Interim School Principal
An Assumption parishioner reminded me that week that I never updated those parishioners on the school principal search. Now that I’m writing Pastor’s Notes for the entire county, this seems like an excellent opportunity to get everyone up to speed.
Short Version: Mrs. Karen Evans, who had been teaching middle school math part-time, will be serving as interim principal for the school next year. You can read the announcement letter here.
Long Version: Last spring, Mr. Dan Anderson, who had been principal at our school for the last 8 years, accepted a job as the Superintendent for Catholic Schools for the Diocese of Monterey, CA. Dan is a profoundly faithful man and a wonderful collaborator, and I and the school community were sad to see him go, even as we were happy he found such an excellent opportunity.
I am passionate about Catholic education, and believe that a Catholic school correctly oriented will form life-long disciples and regularly produce converts. I believe our school is already pointed in that direction, and I made a resolution not to settle for a principal who could not keep us advancing in that mission. Unfortunately, the timing of Mr. Anderson’s Monterey offer was such that we did not post our own open position until April, which is generally too late, and our dearth of applicants reflected that. Blessedly, one of our teachers, Mrs. Evans, offered to take on the principal job for one year so that we would have time to find the perfect applicant. I am so grateful for Mrs. Evans and I am very hopeful for where our principal search will take us.
Please remember that Assumption Catholic School has been intentional for many years about being the Catholic school for all of Whatcom County. It exists to serve Catholics first and foremost. This is even more true not that we are a united Family. Please pray for our school and please consider it for your children and grandchildren.
Meetings During July
A few of you have already had the unfortunate experience of asking to meet with me. Sadly, my response has been the same for everyone: I am not taking meetings during July, and August is not looking great either. This is not because I want to be distant, but because the complexity of what we are doing, merging four previously independent parish groupings into one, is immense, and the first few weeks are particularly sensitive. Remember, we previously had four priests, each running his own parish office. Now we have one priest (me!) running all four parish offices. I am happy to do it, but my sanity requires that I not have other responsibilities while I try to quickly reorient our systems to be Family-focused.
Thankfully, we have two other priests who will be happy to meet with you if you need time with a priest! Well, okay, only one during July while we wait for Fr. Stephan to arrive from India. But Fr. Thumbi is around and is available during the week. The priests rotate locations, so please contact your local parish office if you would like to meet with him, and the office will try to arrange a meeting for the next time Fr. Thumbi is available in your neighborhood. This may be one of the biggest changes for our people during the first six months – making a distinction between a pastor and a priest. Previously, whether someone needed to secure funding for a new ministry or they just needed a confession, it was the same guy. But now, different priests have different responsibilities, and my skillset has pushed me towards being the administrative priest, while Fr. Thumbi and Fr. Stephan will be providing the bulk of the pastoral care for our people. This is not to say that I will not be hearing confessions, or walking with people in joy, grief, confusion, and conversion (I am still a priest), but I also need to be disciplined about leaving sufficient time for me to do the things that are my sole responsibility, while pushing things that our other priests can do towards them.
Fr. Moore 