As the Diocese of Madison marks two years since launching the Into the Deep realignment process, the Catholic Herald reached out to pastors, staff, and parishioners from three merged parishes to get a candid look at how the transition is unfolding.

Participants were asked to speak freely — sharing what has been a blessing, what has been difficult, and what advice they would offer to other pastorates and parishes navigating the merger process.

Across these conversations, several themes consistently surfaced.

Forming new relationships between churches has created powerful moments of unity, while also stirring a longing for the familiar.

The blending of resources and talents has sparked innovation, but not without its share of growing pains.

Above all, the work of merging church communities is anything but simple — it’s a process that demands patience, flexibility, and a deep sense of faith from everyone involved.

What follows is a summary of reflections from St. Thérèse of Lisieux Parish (Johnson Creek, Lake Mills, and Watertown), Queen of Martyrs Parish (Beloit and Clinton), and Holy Cross Parish (Ashton, Cross Plains, Martinsville, Middleton, and Pine Bluff).

‘Be patient, pray, and serve as an example’

St. Thérèse of Lisieux Parish officially merged on November 1, 2024, becoming the diocese’s second canonical merger as part of Into the Deep.

The parish is on the eastern edge of the diocese in Jefferson County, combining St. Mary Magdalene Church in Johnson Creek, St. Francis Xavier Church in Lake Mills, and St. Bernard and St. Henry Churches in Watertown.

Fr. Tim Renz, the pastor, said the greatest challenge has been bringing together different churches with their own unique cultures.

“Understandably, parishioners are protective of their assets and customs and are hesitant to hand them over to the greater parish,” he said.

Father Renz noted, however, that the pooling of resources between the churches has allowed the parish to hire a director of operations and a director of evangelization.

“This has taken a lot off my plate in the business realm and has allowed for the creation of a lot of opportunities for evangelization and formation,” Father Renz said, suggesting other parishes also hire a director of operations.

“The process will move slowly and can be messy at times. Keep the long view, recognizing a lot of the fruit may be a couple of years out.”

Jeanne Wolf serves as the parish’s director of operations and is a lifelong member of St. Henry Church in Watertown.

In her role, Wolf has been at the center of the merger process.

While the canonical merger process went well, Wolf said bringing together the business aspects of the four churches has been difficult.

“Not one aspect went smoothly,” she said. “We are still correcting and fine-tuning; however, there have been significant steps forward.”

Parishioner Ann Schoofs Hundt, who typically attends St. Francis Xavier Church in Lake Mills, said the greatest blessing from her perspective has been the pooling of parishioners’ talents toward supporting the broader parish, as well as fuller and “more vibrant” Masses.

“As a larger parish, we can offer more and varied opportunities for parishioners to grow spiritually and as a community,” Schoofs Hundt said.

“Our individual churches were not able to cast such a wide net. Similarly, we can support guests and speakers that each of the individual churches might not have been able to afford.”

Schoofs Hundt and Wolf both acknowledged hearing frustrations about the need to share resources under the new parish structure, which has become a source of tension for some parishioners.

Schoofs Hundt offered the following advice: “Be patient, pray, and serve as an example, even if it means going outside one’s comfort zone.”

‘Everything has been a challenge’

Along the state line in southern Rock County, one of the diocese’s most recently completed canonical mergers combined Our Lady of the Assumption, St. Thomas, and St. Jude Churches in Beloit, and St. Stephen Church in Clinton, to form Queen of Martyrs Parish. The merger was announced on May 10.

Fr. Bart Timmerman, the pastor, said he’s felt blessed to meet “so many new people and great disciples,” but the stress of the merger process has taken its toll.

“This has been the most difficult challenge I have experienced in my life,” Father Timmerman said, noting that the stress has affected his physical health.

“The changes that we try to make to comply with Into the Deep goals were very difficult on our faithful. The negativity and complaints have been overwhelming at times. There seems to be a lot of division in our Church.”

Amy Jones, parish secretary and a member of St. Stephen Church in Clinton, said her biggest challenges as a staff member include navigating constant change, coordinating across multiple office locations, and managing the undercurrent of negativity that surfaces within the parish.

“Everything has been a challenge,” Jones said. “It has also been difficult to watch the stress our priests are operating under constantly,” she added.

Despite the challenges, signs of hope have emerged.

Parishioner Andy Brewer, who grew up at St. Stephen Church in Clinton and now attends Our Lady of the Assumption Church in Beloit, said the merger has given his family the opportunity to explore new churches and connect with a wider circle of parishioners.

“We feel free to go to Mass at any of our four churches because we will have a familiar face in the priest and we have gotten to know so many more people over the last two years,” Brewer said.

Like Father Timmerman and Jones, Brewer said the greatest hurdle has been confronting the negativity stirred by the changes. His advice to others: focus on the positives and keep moving forward with hope and perseverance.

“When things don’t go the way you maybe would have liked, just give it a chance to play out and try to make it work,” Brewer said. “It isn’t going to be perfect as we are the ones doing it, and it is very hard.”

Jones urged parishioners to be patient and to extend grace by giving others the benefit of the doubt. She encouraged everyone to get involved in parish-wide activities and volunteer opportunities — not just those at their home church — and reminded them to show kindness and support to priests and staff alike.

“We are all struggling with the changes, but if we come together, we will emerge stronger,” Jones said.

Father Timmerman also offered encouragement.

“Strengthen your faith in Jesus and face the challenges with hope in the Lord,” he said. “As [parish Pastoral Care Minister] Sr. Mary Esther [Nwafor] reminds me, the joy of the Lord is our strength!”

‘Desire for deeper discipleship’

Holy Cross Parish, which merged on February 1, combined St. Bernard Church in Middleton, St. Francis Xavier Church in Cross Plains, St. Martin of Tours Church in Martinsville, St. Mary Church in Pine Bluff, and St. Peter Church in Ashton, serving portions of western and northwestern Dane County.

Pastor Fr. Scott Jablonski sees the Into the Deep initiative as a chance to strategically realign his parish’s physical, financial, human, and priestly resources.

Reflecting on his 11 years in ministry, he noted that the previous parish structure often left him overwhelmed, spending a disproportionate amount of time on fundraising, administrative tasks, and building maintenance just to keep things running.

“Even if I had the greatest design in the world to lead extra Bible studies or to go and visit the school kids, I just never quite had as much time to do any of that as I would like,” Father Jablonski said.

While Father Jablonski remains focused on his administrative responsibilities, the merged parish model has allowed the parochial vicars to devote more time to priestly ministry, bringing diverse groups together and drawing strength from a broader base of support.

Laura Angle, director of mission, said uniting the efforts of five churches has energized faith formation, leading to larger and more vibrant events. Each month, the parish hall fills with parents and children for sacramental preparation, creating a sense of shared purpose and community.

This spring, for example, Holy Cross hosted a one-day retreat called The Rescue Project, which drew 110 adults — a turnout that would have been unlikely before the merger.

“If any one of our churches had put on the retreat on their own, there would not have been nearly as many people,” Angle said. “The energy level was high, and the large attendance contributed to the feeling of community and the desire for deeper discipleship.”

Since the retreat, small groups have begun to form, helping parishioners from different churches connect in meaningful ways, Angle said.

Parishioner Renee Lamberty shared that the merger has given her the flexibility to attend Mass at various locations and build new relationships across the broader parish community.

“I have met some incredible people who, like me, are climbing the mountain of discipleship while encouraging and challenging one another,” Lamberty said.

Father Jablonski said one underestimated aspect of Into the Deep has been the sheer amount of deferred maintenance and financial complexity it revealed.

“There are just some hard decisions that probably should have been made some years ago that were not for various reasons,” Father Jablonski said.

The need to make difficult decisions early on in his role — without there being much time for parishioners to get to know him — has contributed to feelings of anxiety and apprehension about Into the Deep, the pastor said. This is understandable in a world that has changed so rapidly in recent years.

“A lot of our parishioners sometimes want the Church to be the one place where nothing ever changes,” he said, adding, “As Cardinal Newman said, ‘To live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.’”

Angle said developing a common vision for the whole parish and having staff united under that vision has helped the merger process tremendously.

“I would say not to expect instant changes; progress takes time, more like a marathon than a sprint, so consistently making decisions toward the vision and reiterating that vision will keep you moving forward,” she said. “You will hit bumps in the road, but it smooths out over time.”

Father Jablonski compared the merger to Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt — an exciting journey at first, but one that grew more challenging over time, making it easy to lose sight of the original purpose.

“I think we can feel the same temptations at times to say, well, this is hard, this is difficult. Was this really the right decision?” he said. “But I think the reality that we shared with people that led up to Into the Deep . . . clearly, many of the trends in our parishes across our diocese were very, very broken, and so we needed to do something differently.

“This is the fruit of a lot of work and a lot of prayer, and it takes courage to continue to move forward,” he added. “But if we keep our eyes fixed upon the Lord, you know He’s the one leading us, and that He has a plan for all of this, and we were born for this.”