FLEXIBILITY, FOUNDATION AND FAITH on the Frontier
How online leadership training enabled the Diocese of Cheyenne to continue fulfilling its mission during the COVID-19 pandemic
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s one of largest dioceses by land mass in the United States, it can take hours to trek across portions of the Diocese of Cheyenne in Wyoming. Among Catholic leaders in the Diocese, the vast, rugged terrain of the state has long presented challenges to meeting in person. So when the COVID-19 pandemic further limited in-person gathering, the Diocese needed to find a flexible way to continue working with Leadership Roundtable to equip pastoral leaders with the best practices to serve and fulfill their missions, without meeting face-to-face.
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Teton Range, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming
“Moving to online training has worked very well for us,” said Tammy Skala, director of Human Resources for the Diocese. “It has really opened our eyes, has allowed everyone to attend, and allows us to spend less time on the road and more time in ministry.” At 98,000 square miles, the sheer geographic size of the Diocese of Cheyenne can leave priests and lay leaders both isolated in their communities and burdened when needing to travel long distances across a region that Cheyenne Bishop Steven R. Biegler described as “the frontier.”
