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Mr. Gary Lammers, HT school principal for 14 years and lifelong school administrator within our Archdiocese, retired at the end of June 2010. After an extensive search was conducted by the Search Committee, Mrs. Martha Concannon was chosen to lead the school and Mrs. Lisa Blaes, long-tenured teacher at Holy Trinity, was appointed as the new Associate Principal starting Fall 2010.
The Christ Renews His Parish program began at Holy Trinity in Fall 2010. Through cost-free weekend retreats held on the HT campus each fall and spring (separately for men & women) CRHP renews and strengthen personal faith in Jesus and promotes a closer parish community where faith is lived out more fully through service to the parish, marriages are enriched and family faith is strengthened. As of 2016, 559 parishioners had experienced weekend retreats (12 women's and 11 men's teams) with 413 completing an additional period of deeper spiritual enrichment.
In November 2010, Holy Trinity began celebrating Mass in Spanish to serve a growing Hispanic Catholic community in our area. These Masses were held in the Stone Chapel on Saturdays at 6:00 pm; the first one had over 200 in attendance. The Stone Chapel is shared with members of the Korean Catholic Community in the area, who have been the primary tenants since 1998.
In late November 2010, Fr. Francis Bakyor from Ghana was assigned here along with Fr. Mike Stubbs, who was coming off a sabbatical in the Holy Land. Fr. Stubbs, who is a scripture scholar and writer for the Leaven newspaper, departed in July 2011 when he was assigned as pastor to Holy Cross.
On April 9, 2011, at St. Michael the Archangel Church, we celebrated the ordination of three Holy Trinity parishioners as part of the first class of seventeen Permanent Deacons ordained within the Archdiocese of KCK. They were Stuart Holland, Dana Nearmyer and Tom Mulvenon. Stuart was assigned to serve Holy Trinity while Tom was assigned to St. Joseph Parish in Shawnee. Dana was initally assigned to St. James Academy and Holy Trinity, and later was assigned to the Archdiocese as director of its evangelization program.
In June 2011, after serving as Pastor of Holy Trinity for ten years, Fr. Tom announced that he would be stepping down due to health reasons. As a way to show their appreciation for his many years of service, parishioners were invited to make a contribution to our Parish endowment fund. Nearly $19,000 in gifts were given in his honor.
In July 2011, Fr. Mike Koller was announced as our new pastor. He was joined by new associate pastor Fr. Barry Clayton, who was ordained on May 28, 2011, right here at Holy Trinity. Father Clayton and Father Bakyor both received new assignments in July 2013. Fr. Clayton was appointed pastor of parishes in Sebetha, Fidelity and Wetmore; Fr. Bakyor was appointed parochial administrator for parishes in Wathena, Troy and Bendena.
In July 2013, Fr. Scott Wallisch came to Holy Trinity as a Priest in Residence. Frs. Vince Huber and Edward Ahn were assigned to Holy Tinity in July 2013 as Associate Pastors. Frs. Vince & Edward came from The Apostles of the Interior Life, a religious community that was founded in Rome by Fr. Salvatore Scorza for the essential mission of spiritual formation.
Father Scott departed on July 31, 2014 after being assigned to the St. Lawrence Center. Gerard Alba was ordained a transitional deacon on May 17, 2014 and assigned to Holy Trinity on June 14, 2014. After being ordained as a priest for the Archdiocese on Nov.15, 2014, Father Gerard began his ministry as an Associate Pastor here at Holy Trinity.
In September 2014, Holy Trinity made available to its parishioners an online faith formation program called Formed. At www.formed.org, parishioners have online access to a wealth of the best Catholic content currently available. This includes video series, feature-length movies, audio content and e-books. New content is always being added.
A pastoral plan for ministry for Hispanics in Johnson County was approved by Archbisop Naumann in June, 2015. Three parish-based Centers for Hispanic Ministry were established: St. Paul in Olathe, Holy Cross in Overland Park, and Good Shepherd in Shawnee. In line with this change, the Spanish Mass at Holy Trinity was discontinued in July 2015.
Next: Into the Future of Holy Trinity Parish
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