September 09, 2022 – Pastor’s Note

Last month, my fellow priests elected me Dean of the Northern Deanery (all the Catholic parishes in Whatcom, Skagit, San Juan, and Island Counties). I wish I could say that I had done something to deserve it, but the honest truth is that I was the only priest in the area to accept the nomination. It can be a thankless job with plenty of additional work, and none of us are really incentivized by the slight pay bump. But I have always done well with committees and organization, so I choose to stand for election and won by default. (The one perk that does intrigue me, though, is that I get to use the title “Very Rev.” rather than just “Rev.” for my time as dean. Look forward to my leaning way too hard into that. 😉)

Now, I need to correct my statement above. Legally my fellow priests elected me as their representative to the Presbyteral Council, the group of priests that the Archbishop is required to consult regularly and on certain important matters. In the Archdiocese of Seattle, the custom (for a few decades?) has been that the Archbishop then appoints that Presbyteral Council representative as Dean of the Deanery that elected him. But, as I have recently learned, those two positions are separate and serve different functions. I learned this because Archbishop Etienne is looking to split those two positions going forward. As he put it, the Presbyteral Council representatives represent the priests to the Archbishop, while the Deans represent the Archbishop to the priests, and those two positions are not always best filled by the same person.

I must say, I have incredible respect for the administrative capabilities of our present Archbishop, and to hear him speak about trying to improve the functioning of our Archdiocese by returning us to the Code of Canon Law’s original intentions for these positions filled me with a childlike joy. I am really excited about being part of the process of rethinking the relationship between Deans and the Presbyteral Council, and I had no idea that I would get to dive so deeply into canon law by accepting this position. It (almost) makes up for all the additional work I have to do now. It also (almost) makes up for the fact that, in order to implement this change next year, the Archbishop has only given me a one-year term as Dean, rather than the standard three years, meaning I should probably not print any business cards with my new title on them.

If you would like to read the relevant canons (you know you do), you can find them here:

On Deans: (English || Spanish)
On the Presbyteral Council: (English || Spanish)

May the Lord bless you always,

Very Rev. Jeffrey H. Moore
Pastor, Church of the Assumption, Bellingham, WA
Dean, Northern Deanery, Archdiocese of Seattle

P.S. After linking to the Code, I noticed that Deans are also called “Archpriests”. Maybe I will print those business cards!