Teresa Lee will draw upon parish experience to meet catechists’ needs
Teresa Lee subscribes to the philosophy that one should be part of a solution, not part of the problem. She describes the way she handles matters as “concrete and practical.”
Together, those approaches provide context for how a person with a degree in business management from ODU and eight years in retail management, including stints at the department stores Miller & Rhodes and Thalhimers, became a religious educator, a parish director of religious education, a parish director of evangelization and, as of June 20, director of the Diocese of Richmond’s Office of Christian Formation.
The problem for which she wanted to be a solution followed her daughter’s first year in religious education.
“I was very unhappy with the way the program was when my oldest child — now 31 — was in kindergarten. It was a very negative environment,” Lee said. “I went to the director at the time and told her, ‘I’ll volunteer to be a catechist.’ I did not want to teach my daughter’s grade, so I began teaching second grade. I was a second grade catechist for many years.”
Lee credits Notre Dame Sister Bernadette Kenninger, the parish director of religious education, for mentoring her.
“She fostered in me the idea of being able to recognize people’s talent that maybe they can’t see themselves. She definitely saw something in me and encouraged me, not to just keep on volunteering, but to further my own faith development,” Lee said.
Recognizing what Lee could do as a religious educator, Sister Bernadette hired her as a coordinator — a decision that might have been providential. “She passed away very unexpectedly, and so I was able to step in as director,” Lee said. “God was clearing this path and preparing me for this next step without me realizing it.”
Called to serve
Lee noted that as director she was not only entrenched in children’s religious education, but, because “jobs were cobbled together,” she was also involved in middle school, youth ministry, confirmation preparation as well as all the children’s programs.
Although her degree in business “served me very well in this ministry,” according to Lee, she recognized the need for getting an education in theology. She entered the diocese’s Lay Ecclesial Ministry Institute (LEMI).
“That’s why in 2012, because of the opportunity the diocese offered, I decided to get my master’s degree, because at a certain point I wanted to go a step further beyond the workshops being offered,” Lee said, noting that the diocese’s financial support for LEMI students made it possible for her to enroll.
Earning a master’s degree in theology from St. Leo University in 2016 and being commissioned as a lay ecclesial minister in 2017 “opened up some doors for me,” Lee said.
Feeling “there wasn’t anywhere for me to go” at St. Bridget, she was ready for another ministry opportunity.
“We talk about this as a vocation, and there definitely was a calling,” Lee said. “God was definitely tapping me on the shoulder as he had done many times, and this was one of the times I answered in the right way. I’d answered before, but not always in the right way.”
The calling in 2016 was to her parish, St. Mary, Richmond, to be director of evangelization.
“It was something completely different, working exclusively in adult formation. That was a very different role, something I could craft. It was a new position,” she said. “In six years, it became different from when I started.”
When Emily Filippi, a religious educator for 50 years, including 30 as director of the Diocese of Richmond’s Office of Christian Formation, announced her retirement earlier this year, Lee did not apply for the position immediately.
“I really had to think about it. It was quite a discernment process. I had some things going on in my life, personal things,” she said. “I really needed to be able to focus on what this position was going to mean for me and for the diocese. It impacted a lot of people. I knew I could do the job, but I had to decide whether this is what I really wanted to do.”
Support for leaders
Her more than 15 years of parish experience are a factor in how Lee is approaching her job.
“Understanding that the leaders in the parishes have a lot of demands on their time and their energy, we have to be very respectful of that and make sure that what we are offering them is quality — and it is,” she said.
Working “efficiently” with them is imperative, Lee said.
“It’s not about what we think they need, it’s about what they actually need. It’s about being available to answer their questions and provide resources for them,” she said. “When we’re looking at programming we want to do for the leaders, we need to consider if this is conflicting with the busiest time in their parishes.”
Lee added that her office is cognizant that there are parishes with limited financial resources.
“We’re here to advocate for them and help them, not be a burden,” she said.
Lee referenced the mentoring she received from Sister Bernadette in noting a goal for her office.
“I had somebody who recognized the talents that I had and helped me develop those, gave me the resources to do that,” she said. “What we want to do is create leaders who know that we understand how smart they are, how talented they are, give them the resources they need so that they have these thriving ministries in their parishes.”
‘Create together’
Lee’s plans for the office include expanding what exists, e.g., the LEARN Portal, but focusing on other areas, too.
“A big area is connecting to Spanish-speaking people in our parishes. We’re working toward having a bilingual associate director because it’s very important that we have one,” she said. “That will give us the ability to communicate to a significant population in our diocese.”
Another priority is to spend time meeting with parish leaders in the western part of the diocese.
“Heralds of Faith (held for the first time last year in Roanoke) was a way for Bishop Knestout to be with the catechists. We need to go out and into the parishes and really understand what they need — what’s going on in their parishes and what can we do, what do they need from our office,” she said.
Lee wants parish leaders to turn to her office and say, “Can you help us with this?”
“Whatever it is, we can respond and say, ‘Yes, let’s do this together. Let’s create this together,’” she said.