry, the Rev. Canon José Palma, is nationally recognized for his work of congregational development

among rural communities in southwest Missouri. The congregations he leads in Carthage and Noel are among the first of our diocese to hold services in Spanish, and we look forward to increasing our ministry among Hispanic communities across West Missouri.

Parishioners of St. Augustine’s commemorate the lynching of three African American men in Springfield, MO on Juneteenth.

Museums & Attractions

Pony Express National Museum St. Joseph

National WWI Museum & Memorial Kansas City

Wonder of Wildlife

National Museum & Aquarium

Springfield

Table Rock Lake

Laura Ingalls Wilder

Historic Home & Museum

Mansfield

52

State Parks & Historic Sites

7

National Historic Trails

1

National Monument

George Washington Carver

1

National Battlefield

Wilson’s Creek

1

National Heritage Area

Freedom’s Frontier

1

National Riverway

Ozark National Scenic

1

National Historic Site

Harry S. Truman

Kansas City Chiefs (NFL)

Kansas City Royals (MLB)

Sporting Kansas City (MLS)

Kansas City Current (NWSL)

KC Current will play in the first stadium built for women’s professional sports.

Springfield Cardinals (Double-A Affiliate)

“Yours is a glorious Missionary field. Talk Missions, work Missions, love Missions from the very start.”

The Rt. Rev. Daniel Sylvester Tuttle, D.D., Bishop of Missouri

Primary Convention of West Missouri, 1890

It’s no exaggeration to say The Diocese of West Missouri exists

because of its missional heart. The Episcopal Church came to our

state with the Rt. Rev. Jackson Kemper, consecrated in 1835 as The

Episcopal Church’s first missionary bishop and known for good reason

as “Bishop of the Whole Northwest.” Kemper brought his missional heart to Missouri, founding four congregations in the western half of our state, which are still alive today: Christ Church, Boonville (the second congregation begun in Missouri, 1835); St. Mary’s, Fayette (1836); Christ Church, Lexington (1844), and Trinity, Independence (1844). The Diocese of Missouri was organized in 1841, and faithful lay people and clergy started scores of mission stations in the western half – from Amazonia and St. Joseph in the northwest, down the river to Kansas City, overland to Carthage and Springfield in the southwest, and as far east as West Plains – 375 miles away from northwesternmost Skidmore, still the home of St. Oswald’s-in-the-Fields (literally). Even newly founded

congregations felt the call to keep finding new neighbors to serve: Grace Church in Carthage, organized in 1870, planted

St. Philip’s in nearby Joplin just four years later.

Two congregations from this period reflect our Church’s troubled history with people of color in western Missouri. In 1882, the

diocese founded a congregation in downtown Kansas City, named for St. Augustine of Hippo and set aside for Black people.

Despite being marginalized in resources and in governance (not accepted as a parish until 1950 even with significant growth),

St. Augustine’s has proclaimed the kingdom boldly in word and deed for 142 years. Black Episcopalians also founded a

congregation in St. Joseph, St. Matthias’ Church, in 1885, a mission lasting until 1957.

West Missourians also answered the call to serve their neighbors through the founding of what would become Saint Luke’s Health

System. In 1882, the rector of St. Mary’s in Kansas City organized All Saints’ Hospital to serve people in need. Later renamed for

St. Luke, the hospital is the heart of a system that has become one of Kansas City’s premier healthcare institutions and recently

integrated with BJC HealthCare of St. Louis, expanding its capacity for clinical research while keeping its Episcopal identity strong.

The urge to share the Good News through new worshiping communities grew at such a pace that the diocese split in 1886,

retaining the eastern half (more or less) as the Diocese of Missouri and creating a new Diocese of Kansas City, later renamed West

Missouri, to include the 52 parishes and missions planted in the 40 years since Bishop Kemper. At our first convention, the

Rt. Rev. Daniel Tuttle, whose passion and energy had helped create our new diocese, named the missionary task before us.

Christ Church, Boonville, MO

Oldest Church in the Diocese of West Missouri

There is no story here.” Spencer later led his parish to unite with another congregation to become Grace & Holy Trinity Cathedral in Kansas City, where he continued to ​preach about the call to serve and build relationships across social divides. Recognizing his missional heart, the people of West Missouri elected him bishop in 1930 – ​the last time a bishop was elected from within our diocese. He described his program as bishop this way: “I hope to make the Episcopalians of West Missouri Christians.” ​Despite the Great Depression, Spencer led the diocese in more special funding for mission work, raising $113,000

in today’s value. The effort restored missionary activity to rural churches across the diocese and supported clergy for

the rest of the decade. After World War II, Spencer led another fundraising push to help existing mission

congregations in high-population areas become self-supporting and do their own mission work. Spencer resigned in

1949, having worked himself into a heart attack, but his second missional fundraising effort still exceeded its goal.

From the early 1950s to the early 1970s, led by the Rt. Rev. Edward Welles, West Missouri added 10 congregations

in urban centers and rural locations, including St. Nicholas in Noel, today one of two centers of Hispanic ministry in

southwest Missouri. The 1990s brought another wave of church planting in Kansas City and Springfield, as well as

St. Alban’s in Bolivar – today a vital contrast presence in a rural area dominated by evangelical Protestantism.

Since the 1990s, we’ve put our missional energy less into church planting and more into serving Christ in the people

around us. Today, even in our smallest congregations, faithful Episcopalians are reaching out to people in need nearby.

For example, at St. Philip’s in Trenton, a congregation with an average Sunday attendance of five, members participate in three local anti-poverty efforts and three ​ministries supporting families at local schools, host a recovery group, and broadcast Compline on the local radio station on Sunday nights. Similarly, a member of ​Trinity in Lebanon started a local teen shelter after learning about the concept at a diocesan workshop. You’ll find the same wiring in larger congregations, just ​expressed on a different scale. St. Paul’s in Kansas City operates a food pantry containing five different feeding ministries and led the way with our diocese’s first official ​participation in Kansas City’s PrideFest, after years of individual parishes participating. (In 2024, the Episcopal presence at Ozarks Pridefest in Springfield will be ​diocesan-sponsored in addition to the work the parishes have been building there.) Grace & Holy Trinity Cathedral founded what’s become NourishKC, a local ​antihunger organization, and now hosts Pete’s Garden, an agency providing meals to families with less-than-living-wage jobs. Christ Church and St. James Church in ​Springfield each have years-long partnerships with local elementary schools and feed their neighbors throughout the

year. St. Andrew’s in Kansas City has relationships with 15 local service organizations and schools, gave away more than

$200,000 to support outreach efforts last year, and operates a community center and coffee shop for its neighbors.

Redeemer in Kansas City supports hundreds of families through their Northland Infant Clothing Center. And several

West Missouri congregations have long-standing relationships supporting parishes and schools in Haiti.

Along with celebrating our willingness to follow Bishop Tuttle and “talk Missions, work Missions, love Missions,” we

recognize our failures to stand alongside people of color in West Missouri through much of our history. Our Black

congregations received less support and less respect than White congregations (underscoring the remarkable story of

perseverance by St. Augustine’s in Kansas City). The diocese has only recently begun marking its history of 25

lynchings through prayer and witness at lynching sites. And, although we’ve supported Hispanic ministry with the

work of a diocesan staff member since 1991, we haven’t yet taken that missional impulse beyond southwest Missouri.

Building our diversity is a growing edge for us, one we hope our next bishop will help us expand.

We also want to be direct about our experience of our diocese’s last episcopate. In a nutshell: Most diocesan stakeholders found our bishop insufficiently engaged in ​the lives of our congregations and felt that his communication and pastoral care lacked empathy. Several diocesan members from traditionally marginalized groups ​said they felt they weren’t heard and that their concerns weren’t taken seriously. These issues led to The Episcopal Church’s first Title III action toward reconciliation of a ​pastoral relationship, in which the Standing Committee shared with our bishop what changes most West Missouri stakeholders needed to see in their relationship with ​him. That relationship came to an end when the bishop resigned. Through our Title III process, and especially through the ongoing work of our Bishop Provisional, we’ve ​come to see more clearly our own contributions to this troubled relationship. As a diocesan family, we find it challenging to speak truth directly, especially in conflicted ​relationships. We easily slip into the shadow side of “Midwest nice,” keeping up appearances for people with whom we disagree and triangulating our real concerns to ​someone else. We’re committed to dismantling these dysfunctional patterns, and we seek a bishop who can help equip us for the work of ministry by helping us “come ​to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature

of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13). One expression of this commitment is our new practice of hosting mutual and

collaborative ministry reviews that are loving and honest, allowing us and our bishop to name our perceptions of

each other, jointly strengthening our diocesan ministries and our relationship. Therefore, we also seek a bishop

whose wiring for mission is matched by wiring for relationship, collegiality, and collaboration.

St. Oswald’s-in-the-Fields

Harvest Festival 2023

Members of the diocese at Kansas City PrideFest

Canon Shirley Bolden facilitating conversation at a Diversity and Reconciliation Retreat

The Rev. Galen Snodgrass holding the Episcopal flag at Kansas City PrideFest

As a “Jackson Kemper diocese,” West Missouri might be considered part of the “Biretta Belt” of Midwestern dioceses living out the richness and deep sacramentality of Anglo-Catholic liturgical life. And that’s true – at least in some of our congregations. But our liturgical practice in West Missouri reflects the theology underlying our common life. We’re an incarnation of unity in diversity, and one of our chief expressions of that unity is gathering at the Lord’s table. Regardless of how it’s celebrated, the Eucharist is not just officially “the principal act of Christian worship on the Lord’s Day” (BCP, 13) but, practically, what even our smallest congregations expect a full experience of Sunday morning to include; we’re actively reorganizing our clergy to ensure every congregation has regular access to the Sacrament. The celebration of the Holy Eucharist looks quite different from one context to the next. A few miles from Anglo-Catholic St. Mary’s in downtown Kansas City (which lives into its longtime moniker “Smokey Mary’s”), our cathedral and two other larger parishes embrace a broad-church ethos. At one, St. Andrew’s, you’ll find icons on the wall and a vested choir, but the music might as likely be a spiritual or an old Protestant hymn as a William Byrd motet; and the

midweek service in its community center features prayers and songs on a screen, interactive preaching, and

worshipers serving each other Communion. At St. Augustine’s in Kansas City, in a round brick building inspired by the

Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem and worship spaces in Scandinavia, you’ll find high-church worship – and

liturgical dancers, too.

Our diversity only grows as you look and listen across the diocese. You’ll hear Cursillo standards and the Anglican

Chant Psalter, praise choruses and chanted gospels. You’ll hear congregational worship in Spanish and bilingual

liturgies at diocesan events. You’ll see quinceaneras at Hispanic congregations in the southwest and at a suburban

parish in northern Kansas City. You’ll hear bagpipes leading the Palm Sunday procession outside St. Andrew’s as well

as leading the Kirkin’ o’ the Tartans at our cathedral in Kansas City and in parishes in Springfield. You’ll experience the

annual Harvest Festival in Skidmore, centered around a special service at St. Oswald’s-in-the-Fields. You’ll see a celebration of

la Fiesta de la Virgen de Guadalupe at Grace Church in Carthage and the annual Absalom Jones commemoration at St. Augustine’s in Kansas City.

Canon Jose Palma at the celebration la Fiesta de la Virgen de Guadalupe

Grace Church, Carthage

During the discernment toward these statements, we realized one of the practical implications of our work – possibly the most significant – meant aligning our budget with our values. We needed to put our money where our mouth is, so we got to work. 2023 became the year of building a brand-new budget.

The pillars of our missional work – proclaiming the Good News, forming disciples, serving others, and striving for justice – became the framework for discerning what new and renewed ministries would be funded by our diocesan budget. Throughout the budgeting process, proposals were considered and plans were formulated to align our diocesan work and witness with these pillars. Building the budget around these pillars of our missional work was a continuation of the discernment process begun by the Diocesan Council and Standing Committee. We also asked our entire diocese to join in shaping our response to God’s call.

One of the guiding principles was to build the budget from the ground up. From the beginning, communications were sent to every address on diocesan communications lists to inform the entire diocese of the 2024 budgeting process. First, a message announcing a new budget process asked every member of the diocese to prayerfully and creatively discern what ministries our diocese might pursue in the future. Once the mission and vision statements were finalized, another message was sent to all on our communication lists requesting proposals be submitted for the 2024 budget – both new ideas as well as present ministries. All proposals were expected to justify their ministries against the pillars of mission; ministries previously included in the diocesan budget were also given space to reflect on their prior work and reorient as they saw fit for future ministry. Nothing except canonically required expenses were automatically included in the 2024 diocesan budget. At the conclusion of the initial proposals period, over $6 million of ministry proposals were submitted, $4 million more than previous diocesan budgets.

In addition to the expenses of diocesan ministry being rebuilt from the ground up, revenue streams were reconsidered for funding this mission. Diocesan investments and endowments were reexamined to clarify their purposes and efficiently fund our ministries. The Assessment Review Committee compared the assessment formulas of 54 dioceses and presented a variety of recommendations to the Diocesan Council for funding our shared ministries. Of particular note are the Diocesan Council’s passionate and personal conversations about the assessments of our congregations. Vastly different models – some skewing heavily toward increased burden on different portions of the diocese – were ultimately rejected. Voices representing the smallest churches strongly advocated for models that retained or increased their contributions, recognizing the value of our common life and wanting “to have skin in the game”; consensus was embraced around slight increases all around, with each church having its assessment rate elevated to invest in the larger budget needed for our diocesan ministries.

Working as a committee of the whole, the Diocesan Council spent a significant amount of each monthly meeting (often, the majority of the meeting time) to discern, negotiate, and construct drafts of the 2024 budget. As drafts were made, copies were distributed through the deanery councils for feedback from across the diocese. Feedback was shared through local churches’ delegates to the deanery councils; the deans compiled the feedback at each meeting and shared it with the Diocesan Council for consideration in the ongoing work of building the budget. Shifts, both major and minor, were made nearly every month as the Diocesan Council met to work on the budget, with diocesan staff and volunteer leaders collaboratively calculating and building this

budget. The final budget – enthusiastically adopted by the 2023 Annual Convention of The Diocese of

West Missouri without the contention that had overshadowed many previous conventions – reflects

countless hours of prayerful discernment and logistical undertaking from members of our diocese

responding to God’s call for us, pondering anew what the Almighty can do.

Enduring the messiness of this budgeting process while discerning God’s call unified our diocese in

myriad ways, and it reminded us that this work of meeting in the middle must continue, even though

the strenuous zero-based budgeting process has ended. Many of the proposals that didn’t make it into

this budget were thought to be right for the trajectory of our diocese but not right for this time,

especially those that would require hiring additional diocesan staff members before we elected our next

bishop. Some of the proposals that were ultimately included had been scaled down with the intent of

building up to a fuller vision of that ministry. All the proposals submitted in this budgeting venture have

been retained for future consideration.

As you peruse our current budget, you’ll find that we’re financially in the middle. Our diocesan financial resources are stable and sufficient for the work at hand. Rather than being stretched thin or seeing overflowing excess, we seem to have right-sized our budget and established our investments for long-term sustainability. See pages 35-39 of our 2024 budget for descriptions of our $10+ million in investment funds and trusts.

Our ministries and institutions

The 47 congregations of our diocese are each unique, and many have ministries in their communities that extend much further than one might guess. To show the variety of ministries our churches and institutions are engaged in, we invite you to peruse The Diocese of West Missouri’s recently updated Episcopal Asset Map.

In recent years, we have started, restarted, and strengthened many of our diocesan commissions, committees, and ministries. Visit this page to learn about our committee focused on accessibility, a devotional society for hunters and anglers, a fellowship for veterans, and many other ministries that strengthen our work in the holy messiness of ministry in the middle.

Saint Luke’s Health System is Kansas City’s only locally-owned, not-for-profit health system consisting of 14 hospitals and campuses with more than 12,000 employees across 67 counties of Missouri and Kansas. Saint Luke’s Episcopal history is detailed above, and the ongoing relationship between the health system and The Diocese of West Missouri lives on in many ways. The Bishop of West Missouri serves as the chair of the board of Saint Luke’s Hospital and the Bishop Spencer Place retirement community; the health system’s Director of Spiritual Wellness must be a priest of the diocese, and other clergy serve as chaplains in the system; we continue to send postulants for holy orders to complete Clinical Pastoral Education at Saint Luke’s.

Unaffiliated with Saint Luke’s in Kansas City, St. Luke’s Nursing Center in Carthage was established in 1972 as a ministry of The Episcopal Church in the area. The 95-bed skilled-nursing facility and assisted-living apartments are overseen by a board that is required to be majority Episcopalian, including the Rector and members of Grace Church, Carthage.

For over 10 years, The Diocese of West Missouri has sponsored The Bishop Kemper School for Ministry (BSKM) through funding from our operating budget, membership on the school’s board, and sending dozens of postulants and lay-certificate students to BKSM for their education and formation, in addition to having members of the diocese serving on BKSM’s faculty. BKSM is a collaborative venture of the Episcopal dioceses of Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, West Missouri, and Western Kansas, and it partners with the Central States Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Diocesan Metrics

Delegates at the 2023 Annual Convention of The Diocese of West Missouri

Diocesan Counties with Congregations

Explore more of our deanery metrics

“We’ve moved from being silos of churches to starting to see ourselves as one body together. It’s important and needs to continue.”

– Long-serving diocesan staff member

“It’s important for the bishop not only to remind us of all the work they are doing but also celebrate the work we are doing.” – Listening-session participant

Important Church Missions (Top 5)

Members of the diocese were asked to rank missions based on their importance.

1. Support of existing congregations
2. Ministries to youth
3. Issues of social justice and peace (racism, hunger, poverty, violence, environmental ​issues)
4. Conflict resolution between groups/clergy/diocese
5. Development of clergy and lay ministers
   

“I hope every community in our diocese will have a clear sense of the gifts within them, who they are, and how they can connect with the world around them. Fear can become the louder voice, and I hope the next bishop will lead us into imagining what’s possible, not what’s impossible.”

– Listening-session participant

Skills & Interests Valued by our Diocese

1. Ability to work and communicate across differences of any kind
2. Effective pastor to all members of The Diocese of West Missouri
3. Innovator with demonstrated leadership gifts and skills in managing change
4. Vision for reaching the un-churched
5. Reconciler, skilled and experiences in conflict management