Louis Weil

1936-2022

The Rev. Dr. Louis Weil died on March 9, 2022, in Oakland, California.Born in Houston, Texas, in 1936, Louis completed his undergraduate work at Southern Methodist University, then continued his studies at Harvard University, The General Theological Seminary, and Institut Catholique de Paris (Ph.D in Sacred Liturgy). He was ordained to the diaconate in The Episcopal Church in 1961 and the priesthood in 1962, serving congregations and teaching posts in Puerto Rico and France until 1971, when he began teaching liturgics and church music at Nashotah House. In 1988 he joined the faculty at Church Divinity School of the Pacific, retiring in 2009.

As gregarious and beloved as he was with his students in the classroom, Weil never stopped begin devoted to the worship life of his denomination, and to making it make sense not only in its language, but in how it was led. As part of the revision team that created the 1979 Book of Common Prayer of The Episcopal Church, his was a critical voice in reshaping its baptismal rite, and re-centering the life of the denomination around the vows and grace bestowed at baptism. He continued his work on refining the liturgy of his church through four terms on the denomination’s Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music.

Weil was also a beloved member of the North American Academy of Liturgy, serving as its sixth president and recipient of the Berekah in 2012. His 2013 volume, Liturgical Sense, has become a classic for teaching both the history and practice of planning and presiding at Christian worship in and beyond The Episcopal Church. Ruth Myers, who succeeded him as Hodges-Haynes Professor of Liturgics at CDSP writes, “His wisdom, his pastoral insight, his humor, and his generous hospitality were legendary.”

Plans for the Rite of Christian Burial will be posted on the CDSP website when complete.

May Louis Weil rest in peace, and may his memory be for a blessing.

Image and Bio Credit: Church Divinity School of the Pacific

Charles Wallich Gusmer

October 11, 1938- March 24, 2021

Father Charlie, as he preferred to be called by those who knew him best, was a scholar and a priest whose training, experience, and long careers in both the academy and the parish bridged the pre- and post-Vatican II era.

Born in 1938 in Orange New Jersey, Gusmer completed his undergraduate degree at Seton Hall, pursued seminary work at Immaculate Conception in 1960, completing it at the Canisianum at The University of Innsbruck. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1966.

In 1967 he joined the faculty of Immaculate Conception Seminary, where he taught Sacramental Theology and Liturgy for 22 years, completing his doctorate at the University of Trier in 1970. A founding member of The North American Academy of Liturgy, he was elected Vice President in 1976, offering “A Bill of Rites: Liturgical Adaptation in America” as his Vice Presidential Address in 1977, and serving as President for the 1978 meeting.

Father Charlie left Immaculate Conception in 1990 to begin what would be a 19 year pastorate at St. Catherine of Sienna in Cedar Grove, New Jersey, from which he retired in 2009.  He remained active in his retirement years, service as Seton Associate of the Sisters of Charity beginning in 2013.

The Mass of Christian Burial was held at St Catherine of Siena Church on June 5, 2021. Services of evening prayer, vigil, and burial may be viewed at this link.

Donations are requested to The Scholarship Fund for Inner City Children, Archdiocese of Newark, PO Box 9500, Newark, NJ, 07104.

May Father Charlie rest in peace and rise rejoicing.

Bio and Image Credit: The Family and Friends of Charles W Gusmer

Scott Weidler

June 21, 1959 – January 23, 2021

Born and raised in the Los Angeles area, Scott completed degrees in elementary education from Concordia

University, Nebraska; in sacred music from Wittenberg University; and in liturgy from the University of Notre Dame. He served several congregations as cantor, including Good Shepherd Lutheran (Lancaster, PA) and Immanuel Lutheran (Chicago). He was also an integral part of the Leadership Program for Musicians, a partnership between The Episcopal Church and the

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Most recently, Scott had been Program Director for Worship and Music at the churchwide offices of the ELCA, where his significant contributions included the development of the denomination’s current hymnal (Evangelical Lutheran Worship, 2006), and a variety of related worship resources published as recently as 2017 (Singing in Community: Paperless Music for Worship). Scott had been a member of the Liturgical Music seminar of the North American Academy of Liturgy and remained an active contributor to regional and national programming and resources of the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians.

An online service to celebrate his life and work will be sponsored by the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians celebrate on Saturday, January 30, 2021, at 2:00 pm Eastern Time, with an online gathering and breakout rooms available following. You may register for the service here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUpd-2vrzMuGNzTRRaqmzUIAGmr0TO9s2P3

Memorial gifts in honor of Scott may be made to:
The Association of Lutheran Church Musicians
https://alcm.org/make-a-donation/

Music that Makes Community
https://www.musicthatmakescommunity.org/donate_to_mmc

May light perpetual shine upon him.

Bio and Image Credit: The Association of Lutheran Church Musicians and Martin Seltz

Geoffrey Wainwright

July 16, 1939 – March 17, 2020

Geoffrey Wainwright was born in Yorkshire, England, the only child of Willie and Martha Ann Wainwright. At the University of Cambridge he studied Modern Languages and then Theology. He received a theological doctorate from the University of Geneva in 1972, and his Cambridge D.D. in 1987. He was ordained by the British Methodist Conference in 1967. For six years he served as a pastor and teacher at the Protestant Faculty of Theology in Yaoundé, Cameroon, which welcomed students from the French speaking churches along the West African coast. On returning to Britain in 1973 he taught at The Queen’s College (joint Anglican Methodist) in Birmingham. In 1979 he moved with his wife and three children to the United States where he taught at Union Theological Seminary in New York before moving to Durham in 1983 where he became Professor of Systematic Theology at Duke Divinity School until his retirement in 2012.

He was a member (1976-1991) in the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches. He was a principal editor of the text “Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry” drawn up by the Commission at Lima, Peru in 1982. Between 1986 and 2011 he served as chair on the Methodist side of the Joint Commission for Dialogue between the World Methodist Council and the Roman Catholic Church. Among his books the most influential remain his systematic theology, Doxology: The Praise of God in Worship, Doctrine and Life (OUP 1980), and The Oxford History of Christian Worship, co-edited by fellow Academy member Karen Westerfield Tucker.

He enjoyed traveling to international meetings where his language skills, (particularly French, German and Italian) made him feel at home. He took advantage of these travels to visit art museums and architectural monuments and record them with his ever-present camera. His love of photography continued to the end of his life. The first passion of his life was cricket which he learned in his Yorkshire village where his father was secretary of the Monk Bretton cricket club. Geoffrey played for Monk Bretton, for his school teams and his college team. He was sad that Americans did not share his enthusiasm for cricket. When he visited Australia, his hosts had to take him to every major cricket ground even out of season.

In 1965 he married Margaret Wiles, who survives him as do his children, Joanna Paulman (Lance), Catherine Aravosis, Dominic Wainwright (Jeannie) and his grandchildren, Wesley Paulman, Matthaios and Sofia Eleni Aravosis.

Tributes in his memory may be sent to Duke Divinity School, Box 90968, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708.

A Service of Christian Burial is contemplated at a time when this becomes possible.

May light perpetual shine upon him.

Bio Credit: The Family of Geoffrey Wainwright
Image Credit: Duke Divinity School

Robert Johnson Brooks

1947-2020

Robert Johnson Brooks, 72, died on March 8, 2020 in Austin, Texas.

The Rev. Canon Brooks was born to Marietta Moody Brooks and R Max Brooks. Max was a renowned architect, designed of the LBJ Library, NASA in Houston, and the Labor Building in Washington, DC. The connection to President Johnson and his library would prove lifelong, and influential in Robert’s life, helping him become a leader among Young Democrats in Texas and the President of Youth for Kennedy-Johnson in 1960. His time with the former President and travelling in such circles also helped form in him keen awareness of international affairs and diplomacy. He completed his undergraduate work at St. Edward’s University in 1970, the Master of Divinity at Church Divinity School of the Pacific (CDSP) in 1973, ordained to the priesthood in 1974.

An active participate of the Christian Initiation Seminar of The North American Academy of Liturgy, Father Brooks was a pioneer of work with the catechumenate in the 1970s and 1980s as a priest at All Saints Episcopal Church in Baytown, Texas, during which time he also completed a MTh in Liturgical Studies at The University of Notre Dame. From there, he became a denominational servant for 10 years as Director of Government Relations for The Episcopal Church during the 1990s, then Director of the Business Partnership for a New Global Future in which he created the coalition of business leaders who lobbied the US Congress to pass a debt relief package for the world’s poorest peoples.  He returned to parish work in Connecticut in 2004 at St Paul’s Episcopal Church in Wilmantic, then retired to Austin where he remained active in the ministry of St. Alban’s Episcopal Church until his death. The Church Divinity School of the Pacific awarded him with the Doctor of Divinity in 2015 in recognition of his years of outstanding parish, denominational, and missional service.

He is survived by his partner and companion of many years, Adisak ‘Toi’ Nernbok, and Adisak’s son, Autophon ‘Auti”. Robert is also survived by one sister and 2 nephews.

Funeral arrangements were scheduled for March 13 at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, Austin. He is interred at Austin Memorial Park. Tributes may be read and posted at https://www.harrellfuneralhomes.com/obituary/360306/Reverend-Canon-Robert-Brooks-D-D/#tributes.

May light perpetual shine upon him.
Bio Credit: https://haysfreepress.com/2020/03/09/canon-robert-johnson-brooks/
Image Credit: http://funeralinnovations.com/obituary/360306/Reverend-Canon-Robert-Brooks-D-D/

Gerard S. Sloyan

1920-2020

Gerard S. Sloyan, 100, died on February 22, 2020.

A founding member of The North American Academy of Liturgy, Fr. Sloyan was also the oldest priest in the Diocese of Trenton, NJ, in which he celebrated the 75th anniversary of his ordination as priest in June 2019.

Born in the Bronx in 1919 and formed for the priesthood at Immaculate Conception Seminary in Darlington, NJ, Father Sloyan would go on to complete the STL and PhD at The Catholic University of America, where he would return in 1950 to teach and chair the Department of Christian Education until 1967. From 1967-1990, he was Professor in the School of Religious Studies at Temple University in Philadelphia. After his first retirement from Temple, he returned to Catholic University of America in 1994 as Distinguished Professor, and went in 1996 to Georgetown, also as Distinguished Professor. He was one of those few scholars who was equally conversant in biblical studies, systematic theology, liturgical studies, and the formation and education of laity and clergy alike, a trait which made him an invaluable bridge across these fields as well as in his wide-ranging ecumenical and interfaith work, particularly in more recent years, in Roman Catholic-Jewish dialog.

Of his many publications, perhaps best known among members of the North Academy of Liturgy are Worship in a New Key: What the Council Teaches on Liturgy (1965), Commentary on the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy of the Second Vatican Council (1964), To Hear the Word of God: Homiles at Mass(1965), Liturgy in Focus (1964), and Preaching from the Lectionary (2004).

Funeral arrangements are pending in Potomac, Maryland, where he resided in an assisted living facility adjacent to Our Lady of Mercy Parish.

May light perpetual shine upon him.
Bio Credit: https://www.biola.edu/talbot/ce20/database/gerard-s-sloyan
Image Credit: https://www.praytellblog.com/index.php/2020/02/24/gerard-sloyan-a-symposium-and-some-sad-news/

Peyton Gardner Craighill

1929-2019

The Rev. Dr. Peyton Gardner Craighill, died peacefully in Lexington, VA on Tuesday, June 4, 2019 at age 89. He was born in Nanchang, China on October 24, 1929, also known as Black Thursday, the day that the Wall Street stock market first crashed, as the youngest child of missionaries Marian Gardner Craighill, a teacher and writer, and Lloyd Rutherford Craighill, Sr., Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Anqing.

Craighill spent his early childhood years in China until World War II and spoke fluent Mandarin Chinese for most of his life. His father and future father-in-law Donald Roberts, a college professor in Shanghai, were both interned in a Japanese concentration camp while Peyton, his mother, and his siblings returned to the United States and settled with family in Englewood, NJ.

He graduated from Episcopal High School in Alexandria, VA, followed by Yale University where he received a bachelor’s degree in psychology, then the M.Div from Virginia Theological Seminary.

In 1961 Peyton joined the faculty of Tainan Theological College in Taiwan, and on April 24, 1962 he and Mary Roberts were married at the college chapel. They served a joint ministry as teachers and administrators, Peyton eventually as vice principal, returning twice to the US to pursue a master of sacred theology degree at The General Theological Seminary and later a PhD in liturgy at Princeton Theological Seminary.

He was a member of the Southeast Asia Association for Theological Education and the Taiwan Church Consultation Council, and was influential in the design and construction of several Episcopal churches in Taiwan. He maintained a love of architecture and design throughout his life, especially around worship spaces. The annual meetings of the North American Academy of Liturgy, where he was an active member of the Environment and Art seminar, were a highlight for him each year.

The family moved back to Princeton in 1978 and Peyton spent several years working at the Episcopal Church Center in New York before becoming Associate Dean of the School of Theology at the University of the South in Sewanee, TN. While in Sewanee Peyton realized his lifelong dream of designing and building a house in a style he came to call “Appalachian shibui,” which incorporated elements of Japanese, modern, and timber frame design.

In 1983 he joined the faculty at The Episcopal Academy in Merion, PA and served as a chaplain and religion teacher until 1988 when Allen Bartlett, Bishop of Pennsylvania, asked him to create and lead the School of the Diaconate to prepare vocational deacons for service. Peyton also served as a chaplain at maximum-security Graterford Prison, where he became very active in the criminal justice reform movement and joined the board of directors of the Pennsylvania Prison Society.

After his retirement Peyton spent two years at St. James Church in Taichung, Taiwan and, returning to the US, as a part-time Senior Associate at the Church of the Redeemer in Bryn Mawr, PA. He and Mary traveled often, several times with the Yale Alumni Chorus, and chaperoned a memorable trip one summer with Yale’s undergraduate chorus throughout Africa.

They moved to the retirement community Kendal at Lexington in Virginia in 2008 where he continued to be active in local church life and write on laity living out the baptismal covenant. He is survived by his wife, Mary, his three children, their spouses and families, a sister, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, nieces, nephews, and “a constellation of cousins.”

A memorial of Peyton’s life is expected to take place at Grace Episcopal Church on Monday, June 10, 2019 in Lexington, VA, with an additional service planned for later in the year in Bryn Mawr, PA.

May light perpetual shine upon him.
Bio and Image Credit: General Theological Seminary and Craighill Family

Mons Arthur Teig

1935-2019 

Mons Arthur Teig, age 84, of Wayzata, Minnesota, died at home on May 11, 2019.  He attended Waldorf and Concordia colleges; holds Masters’ degrees from Luther Seminary, Union Seminary, Notre Dame, and a Ph.D from Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. He was an Associate Pastor at Trinity Lutheran in Brooklyn, New York, a Senior Pastor at Palisades Lutheran in Pacific Palisades, California, and a Professor of Worship at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota for 19 years. Through his work on the staff of the American Lutheran Church, he became known globally as a worship and liturgy expert and helped lay the foundations for the ongoing work of the worship office of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. He was also a member of the Consultation on Common Texts, which created the Common Lectionary and the Revised Common Lectionary, and a longtime member of The North American Academy of Liturgy, working within the Liturgical Hermeneutics seminar, and most recently, in Exploring Contemporary and Alternative Worship.

He is preceded in death by his parents and sister, Karen Schlueter. His spouse, Shirley, survives him, along with children, grandchildren, siblings, in-laws, nieces, nephews, and an even larger cloud of witnesses among the students and others of us he has influenced through his pastoral, academic, and ecumenical work over the years.

Rest eternal grant him O Lord, and let light perpetual shine upon us all.

Bio and Image Credit: Central Lutheran Church, Minneapolis, MN

Kendall McCabe

1940 – 2019

Kendall Kane McCabe died peacefully in the early morning hours of April 11 at Grandview Medical Center,Dayton, Ohio. McCabe was born and raised with his parents and grandparents in Berlin, Maryland. He attended Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA, completed the MDiv at Yale Divinity School, received the PhD from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland and the MA in English Literature at the University of Virginia. Raised in the United Brethren and Evangelical United Brethren traditions, McCabe was ordained and served United Methodist churches in the Peninsula-Delaware Conference prior to obtaining a teaching position at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC.

In 1980 McCabe moved to Dayton to begin what would become a 32 year appointment to the faculty of United Theological Seminary. At United, McCabe was professor of Preaching and Worship, Vice President of Academic Affairs and Academic Dean, and at his retirement in 2012 held the Heisel Chair in Evangelism. He is remembered by colleagues and students alike as a premier scholar of liturgy and homiletics, and as one of the foremost scholars within the Evangelical United Brethren tradition. He is survived by his friend and house mate, Michael Welly, and the United Theological Seminary community.

A funeral service celebrating Kendall McCabe’s life and ministry will be held at First Baptist Church, Dayton, on Saturday, April 20, at 11:00 a.m., hosted by First United Methodist Church. The Rev. Timothy J. Forbess, one of McCabe’s’s former students and colleagues, will officiate. Memorials may be made to the McCabe Preaching Award at United Theological Seminary, 4501 Denlinger Road, Dayton, OH 45426.

May his memory be for a blessing. And may light perpetual shine upon him.

Bio: Based on obituary in Dayton Daily News
Image Credit: United Theological Seminary

Willy J. Malarcher

1929 – 2019

Artist and liturgical design consultant, Willy J. Malarcher, Englewood, NJ, died peacefully on February 25, 2019. He was 90 years old. Surviving are Patricia, his wife of 60 years, his son Paul and daughter Maura Malarcher.

          Willy was a member of the North American Academy of Liturgy since the 1970s and is regarded as one of the early American pioneers in the field of liturgical design. He possessed a lifelong interest in the integration of art and religion and earned his MFA degree from The Catholic University of America.

          Willy’s designs for new and renovated worship spaces won awards in several competitions sponsored by the American Institute of Architects and various liturgical organizations. His portfolio includes churches, chapels and cathedrals in Paterson, NJ and Puyo, Ecuador. Prior to his own business, Willy & Group, he worked at the Rambusch Decorating Company.

          Willy was a prolific artist. He exhibited his personal artwork in several solo and two-person shows in countless galleries and museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. He often spoke at liturgy, art and architecture conferences and wrote frequently on liturgical design topics.

          Willy was ordained a permanent deacon for the Archdiocese of Newark in 1975, and ministered at the Holy Name Medical Center, Teaneck, NJ until 2017. A Memorial Service will take place Saturday, April 27, at 11 AM in one of Willy’s award winning projects, Our Lady of the Rosary Chapel, 175 Route 340, Sparkill, NY 10976.

May perpetual light shine upon him.

Submitted by Richard S. Vosko

Image Credit: https://www.barrettfuneralhome.net/obituaries/Willy-Malarcher/

Gláucia Vasconcelos Wilkey

1941-2019

Beloved and renowned liturgical theologian, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, affectionately known to her 7 grandchildren as Vovó, Gláucia Vasconcelos Wilkey completed her baptism in death on Thursday, January 10, 2019 in Austin, TX. A Service of Witness to the Resurrection was held on Saturday, March 23^rd at West Plano Presbyterian Church, Plano, Texas.

Born to Altino and Dionina Vasconcelos in Aquidauna, Mato Grosso, Brazil, Gláucia lived an extraordinary and generous life. She was the first woman in the history of Brazil to major in Theology at the Seminario Batista do Sul, going on to earn two Masters degrees and a Doctor of Ministry. She was ordained a Minister of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (USA).

Her life’s work took her from Brazil to Toronto, Canada, Louisville, KY, Kansas City, MO, and Seattle, WA serving as musician, educator, pastor, denominational associate, and professor. Her keen love of music traveled with her, as she was brilliantly adept at weaving music to the spoken word, and connecting the arts to the sacraments.

Gláucia’s influence spread most widely when she served (1995-1999) as Associate for Worship, Office of Theology and Worship of the PC(USA). In that capacity, she founded the study project, Pastors as Liturgical Theologians, a model for liturgical formation; and, thereafter, from 1999 to 2008, as Assistant Professor at Seattle University’s School of Theology and Ministry. During this time she was the founder and director of the Summer Institute for Liturgy and Worship, a week-long ecumenical conference that shaped the liturgical vision of hundreds of pastors, musicians, educators, theologians, and practitioners. In addition to memberships in the North American Academy of Liturgy and Societas Liturgica, she was a founding member of the Association for Reformed & Liturgical Worship.

Her final gift to the wider church was serving as editor for a collection of illuminating essays by a group of ecumenical scholars titled, Worship and Culture: Foreign Country or Homeland? [Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Co. 2014].

Friends and family who loved her best will remember her splendid hospitality, warmth, kindness, affection, and heart.  Meals at her home were frequently large and loud, filled with laugher and music, intellectual and rich conversation.

Gláucia entered her eternal rest preceded by beloved husband Jay Wilkey, as well as her parents, sister Debora, brother Eber, and her dear friend Elsa. She is survived by her daughters Nina Revering, Stella Hastings and husband Todd, seven grandchildren, one great-granddaughter, and many nieces and nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews in Brazil giving thanks for her life and witness.

Memorial contributions can be made to the Rev. Dr. Gláucia Vasconcelos Wilkey Memorial Fund at Pittsburg Presbyterian Church, www.pittpres.com to support Liturgy & Music programs for Children and Youth.

May light perpetual shine upon her.

Bio: David Batchelder
Image Credit: Seattle University School of Theology and Ministry

Robert F. Taft, S.J.

1932-2018

The Rt. Rev. Dr. Robert F. Taft, S.J.,  a leading light in the study of Eastern liturgies, Archimandrite in the Ukrainian Catholic Church, and founding member of the North American Academy of Liturgy, died peacefully after a long illness on November 2, 2018.

Born in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1932, and beginning Jesuit formation in 1949 in Weston, Massachusetts, Taft went on to study oriental languages, be ordained in the Greek Catholic Church (1963) and pursue further studies in oriental liturgy, writing his doctoral dissertation on The Great Entrance in Chrysostom’s Divine Office at the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome, which would become his primary academic institutional home for the rest of his illustrious scholarly and teaching career.

It would not be an overstatement to say that Robert Taft has contributed more to the scholarship of the Oriental traditions, and to ecumenical relations between the Eastern and Western churches, than any liturgical scholar in recent history. There is no more comprehensive account of Chrysostom’s Divine Office and its origins than his five volumes on the same (Volume 5 is in final preparation for publication). His The Liturgy of the Hours: East and West (1987) remains a definitive resource for liturgical scholars and students worldwide. The hundreds of articles he wrote and the thousands he shepherded through the scholarly journals of which he was editor are a continuing testimony to the depth and breadth of the scholarship he both engaged and cultivated. And he may be credited with helping to lead the Roman Catholic Church to recognize the Anaphora of Addai and Mari, in use to this day by the Assyrian Church of The East, paving the way for congregations in this historic Christian Church and the Roman Catholic Church to receive communion from one another. The two pectoral crosses one often finds him wearing in photographs, including the one in this brief memorial, were witness to his full standing as scholar and priest in both Western and Eastern Christian churches.

The funeral mass for Robert Taft will be held at the Campion Center in Weston, Massachusetts, on Monday, November 12, at 10 am.

May light perpetual shine upon him, and may his memory be eternal.

Image Credit: https://orthodoxyindialogue.com/2017/11/07/an-encomium-for-robert-f-taft-sj-by-a-a-j-deville/
Bio Credit: John Baldovin, http://www.praytellblog.com/index.php/2018/11/02/robert-taft-sj-1932-2018-the-pray-tell-obituary/ ; John Burger, https://aleteia.org/2018/11/02/fr-robert-taft-feisty-ecumenist-and-liturgical-historian-dies-at-86/

Jean Marie Hiesberger

1941-2017

Jean Marie Hiesberger, 75, died on June 15, 2017.

Jean Marie was born September 18, 1941 in Kansas City, MO to Anton and Elizabeth Hiesberger, later moving to Jefferson City, MO. A graduate of St. Mary’s College (Leavenworth, KS) and St. John’s University (Collegeville, MN), she served as a Catholic educator through her work as an author, senior editor at Paulist Press, director of the Institute for Pastoral Life, and consultant. At St. John’s she joined the first cohort of lay students studying graduate level theology. Following her master’s degree she lived in New York and New Jersey, serving as the first Director of Religious Education at St. John & Paul Parish in Larchmont and then for sixteen years as a senior editor at Paulist Press. There she also co-founded, with her husband, Robert Heyer, the vibrant Community for Bread and Justice, which endures to this day.

During her years in Kansas City beginning in 1984, she worked as founding director of the Institute for Pastoral Life and then as an author and consultant. She served as general editor for Oxford University Press’ Catholic Study Bible: Personal Study Edition (1995). Her other books include 52 Saints to Pray With (2014), Fostering Leadership Skills in Ministry (2008), Take Ten: Daily Bible Reflections for Teens (2004), Dealing with Conflict and Anger (1996), FamilyTime (1993-1995) and the photo and meditation book, You Have Given Us Today (1973).

In 2012 she received the Sister Mary Anthony Wagner award presented to alumnae of Saint John’s School of Theology and Seminary “who have prophetically and courageously embraced and used their gifts, and encouraged other women to develop their gifts for the good of the church and the world.” She received the National Association of Lay Ministry’s Gaudium et Spes Award for “fostering the baptismal call of the laity according to the vision of Vatican II” in 2004. She served on the Board of Regents at Conception Abbey Seminary College, on the editorial boards of New Catholic World and Catholic Key, on the Diocese of Kansas City/St. Joseph’s Priestly Life Committee, and the Catholic-Southern Baptist National Dialogue Team. Her work helping to launch the Cristo Rey School in Kansas City was also close to her heart. She was a retired member of The North American Academy of Liturgy.

Jean Marie is survived by her husband, Robert Heyer; daughter, Kristin Heyer and husband Mark Potter; grandsons, Owen and Luke Potter; siblings, Judy Vaillancourt and husband Tom, John Hiesberger and Michael Madrone; sister-in-law, Tem Hiesberger. She was preceded in death by her parents and brother, Tony Hiesberger. Condolences may be expressed to the family at https://www.muehlebachchapel.com. The family suggests memorial contributions to Cristo Rey Kansas City High School, 211 Linwood Blvd, Kansas City, MO 64111.

May light perpetual shine upon her.
Bio and Image Credit: Muehlebach Funeral Care